Southeast Montana Check Stations Count 48 Pronghorn and 80 Mule Deer on Closing Weekend

Hunters checked 48 pronghorn and 80 mule deer at three southeast Montana check stations on Sunday, November 8, the closing day of pronghorn season, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a release from Miles City on November 9. The Hysham, Ashland and Mosby stations logged 361 hunters, slightly fewer than the 10-year average for closing weekend, and FWP called the pronghorn harvest strong while mule deer checks at Hysham ran roughly half the 10-year average.

Wildlife staff at Hysham recorded 78 hunting parties, matching the 10-year average for the pronghorn closer, and 133 hunters, 14 percent below average. The 20 pronghorn checked, eight bucks and 12 does, ran 9 percent above the 10-year average, and 46 percent of hunters had an animal, about 12 percent below the long-term closing-weekend figure. Mule deer harvest was well below average at 28 bucks and no does, a decline FWP expected under the continued conservative mule deer B-license allocations in Region 7. Harvested bucks averaged 4.5 years old, consistent with the long-term average, and many hunters said they saw more deer than in recent years. Whitetail harvest also ran below average at 14 deer, 11 bucks and three does, which FWP tied to reduced antlerless white-tailed deer license availability. Hysham also checked three bull elk, 19 pheasants and three turkeys.

Ashland saw 78 parties and 154 hunters, 10 percent fewer than average, with highs in the mid to upper 60s. The success rate was 40 percent, moderately above average. Harvest included 18 pronghorn (five bucks, nine does and four fawns), 38 mule deer (34 bucks and four does), six white-tailed deer (four bucks and two does), three bull elk and two turkeys. Pronghorn harvest ran double the average and bull elk slightly above it, mule deer buck harvest was near average with doe harvest well below it on a low number of B licenses, and whitetail and cow elk harvest came in below average. Most hunters there were satisfied and saw good numbers of mule deer and pronghorn.

Mosby recorded 39 parties and 74 hunters, 16 percent fewer than a year earlier, and 32 of them, just over 43 percent, had an animal, an 87 percent higher success rate than last year. Harvest totals were 14 mule deer bucks, 10 pronghorn (four bucks and six does), five elk (four cows and one bull), one white-tailed buck and 20 pheasants. Mule deer and pronghorn totals ran higher than last year and elk and whitetail slightly lower, and hunters described low numbers of other hunters and satisfactory game numbers.

On the season’s opening Sunday, October 25, Hysham had checked 118 hunters with 25 antelope and 14 mule deer, and Ashland 163 hunters with 22 pronghorn and 16 mule deer, so the closer brought fewer hunters to both stations and more than twice the mule deer through Ashland.

Many hunters did not stop at the check stations as required. A game warden assisted at Hysham for part of the day and stayed busy pulling over hunters who bypassed the station. State law requires every hunter to stop at every game check station they pass, whatever species they are pursuing and whether or not they have harvested an animal, and FWP uses the biological data collected at the stations in its management decisions.

Pronghorn season closed Sunday, November 8, 2026. FWP’s west-central Montana update, also dated November 9, puts the close of the general deer and elk season, which opened October 24, at Sunday, November 29, 2026.