Seeley Lake 12-year-old Rylie Cahoon got her 4x4 white-tailed buck Nov. 24 while hunting with her dad Martin.
Seeley Lake resident Gabby Peterson poses with her son Tristan and the 4X4 white-tailed buck she shot. Earlier in the season she also shot a five foot, seven-inch-tall sow black bear that was pitch black with two white spots. They were both shot with a 7mm near Seeley Lake. Peterson was "happy I got to do it with my family."
Dominick Allen Wink, age 12 of Seeley Lake, went into his first year of youth hunting with his father Nicholas Wink. Dominick shot this 5x5 buck on Nov. 14 around Seeley Lake with his 6.5 Creedmore.
Halee-Joe Butte, from Helmville, Montana, got her first buck this year at Joseph Eve's Old Hayes Ranch in Potomac on Nov. 20. It was a 4x5 whitetail shot with a 243 Winchester.
Kellen Delaney, 11-years-old from Lolo, Montana, got this 5 point white-tailed buck within the first hour of the first day of the youth hunt off Placid Lake Road. His grandma and hunting mentor Brenda Sheppard said they are excited for meat in the freezer and hope to have it mounted to hang on his bedroom wall. Delaney is the great grandson of Seeley Lake's Edie Walters.
Potomac hunter Bowen Olson with his first bear taken in early October with a .257.
Seeley Lake's Jesse Lyle Wink, 10, got his first buck doing the hunter apprenticeship program with his father Nicholas Wink. This 2X3 white-tailed buck was shot Nov. 5 with a .223 around Seeley Lake.
Seeley Lake Chris McGill, age 15, filled his buck tag the last weekend of the general season while hunting with his father David McGill and brother Mark in the Beaver Creek area. They put in countless hours hunting and the brothers got their deer two days apart. This was Chris's first deer, a 4x5 whitetail, that he shot with a .243 rifle.
Seeley Lake's Mark McGill, age 13, filled his buck tag the last weekend of the general season while hunting with his father David McGill and brother Chris in the Beaver Creek area. They put in countless hours hunting and the brothers got their deer two days apart. This was Mark's second deer, a 4x4 whitetail. He shot it with a 7mm rifle.
The 2021 general big game hunting season closed Sunday, Nov. 28. While the west-central Montana wildlife check stations reporting overall hunter activity and harvest totals down just slightly from last season, the overall big game harvest remained higher than recent years at the check stations in northwest Montana.
In the six weekends of the season, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks biologists staffing four check stations recorded 10,216 hunter stops and a harvest of 192 elk, 109 mule deer and 513 white-tailed deer. This compares to 10,717 hunter stops, 235 elk, 90 mule deer and 540 white-tailed deer in the 2020 season.
Darby Check Station led the elk harvest for the region with 133 elk checked. This was 15.6% below the five-year average for the station.
As typical, most of the white-tailed deer harvest for the region was reported through the check station near Bonner. The station saw 333 whitetails this season, down 15 percent from the five-year average. Elk harvest and mule deer harvest reported through the Bonner station was considerably below the five-year average.
Check stations only account for a small percentage of total harvest across the region, but because the stations have been in operation consistently for many years, they monitor important early harvest trends and are a key way to gather biological information on wildlife health and age.
"These check stations give us an early indication of whether we're meeting our harvest goals, especially for elk," said Mike Thompson, FWP Missoula-based wildlife manager. "Right now, we're developing initial proposals to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for the next two hunting seasons, and the check station data is one important piece that we consider."
The four stations in northwest Montana recorded 9,624 hunters, a drop of nearly 2,600 from 2019. This year hunters brought 940 white-tailed deer, including 711 bucks, as well as 90 mule deer and 44 elk through the check station. The percentage of hunters with game at the four check stations was 11.2%, compared to 8.5% in 2019.
The Swan Station reported 139 white-tailed deer and 113 whitetail bucks harvested. Only one mule deer and four elk came through the check station.
"Our check stations saw a lot of two- to three-year-old bucks this year and that was to be expected following back-to-back mild winters," FWP Regional Wildlife Manager Neil Anderson said. "We also saw an increase in the number of mule deer bucks harvested overall."
Sportsmen should be aware that the biennial season setting process is underway this year.
Hunting season structures and hunting district boundaries are adopted for most game species every other year. In late September, FWP released potential changes to hunting regulations for the 2022 and 2023 seasons and solicited public comment for 30 days. FWP biologists and other staff sorted through the feedback and developed proposals for all game species for the Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission to consider at its meeting on Dec. 14.
Following the Dec. 14 meeting, a second public comment opportunity will begin on the commission-approved proposals for all hunting regulations for the 2022 and 2023 seasons. This public comment period will also include regional FWP Citizen Advisory Council meetings. In northwest Montana, FWP will host a public meeting with its CAC on Jan. 3 at its office in Kalispell and online through Zoom.
The commission will adopt final hunting regulations at its meeting in early February.
For more information about specific harvest numbers and check stations visit fwp.mt.gov.
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