Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks Biologist Craig Jourdonnais (right) and Wildlife Technician Ty Smucker check the tags and age of a harvested bull elk Monday morning at the Darby check station. General hunting season for deer and elk opened Sunday and runs through Nov. 30. WILL MOSS - Ravalli Republic

If you have to ask who that is, you probably don’t hunt.

“You’ve got God at your check station,” said one hunter as he pulled up in front of the life-size cardboard cutout of John Wayne in all his western glory.

“The Duke’s been a big hit with the older men,” said Jourdonnais, with a smile.

“It’s mostly for intimidation,” laughed FWP Wildlife Technician Ty Smucker.

Well, joke or not, The Duke seems to be doing his job keeping things running smoothly for the rest of the check station crew, who say that, so far, everybody’s been good about tagging and reporting their harvests.

Another difference this opening day, notes Jourdonnais is the high percentage of elk coming out of hunting district 321 in the Big Hole Valley where a wide open season is allowing hunters to harvest elk without size, sex or age restrictions. Jourdonnais said that almost half of the elk harvested on opening day came from district 321.

Aside from that, everything from opening day weather conditions to hunter demographics was fairly typical. Jourdonnais reported that approximately 70 to 80 percent of hunters passing through the check station were from Ravalli and Missoula counties.

Another common thread that wove its way through hunter’s reports was the presence of bear and wolf tracks. Jourdonnais said nearly half of the sportsmen he had talked to reported seeing signs of the predators, and four reported seeing wolves. One black bear was harvested Sunday.

By 1 p.m. on Monday, 1,080 total hunters had passed through the Darby check station with reported harvests of 39 elk, 16 mule deer, eight white tail deer and one black bear.

Jourdonnais reminds hunters that a special permit is required to harvest mule deer bucks in districts 250 and 270.

As the second day of the 2008 season unfolds, a steady stream of vehicles filled with orange-clad passengers files through the check station’s lanes, some more successful than others, but most all in a good mood after time well spent in the outdoors.

“We’ve got game,” quips the driver of one truck in the “Without” lane, “but we don’t got that kind of game.”

Hunters fared relatively well in other portions of western Montana.

Elk harvest was slightly above average for west-central Montana’s big game opener, while deer harvest lagged behind.

The three west-central Montana check stations located near Darby, Bonner and Anaconda reported an opening day total of 2,755 hunters that checked 82 elk, 69 white-tailed deer, 24 mule deer, and two black bears for 6.4 percent of hunters with game.

Elk harvest was slightly up from last year with 82 animals checked across the region compared to 78 on last year’s opening day. Mule deer harvest fell 37 percent shy of the 2007 opener and white-tailed deer harvest was 33 percent behind.

Hunter numbers around the region were up 16 percent from last year, with the biggest increase at Bonner, where 1,341 hunters passed through on opening day, up from 968 last year.

The 2008 general hunting season for deer and elk runs through Nov. 30.

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Reporter Will Moss can be reached at 363-3300 or wmoss@ravallirepublic.com

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C. Copeland wrote on Oct 28, 2008 1:11 PM:

" Interesting to hear that others were seeing wolf sign...my nephew and I stumbled across some of their tracks about two to three miles up the Nez Perce road down in the West Fork.
That may bother some hunters, but not me.

It's good to see them making a bit of a comeback and we managed to take a young buck on Sunday, despite the competition from the wolves.
Happy hunting, everyone. "

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