We went to Elk Creek Outfitters November 2021 and had a decent hunt. Boss and Tammy as well as all the guides and cooks were friendly and nice. We did a 3 on 2 and our two guides were great. They put in a lot of work but I just don't think there are a lot of animals in north west Montana. We hunted a lot of ground and did a lot of glassing and saw very few animals between the 3 of us. There were only 2 deer we would have considered shooting, 1 nice mule deer that I shoot and 1 very big muley we couldn't get on. We didn't see any elk, our guide said he saw 3 as we walked in one day. The rest of the camp wasn't seeing much either from what I understood while overhearing talking during dinner and breakfast each day. Overall I was pleased since I was successful but not sure my brother or dad were as happy. They sure do pack in the hunters each week.
Pros:
-Price seemed to be inline with other mid range hunts in MT...I did see they just raised their rates a good bit for 2022
-Owners were talkative and either Boss or Tammy were around each night
-Guides at least our were very nice and put in the work
-Driver that picks you up from the hotel/airport is nice, talks a lot but was always on time
-Food was good
-We hunted a few days out of the cabins and a few days out of wall tents...both were decent
-Beautiful but thick hunting areas
-Seemed as though they had a plan of where they planned to hunt so guides were spread out nicely so we weren't on top of other hunters in the group
Cons:
-Very little game in the area they are in
-The terrain is super tough, thick and steep (but thats just the lay of the land). Going up a steep mountain of old burn/blow downs is not easy for a "flat lander"...cant blame them on my lack of being in shape but some of the land is flat out nasty
-Something that was really odd was no one from the guide side was really forth coming with how other hunters were doing. We spent several days in a remote camp. Our guide would check in with the base camp most nights and we always asked how other hunters were doing but they "didn't ask" or "don't know". We only knew when we asked other hunters when we were in the base camp. You would think when a hunter would be successful they would be more open and get you hyped up. They did have a head sitting out by the door if someone got something and if they did that with all the deer/elk that were shot, the week we were there only 1 elk and 3 deer were taken...maybe the lack of success if why they were so quite about it. There was some whiteboard that was supposed to track that and it didn't seem to be updated during the week.
-In my opinion the areas are over hunted due to the number of hunters in camp for the week. I believe there were 25 guys in camp for one week...was told at least twice when I asked the year leading up to the hunt that there were 15 signed up but when we showed up it was way more than that. I have no idea how many hunters are there each week but lets say on average there are 20x11 weeks of gun/rifle = 220 hunters...now every week might not have that many hunters but if so that's way too many hunters in my opinion hunting the same stands/locations week after week after week
-The last day there felt kind of weird...I guess everyone left at different times so they didnt really have a nice breakfast and everyone just seemed like they were ready for us to get out of there. Probably due to needing to get everything ready for the next week
Conclusion...I wont be hunting north west Montana again or at least not in the near future. Not so much to do with the guide or the hunt itself other than the number of hunters in camp. Animals are just not plentiful in that area.
