Montana
General hunting season ends with increased success in western regions, mixed results in east • Daily Montanan
Following the Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Montana’s 2024 general big game hunting season came to an end on Dec. 1. Hunters across the state had mixed results, with hunters in Montana’s western regions seeing increased harvests compared to 2023, while hunters in many of the eastern regions reported mixed or decreased harvest numbers.
Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks biologists rely on hunter check stations to collect data on hunter participation and success — though these check stations only capture a snapshot of the overall hunting data as check stations are only manned on weekends in specific areas. However, because many stations have been operated consistently over the years, they provide important harvest trend data. Biologists will also collect information through hunter harvest phone surveys.
“Thank you to all the hunters who stopped and shared information with us season-long,” Lee Tafelmeyer, FWP wildlife biologist in charge of the Bonner station said in a statement. “Hunter harvest information and observations are important input for FWP.”
Here is a roundup of how hunters fared across the state.
Region 1
In the northwest portion of the state more than 10,800 hunters stopped at check stations and roughly 10% of them made successful harvests, up a percentage point from last year.
Hunters bagged 954 white-tailed deer, including 745 bucks, according to counts at the four regional check stations. That was up by nearly 200 deer, and 200 bucks, compared to 2023’s harvest data.
The mule deer harvest across the northwest was down slightly from last year — 92 compared to 97 — but hunters harvested 11 more elk this season.
Region 2
In the state’s west-central region, which comprises the Bitterroot and the I-90 corridor from the Idaho border toward Anaconda, hunters also saw increased success from last year. Over the six weekends of the general hunting season, 9,905 hunters stopped at the region’s check stations and reported a harvest of 288 elk, 119 mule deer and 525 white-tailed deer.
The overall number of hunter stops was down slightly, but harvest number across all three species were higher at nearly all check stations.
Region 3
Across seven hunter check stations operating on intermittent weekends in southwestern Montana, FWP officials met with 6,966 hunters. Hunters reported harvesting 406 elk, including 199 antlered animals. The majority of elk were reported at the Cameron/Ennis check station, where hunter success rates averaged around 9%.
Hunters also reported taking 168 mule deer and 48 white-tailed deer across the region.
The Alder check station saw the highest reported hunter success rate in the region. On closing weekend, 21% of the 208 hunters who passed by the check station reported successful hunts. Hunters also had a 19% harvest rate during the third weekend of the season.
Region 4
Data from Region 4, comprising the north-central part of the state, was not available by Friday afternoon. This piece will be updated.
Region 5
The final hunting weekend for south-central Montana had mild, sunny weather but depressed success rates for hunters. According to an FWP news release, three of the four check stations recorded some of the lowest harvest rates on record for closing weekend and the cumulative mule deer harvest was a record low at three stations.
A total of 4,400 hunters visited the region’s check stations throughout the season and reported 451 total harvested mule deer, 398 white-tailed deer, 271 elk and 54 antelope. The general antelope season closed Nov. 10.
Region 6
The Havre check station reported the lowest number of hunters seen since 2015, when antlerless mule deer licenses were not available or greatly reduced throughout the state. Just 1,657 hunters passed through the check station this year, down 18% from 2023 and 7% below the long-term average.
Harvest rates were also lower for most species throughout the season.
Hunters reported 150 antelope — the antelope season closed on Nov. 10 — down 15% from 2023, but a whopping 39% below the long-term average. Mule deer harvest numbers were also down 31% from last year and 32% below the long-term averages. Mule deer doe harvest was down the most, at just 40% of average.
White-tailed deer numbers were also depressed, with just 118 harvested, 21% below last year.
The region also saw the lowest elk harvest number in two decades, with only 19 elk checked.
Region 7
A colder-than-normal closing weekend in southeast Montana brought down hunter traffic at game check stations in Hysham, Ashland and Glendive.
Final weekend tallies showed the Hysham station reported near average hunter numbers, but harvest success rates were about 26% below normal for closing weekend.
