HAMILTON – The last antlerless elk season for hunters with a general license ended Saturday in the Bitterroot Valley.

The antlerless elk hunting season in Hunting District 270 closed after the quota of 25 cow elk was met.

The district remains open to antlerless elk harvest for general license holders who are 12-15 years old, disabled hunters with a permit to hunt from a vehicle and to hunters holding an antlerless elk permit for HD 270 (awarded through a special drawing) through the end of general rifle season on Nov. 29.

The state reduced the elk antlerless quota to 25 in two different hunting areas in the Bitterroot after recording low cow-calf ratios earlier this year.

Hunters actually harvested 54 antlerless elk from the two areas before the season was closed.

“That was about as close as we could get it,” said Craig Jourdonnais, a wildlife biologist for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

The third week of the season – which ended Sunday – was a good one for Bitterroot hunters.

“The total overall success was at 7.7 percent through the third week,” Jourdonnais said. “Last week it was 5.3 percent.”

Biologists checked 95 elk, 51 mule deer, 31 white-tailed deer, four bighorn sheep and one goat through the Darby station during the third week of the season.

Hunter numbers were up through the Darby check station through the third week. There were 2,569 hunters who stopped through last Sunday as compared to 1,787 the week before.

Jourdonnais said it has been a pretty good season for elk hunters so far, especially in the East Fork of the Bitterroot.

“It seems like most hunters are telling us that they’ve been content with what they are seeing the East Fork,” he said. “Other folks have really struggled. Up the West Fork, some have been discouraged with what they’ve seen so far.”

Jourdonnais said last week’s snowstorm appeared to start the annual migration of elk out of the Big Hole into the East Fork.

“Last Friday’s storm dropped over a foot of snow on the Continental Divide between the East Fork and the Big Hole,” he said. “It appears to have triggered some movement.”

Hunter numbers are about 10 percent below the five-year average through the Darby station through the third week of the season. The elk harvest so far is about 7 percent below the average.

The harvest of mule and white-tailed deer continues to lag, but that’s not surprising considering the fact the state dramatically cut back on permits for both species this year, Jourdonnais said.

The mule deer buck season in HD 250 closed Sunday.

Overall at the region’s three check stations through the first three weeks of the season, a total of 13,916 hunters checked 467 elk, 195 mule deer, 266 white-tailed deer, six black bears, one moose, 13 bighorn sheep, three mountain goats and 16 wolves for 6.9 percent of hunters with game.

General license holders could hunt for antlerless elk in many Blackfoot and Upper Clark Fork hunting districts during the third week of general hunting season, possibly bolstering the hunter and elk numbers tallied at Bonner and Anaconda check stations this weekend.

“The cold weather with snow accumulations at the end of the week, combined with antlerless elk hunting opportunities for general license holders, made for a lot of antlerless elk checked through the station this weekend,” says Ray Vinkey, FWP’s wildlife biologist responsible for the Anaconda station.