KALISPELL — Montana’s general deer and elk hunting season wrapped up last weekend and the harvest results at check stations in northwest Montana showed similar results to a year ago.
Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks tallied more than 10,000 hunters at its four regional check stations in northwest Montana. Hunters reported harvesting 761 white-tailed deer, including 567 bucks, and 97 mule deer. The number of mule deer harvested was slightly higher than last year’s tally of 69. There were also 44 elk reported this year, down from 61 a year ago. The total percentage of hunters with game was 9 percent compared to 9.7 percent last year.
Hunters still have opportunities into winter. Certain areas have continued elk hunting opportunities, and there is also Montana’s muzzleloader heritage hunting season for deer and elk, Dec. 9-17, 2023.
Trapping season is underway for furbearers. For more information on quotas and season dates, visit https://fwp.mt.gov/hunt/
Wolf trapping and snaring in FWP administrative regions 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and in Hill, Blaine, and Phillips counties won’t start until Jan. 1 and will run through Feb. 15, according to a federal court injunction issued recently. The wolf hunting season, separate from trapping and snaring, remains in place and is open through March 15 as described in the 2023 wolf regulations. Wolf harvest quotas are still in place for FWP regions and can be tracked via the Wolf Harvest Dashboard online at https://fwp.mt.gov.
