FWP Sees Record Year for Big Game: 2024 Montana Hunting Outlook

This year may be the year you successfully fill your freezer. Finally, a chance for you to bag a big game animal. Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks have released their annual hunting season forecast for 2024.

Using biologist data, FWP predicts the possible harvest for this Fall.

Across the board, it appears all regions of Montana are benefiting from the mild winters we have experienced the last few years. The survival rates of both fawn deer and calf elk are up in almost every corner of the state, which means that there should be an abundance of mature animals for the annual harvest.

Western Montana looks like it will have a good year for both deer and elk harvests.

The mild winters have really paid off for production and mortality numbers in western Montana. With whitetail and elk seeing spikes in population.

According to the FWP forecast for western Montana

After a colder and snowier 2022-2023 winter, we returned to a milder and much less snowy winter during 2023-2024 (although there were a few cold snaps). Given the milder winter conditions and the decent fall leading up to it, animals fared well and were observed to be in good late-winter/early-spring body condition during our annual spring surveys.  We suspect that the mild winter with low snow, accompanied by high-quality spring green-up forage, helped animals maintain good body condition and growth heading into fall even though the summer was relatively dry.

 

With the big game archery season currently underway, many Montanans, including myself, are gearing up to head to the field. It is important to be aware of the high temperatures this time of year. Take precautions for the heat, and plan ahead on how you will process and cool an animal in the field, should you be fortunate enough to bag one.

General hunting season 2024 (rifle season) kicks off October 26th and runs through December 1st.