Glendive also saw less action than normal on closing weekend, with just 21 hunters passing by the check station, down 30% from normal.
Comparatively, hunters passing through Ashland saw increased harvest rates with a reported seven elk, 11 mule deer and 15 white-tailed deer.
Muzzleloader heritage season offers upcoming hunting opportunities
While the general rifle season closed on Dec. 1, hunters will have some wintertime hunting opportunities, such as the upcoming muzzleloader season which runs from Dec. 14-22. . Find out more: fwp.mt.gov/hunt.
- During the muzzleloader heritage season, a person may take a deer or elk with any unused license or permit that is valid on the last day of the general hunting season (i.e., Dec. 1, 2024).
- Hunters can use plain lead projectiles and a muzzleloading rifle that is charged with loose black powder, loose pyrodex, or an equivalent loose black powder substitute and ignited by a flintlock, wheel lock, matchlock or percussion mechanism using a percussion or musket cap.
- The muzzleloading rifle must be a minimum of .45 caliber and may not have more than two barrels.
- During the Muzzleloader Heritage season, hunters may not use a muzzleloading rifle that requires insertion of a cap or primer into the open breech of the barrel (inline), is capable of being loaded from the breech, or is mounted with an optical magnification device.
- Use of pre-prepared paper or metallic cartridges, sabots, gas checks or other similar power and range-enhancing manufactured loads that enclose the projectile from the rifling or bore of the firearm is also prohibited.
- Many of Montana’s Wildlife Management Areas have seasonal closures from Dec. 2 through May 14. Before heading to the field, hunters should review the regulations for each hunting district they plan to hunt. A list of WMAs and seasonal closure dates are available online at https://fwp.mt.gov/conservation/wildlife-management-areas
Montana hunters can also thank landowners for access and share stories of their season through an online portal. FWP will collect these expressions of gratitude and share them with the specific landowners at the end of the season. Notes can be submitted online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/thank-a-landowner-2024.
WASHINGTON ― Montana Republican Senate nominee Kurt Alme, who previously served as his state’s U.S. attorney, cut a plea deal in 2020 that allowed a tribal police officer who sexually abused a 6-year-old girl to serve less than a year in prison and avoid being registered as a sex offender.
Alme, who has President Donald Trump’s backing in his bid for Senate, served as Montana’s U.S. attorney in two stints. Trump appointed him both times; Alme served in the role from September 2017 through December 2020, and then again from March 2025 through March 2026.
Alme oversaw the case of Mychal Thomas Damon, who was indicted in June 2019 by a grand jury on one count of abusive sexual contact with an individual under 12, which carries a maximum punishment of a lifetime in prison, a $250,000 fine and no less than five years to a lifetime of supervised release. The average sentence for this crime is less severe, but still significant: 62 months in prison, no fine and 143 months of supervised release, based on an analysis of 2025 data provided by the U.S. Sentencing Commission.
Damon, 28, had admitted he touched the 6-year-old’s genitals. But in February 2020, Alme’s office filed a plea deal in his case that reduced his charge to felony child abuse.
The changes in the plea deal raised the alleged age of the victim from below 12 to below 14, stripped out the language of sexual intent and moved the offense out of the federal sex crime framework, meaning Damon would no longer be required to register as a sex offender. It jointly recommended Damon be sentenced to the time he’d already served of 324 days, and required only a sex offender evaluation. Alme’s name appears on the bottom of the document, along with a signature by his assistant U.S. attorney, Cassady Adams.
In June, Alme filed a sentencing memorandum that described Damon’s conduct, which included details of him touching the child’s vagina with skin-to-skin contact, and the adverse effect it had on her mental health. Local reporting at the time said the victim had told a therapist “Mychal touched me” and hurt her by putting his fingers in her “hoo hoo.”
Ten days later, Alme announced Damon was being sentenced to time served of 324 days and two years of supervised release. As of June 2026, Damon is not listed in the national sex offender registry or in Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry.
