Wayne Dykstra, age 63, was the fourth hunter to pull into the wildlife check station with a tagged animal at Silver City before noon on Sunday, the opening day of the general big-game season.

Dykstra bagged a four-point whitetail buck on the Settle Ranch in the 343 hunting district, north of Helena.

"Luck pays off," he said with a laugh.

He began hunting before hunter's safety courses were required, but hasn't been out in three years.

"I decided I'm not going to get old -- I'm going to get out and hunt," he said. "I don't feel as old as I look."

Dykstra was one of the many men and women dressed in camo and hunter orange questioned by Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks's representatives Sunday.

Wildlife biologist Gene Hickman, along with three other volunteers, collected biological and demographical data from the hunters who passed through. They wanted to know things like the location of the hunt, what animals were seen or killed, whether hunters were on foot and what county they were from.

"We are here for two reasons," Hickman said. "To collect biological data, but what's best is Fish, Wildlife, and Parks gets to interface with hunters."

The recorded information is used in tracking game patterns, but also to determine the coming year's regulations.

One of the items wildlife officials are keeping a close count on is the number of hunters using ATVs, which continues to increase every year, Hickman said.

Dental exam

Each animal that comes through the game check is inspected by Hickman to determine approximate age.

One of the most accurate ways to determine a deer or elk's age is in the mouth.

Hickman checks the last cusp of the third molar. At 1½ years, the tooth barely sticks out of the gums, and in the second year it is all the way out. The older the animal gets, the harder it is to determine age.

"As elk and deer get real old, we start to guess," he said.

Sometimes Hickman removes the incisors, which are sent to a lab to more accurately determine the animal's age.

Family affair

Tate Langel, 9, of Helena, said he didn't mind getting up at 5:30 a.m. to hunt on opening day. And by noon, when he came through the check station with his family, he said he hadn't even thought about taking a nap. Langel and his hunting crew didn't see any potential animals to bring home, but he did enjoy getting to see a cow moose and her calf.

Joellen Barbagello, hunting mother of six, stopped at the station with four of her five boys. Son Josh, 17, shot a mule deer doe, his third kill in two years of hunting.

"I saw an elk but didn't think it was big enough," Josh said adding that there is an eight-point buck out there he's had his eye on since bow season.

Joellen, a Helena native, hunted for a long time, but grew busy with the family farm and so hadn't gone out in many years.

But, she said, as her children grew so did their appetites, and the family needed more meat so last year they began hunting together.

Many variables

Last year on opening day, the Silver City check point saw 28 elk, but by 6 p.m. this year only four antlered elk and three antler-less elk came through.

The difference comes from many variables, Hickman said, with weather being a big factor. If a storm rolls in two or three days before the season begins the animals are moving down from high the hills and the snow tracks aid in the tracking mission, he said. The elk also weren't coming off a nearby ranch in comparison to last year, Hickman said.

Two hours before the station officially closed, 338 vehicles and 481 hunters with five mule (three antlered and two antlerless) and 10 whitetail deer (three antlered and seven antlerless) had passed through the check station.

Wildlife check stations will open every weekend until the season closes Nov. 25.

Reporter Alana Listoe: 447-4081 or alana.listoe@helenair.com