KALISPELL — The general deer and elk hunting season wrapped up this past weekend and it was another slow year for hunters.
With the last few years being harsh cold winters, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks (FWP) was expecting to see lower harvest numbers — and that is exactly what happened.
Deer harvest numbers were very similar to last year but with the strange weather, elk harvest was down. In the Missoula area, for example, there were 71 fewer elk harvested than in 2022 due to a lack of snow and dry conditions.
As with every year, harvest rates did rise during the rut.
"It was a real slow start to the hunting season up here in Northwest Montana because the conditions were pretty, pretty rough for hunters. You know, we didn't get a lot of moisture. We didn't get any snow for, you know, a couple of weeks. And so that can make for difficult hunting conditions. And then when we did get a little bit of snow, it froze up in a lot of areas which makes for kind of noisy, crunchy conditions, makes it really hard to stalk an animal in those conditions," said FWP spokesman Dillon Tabish.
Hunters still have a chance to fill their general deer and elk tags during the muzzleloader season, which runs from December 9 through December 17, 2023.
This is only the second year for this new muzzle loader season so be sure to visit the FWP website for more information before you head out to hunt.
