Augusta Check Station Counts 289 Deer and Elk After Three Weekends, 15 Percent Above Average

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a release from Great Falls on November 10, 2026 that hunters had checked 289 deer and elk at its Augusta station in the first two full weeks of the general rifle season, 15 percent above the long-term average and 11 percent above the same point last year. After three weekends the harvest along the Rocky Mountain Front remains above average, but hunter traffic has slowed: just over 1,100 individual hunters have been counted, four percent below average, with about one in four reporting an animal.

A week earlier the picture was busier. FWP’s November 2 release put the count at 630 hunters through Nov. 1, nine percent above average, with 26 percent of them taking game against a ten-year average of 19 percent, and 167 elk and deer checked, 71 elk, 41 mule deer and 55 whitetails. In the week since, the station has added about 470 hunters, 122 deer and elk, 39 elk, 27 mule deer and 56 whitetails, by the desk’s arithmetic from the two releases, and the success rate has eased from 26 percent to roughly one in four.

Deer harvest is steady and well distributed across the hunting districts the station monitors, which the earlier release lists as 422, 424, 425, 442, 444 and 450. Bucks make up 65 percent of the deer and antlerless animals 35 percent. Hunters have tallied 68 mule deer, slightly below average, and 111 white-tailed deer, well above it.

Elk harvest stands at 110 animals, more than 20 percent above average, with about 56 percent antlerless and 44 percent antlered bulls. The hunting district 442 elk quota remains open to antlerless and brow-tined bull hunting. FWP said on Nov. 2 that moderating weather had slowed elk movement onto the Sun River Wildlife Management Area and that success in district 442 had declined somewhat. Hunters can check the quota’s status by calling the Augusta station at 406-562-3467.

The station has also checked seven pronghorn, two bighorn sheep, one wolf and a mix of upland birds and waterfowl. The pronghorn season is now closed. Hunters must stop at any check station they pass while hunting, whether or not they have game. A biological check station samples a small share of total hunter effort, FWP says, but captures the trends it uses in wildlife management.

The Augusta station on Main Street is the only biological check station in Region 4. It runs seven days a week, from 5:30 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. on weekdays and to 10 p.m. on weekends. The general deer and elk seasons close on Sunday, November 29, 2026, and FWP’s next Augusta update is due after the fourth weekend.