West-Central Montana Check Stations Log 5,324 Hunters, Bonner Whitetails Up 30 Percent

Hunters made 5,324 stops at the three west-central Montana check stations through the third weekend of the general big game season on November 8, down from 5,643 at the same point last year, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks said in a release from Missoula on November 9. The Darby, Anaconda and Bonner stations checked 184 elk, 78 mule deer and 224 white-tailed deer, against 180, 88 and 188 a year earlier, and FWP called the deer and elk totals on par with last season and just above the five-year average.

The sharpest change is at Bonner, where white-tailed deer checks are up 30 percent from 2025. FWP attributes most of that rise to an either-sex harvest opportunity in several Blackfoot hunting districts, open on the general license for the first week of the season only. Whitetail counts elsewhere are average or down slightly. Elk harvest is up slightly from last season at Bonner and Anaconda and down slightly through Darby, and the department expects the deer harvest to show a region-wide bump over the next few weeks as the rut begins.

The department’s station table puts Darby, which covers Hunting District 321 and the Big Hole Valley, at 2,639 hunters (2,612 last year), 129 elk, 24 mule deer and 37 whitetails, with 7.3 percent of hunters carrying game against 8.1 percent. Bonner logged 2,210 hunters (2,552), 37 elk, 42 mule deer and 182 whitetails at 11.9 percent, up from 8.5. Anaconda logged 475 hunters (479), 18 elk, 12 mule deer and five whitetails at 7.6 percent. Across the three stations hunters checked 492 animals against 464 last year, including two black bears, two moose, one bighorn sheep and one wolf, and 9.2 percent of hunters had game against 8.2 percent a year ago and 8.4, 7.9 and 8.9 percent in the three seasons before that.

Two weekends in, the same stations had logged 3,875 stops, 141 elk, 42 mule deer and 149 whitetails, so the third weekend added 1,449 stops, 43 elk, 36 mule deer and 75 whitetails. High temperatures ran in the 40s and 50s with lows in the 20s and 30s and no snow accumulation, and the Snotel sites FWP tracks read 5 inches at Saddle Mountain above Darby and 2 inches each at Peterson Meadows above Anaconda and Copper Camp above Bonner, against 7, 1 and 8 inches a year ago.

Hunters must stop at every check station they pass, whether or not they have game. Check stations sample a small share of the overall effort and harvest, but FWP says they capture trends and biological information. Chronic wasting disease (CWD) sampling is voluntary and free: the Darby and Anaconda stations take samples during normal weekend hours, a Drummond site is open Friday through Sunday from 10 a.m. to dark and Monday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., and the Missoula FWP office takes samples Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Hunters can also mail their own samples to the wildlife lab, and a few west-central districts are Priority Surveillance Areas where FWP is working to gather more samples.

The general big game season opened October 24 and runs through Sunday, November 29, 2026.