Deer Harvest Up, Elk Harvest Down On Rocky Mountain Front

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Hunters have started taking more deer but fewer elk on the Rocky Mountain Front as Montana’s general deer and elk five-week season approaches the halfway mark.

The white-tailed and mule deer harvest was below average the first week of the season but increased the second week, says Brent Lonner, Fish, Wildlife and Parks wildlife biologist.

“Now the deer harvest is pretty close to the recent average,” Lonner says, “but the elk harvest is down.”

Lonner is in charge of FWP’s biological game check station in Augusta. While the numbers from the check station – FWP Region 4’s sole biological check station – apply only to a handful of hunting districts on the Rocky Mountain Front, they often mirror conditions elsewhere in north central Montana.

Part of the reason the elk take is down, Lonner says, is the lack of harvest in the Sun River elk herd.

“They’ve got no reason to migrate out from the back country to the Front,” he says.

Through the second week of the season hunters have brought in 88 elk compared to the five-year average of 131 animals.

Mule deer taken by hunters number 101. The average annual take for the last five years is 109.

Whitetails harvested are at 79. The five-year average is 84.

The deer and elk general season continues until one-half hour after sunset, Nov. 28. For more information contact the FWP Region 4 office in Great Falls at 454-5840.

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