With a few new leases heading into the 2024 Montana hunting season anticipation was once again high to see how another hunting season would unfold here at Montana Whitetails.
Archery season started off with a few elk hunters doing a pre rut hunt September 7-14 with all 3 hunters taking shots at bull elk with 1 bull harvested. The second week of the season we got our first whitetail hunter and we tried a few new spots. One of the bigger deer we where after was at the base of the mountains and we set a ladder stand where we saw him about once a week apssing through in daylight but the wind was swirling so bad in the draws that nothing come by except 2 mule deer does. There where some elk, black bear, and moose spotted coming by this stand in additon to the 3 shooter whitetails but the terrain is a tough one to hunt with the swirling winds at the base of the mountain. The hunter moved to another ranch and he harvested a nice big bodied mature 8 point early in his hunt. The elk hunters got some action with 1 of the 3 bowhunters killing a bull.
The thrid week we got into the peak of the elk rut and things where heating up! Lots of bugling and plenty of action on most days with a beautiful 6x6 bull harvested and a couple more close calls that hunters had bulls within bow range but no shots. One of the biggest bulls of archery season was hit and not recovered. Late September and early October saw very warm temperatures really supress daylight movement and the hunting was not good with the 2 bowhunters not getting shots.
Rifle season rolled around and the elk started to roll also with a couple of good bulls hitting the ground early in the week. The 2 mule deer hunters harvested their bucks opening morning. After the first couple days things started to slow down as the warm weather wasn't helping and the elk started to move out of the low areas once the shooting started.
The next couple weeks we had decent elk movement with most of the hunters getting shots at bulls with a success rate of 21 rifle elk hunters getting 15 shot opportunities and harvesting 11 bulls. The 11 Rifle whitetail hunters got 8 shot opportunities and harvested 5 bucks. 11 Archery elk hunters had 8 shot opportunities with only 4 bulls harvested. Most of our archery whitetail hunters come in November and the 11 whitetail bowhunters got 8 shot opportunties with 5 bucks killed. All 5 rifle mule deer hunters killed their bucks.
Overall the entire SW portion of Montana in Region 3 where we are located reports from Montana FWP had lower than average success due to warm weather the entire season which directly effected game movement and shot opportunities pretty much statewide, not just in Region 3. Attached are some of the hunters succes pictures from the 2024 hunting season.