It’s not clear why Alme reduced the charges against Damon as significantly as he did. During part of his tenure as U.S. attorney, his office declined 64% of sexual assault cases. He conceded in a 2019 interview that this “is something that has to be worked on,” and noted that a lot of these cases are declined due to “weak or insufficient evidence.”
Asked what happened in Damon’s case, an Alme campaign spokesman on Thursday lashed out at unnamed Democrats for trying to make him look bad.
“Kurt’s liberal opponents are twisting the facts to manufacture a fake narrative that exploits crimes against women and children,” said Alme’s spokesperson. “Department of Justice policy required defendants to plead to the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence. Kurt strongly supported the Multi-Disciplinary Teams on our Native American reservations, led by his office, to support investigations of crimes against children and to support victims.”
His spokesperson also pushed back on the idea that Alme unreasonably declined a large number of sexual assault cases during his tenure as U.S. attorney.
“Kurt’s office prosecuted every viable sexual abuse felony referred to it and pursued the most serious charge readily provable from the evidence,” the spokesperson said. “Many ‘declined’ cases were to allow more appropriate tribal prosecutions ― they were not dropped. Kurt will bring his years of experience prosecuting criminals and working with the Sexual Assault Response Teams on our Native American reservations to the U.S. Senate to strengthen investigations, support victims, and better protect women and children.”
The campaign pointed HuffPost to a 2010 report by the Government Accountability Office that found the most common reason for U.S. attorney’s offices to decline sexual abuse cases referred in from Indian country was “weak or insufficient admissible evidence.” It also highlighted statements of support for Alme in an October 2025 press release by Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), when he celebrated Alme being confirmed as U.S. attorney.
Alme is currently running for Daines’ Senate seat, and Daines went out of his way to clear the path for him. In a stunning and orchestrated maneuver, the two-term senator in March abruptly withdrew from reelection as Alme filed to run for his seat, minutes before the state’s filing period closed. Daines’ last-minute change-up was an effort to block potential Democrats or any major Republican challenger from jumping into an open Senate race.
Alme is taking on Democrat Alani Bankhead and independent candidate Seth Bodnar in the November election. Bankhead and Bodner have been duking it out for weeks, with each appealing to different factions of the Democratic party and calling on the other to drop out.
Bankhead, a retired Air Force officer, unexpectedly won the Democratic primary earlier this month, boosted by grassroots supporters and more than $2.5 million in outside money from a progressive veterans’ PAC. But Bodnar, a former University of Montana president who did not appear on the primary ballot, has bipartisan endorsements from prominent establishment figures, including former Democratic Sen. Jon Tester and former Republican Gov. Marc Racicot. He’s also significantly outraised Bankhead and Alme.
This Senate seat is rated “solid Republican” by the nonpartisan Cook’s Political Report, meaning Alme is well-positioned to win the general election. But this race would be more competitive if Bodner and Alme were going head to head, without Bankhead in the running.
Where Khloe Kardashian Stands With Ex French Montana More Than 10 Years After Breakup
French Montana is done keeping up with reality TV.
In fact, he only agreed to appear on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and Kourtney & Khloé Take the Hamptons over a decade ago as a favor to then-girlfriend Khloe Kardashian.
“She said to get on the show,” he exclusively told E! News at the BET Awards on June 28. “And I got on the show. Shout out to Khloe.”
The “Ever Since U Left Me” rapper, who split with Kardashian in December 2014 after eight months of dating, said the experience was “fun” because her family kept it real.
“They filmed their real life,” he continued. “And we were part of something together that one time. So it felt great. It didn’t feel like work because they film what they do everyday.”
As for his future in reality TV, the 41-year-old said those days are over, shutting down any prospective offers with a simple, “Negative.”
Although the “Unforgettable” artist—whose real name is Karim Kharbouch—may not be returning to television anytime soon, he has no problem hanging out with his ex-girlfriend these days.
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