The official elk harvest numbers in west-central Montana may be lagging about 25 percent behind last year, but you won't hear Marty Auch complaining.

The knives and meat saws have been busy butchering big game this fall at Auch's Hamilton Packing plant just north of town.

"It's really been a pretty good year for us so far," Auch said. "It's way better than last year. We have a lot more elk than last year and a lot of deer as well. It's keeping us all busy."

Auch has noticed one thing that's changed this year. He is seeing a lot more hunters managing to get their elk into the meat packing plant in one piece.

It's no easy task to get an entire elk into the back of a pickup truck. In most years, Auch said more come into his business that are quartered or cut in half.

"Hunting around here has changed," he said. "Elk are a lot lower than they were before. A lot of people explain that on wolves. I think so, too. On opening day, all but one of the 13 to 15 elk we got were whole."

The numbers are a little bit better than last year at Lolo Locker, too. Jennifer Meinzen said with the expected change to wintery weather, the harvest will get even better through the last two weekends of the season.