Montana Hunt

[Clarktar]

So, anyone from Montana care to help me do some strategizing? Not looking for your honey hole. But would be great to talk to someone about potential types of hunt (day hunts, backpack hunts) and various access points. The access points seem like a big deal from what I can tell. Lots of private land with public land behind it, but it looks hard to get to the public stuff.

I am thinking of a couple areas, The Crazies, Gravellies and....??

Just moved to Bozeman, hence my desire to talk with some locals with MT knowledge.

I can trade info for hunting Roosies on the Olympic Peninsula..

 

[Jon Boy]

For the crazies access is fairly limited.
The east side is only accessed from Big Timber Canyon. Ive heard some land owners will let you access the national forest farther north on the east side. The southern half from the east side is all draw only for bulls.

The west side has a few more options

From the south you have Rock creek which takes you three miles through the Crazy Mountain ranch and into the Rock Creek Drainage. Make sure you have a GPS and know where you are at all times, they will hang you high. They have 24 hour security and dont mess around (I work and live on the ranch and am absolutely not aloud to hunt it or go any where Im not authorized.)

Slightly to the north is cottonwood/ibex areas. Very checker boarded, even in the back country.

Farther north out of wilsal is the shields loop. Theres a few different trail heads that will take you into different drainages.

Accessed from high 12 out of martinsdale is the forest lake area. A couple of different trailheads and gated roads.

A GPS is a must any where in the crazies IMO. There are lots of private sections in the middle of no where in the back country. The locals will tell you can hunt this section and that section and no one cares, but dont hunt that section or this section. I prefer to be on the cautious side and only hunt the public.

Its tough country and gets hammered by out of staters and locals alike.

Good luck and welcome to Montana! Your going to have a blast.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

JonBoy knows that area better than I do. When I lived in Bozeman a few years ago I usually ended up hunting down by Gardiner. There were lots of people, but a decent chance at elk if snow fell early enough. I never went to the Crazies though because it is so checker boarded. Welcome to Montana and don't let us discourage you. There are a lot of elk by Bozeman, it just takes some work to find them, and I didn't live there long enough to get it dialed in.

Edit: I realized I didn't address strategies or access at all. If you do a search for Montana Cadastral, it will yield a website with land ownership information for just about every parcel in Montana. This is a huge help for finding what is public and private before you ever go hunting.

 

[Jon Boy]

I hope I didn't discourage you with my post! I also moved from Washington and thought getting an elk would be cake compared to hunting the general season on the west side of Washington, that wasnt so in my experience and really had to work at it. It took me three years to finally get a good grasp on elk hunting here. There's great elk hunting in literally every direction you could point your truck in within an hour of your place in Bozeman. Crazies, bridgers, beartooths, gravellys, tobacco roots etc all have good elk hunting. It's just finding the place that best suits your style and learning it inside and out.

 

[Clarktar]

Thanks guys! I am really excited to start hunting here in MT. My plan as of now is to start hiking and exploring the crazies as soon as some of the snow is gone. Heck, I might even get a wild hair and drive over that way in the next few weeks just to drive around and look at things.

If anyone wants to go on a hike or meet up sometime, just let me know! Caught my first fish of 2014 on the East Gallatin yesterday.

 

[Jon Boy]

Shoot me a pm and I might take you up on that offer! I have pretty random days off but maybe we can put together some fishing. All of the access points to the crazies will be snowed in for some time but the fishing has been hot on the 'stone.

 

[Trumpkin The Dwarf]

Argh. I gotta get back on that side of the continental divide...Missoula is nice, but that area is spectacular!

 

[Clarktar]

Jon, your box is full

 

[Jon Boy]

Cleaned it out for you

 

[2ski]

For the crazies access is fairly limited.
The east side is only accessed from Big Timber Canyon. Ive heard some land owners will let you access the national forest farther north on the east side. The southern half from the east side is all draw only for bulls.

The west side has a few more options

From the south you have Rock creek which takes you three miles through the Crazy Mountain ranch and into the Rock Creek Drainage. Make sure you have a GPS and know where you are at all times, they will hang you high. They have 24 hour security and dont mess around (I work and live on the ranch and am absolutely not aloud to hunt it or go any where Im not authorized.)

Slightly to the north is cottonwood/ibex areas. Very checker boarded, even in the back country.

Farther north out of wilsal is the shields loop. Theres a few different trail heads that will take you into different drainages.

Accessed from high 12 out of martinsdale is the forest lake area. A couple of different trailheads and gated roads.

A GPS is a must any where in the crazies IMO. There are lots of private sections in the middle of no where in the back country. The locals will tell you can hunt this section and that section and no one cares, but dont hunt that section or this section. I prefer to be on the cautious side and only hunt the public.

Its tough country and gets hammered by out of staters and locals alike.

Good luck and welcome to Montana! Your going to have a blast.

Crazy Mtn Ranch. That's the Marlboro Ranch isn't it? My uncle used to moonlight there for security for extra spending money. Back in the day I'm told they used to have contests on the east coast at bars to see who could smoke the most cigarettes in a given time. Winner got to come to the ranch.

Clarktar, there are so many places to hunt elk around here it's silly. Bridgers, Bangtails(there is a huge piece of block management in there and the whole thing gets a ton of pressure. We counted 30-some sign ins on one day last Nov., but I think if you were to go to the trailheads and hike in, you might have better luck), the Gravelies, the Ruby Res. area, the Madison Range, Hyalite, Little Bear, Spanish Peaks. Lots of places between here and the Park going up Gallatin canyon. One place I'm kind of curious about is the way north end of the Bridgers. One place to get access on a road way out there. Pretty dang up hill to get off the road. And the road's crappy at best. Feel free to PM me.

 

[Jon Boy]

Crazy Mtn Ranch. That's the Marlboro Ranch isn't it? My uncle used to moonlight there for security for extra spending money. Back in the day I'm told they used to have contests on the east coast at bars to see who could smoke the most cigarettes in a given time. Winner got to come to the ranch.

Yes. From what I understand, the ranch has dramatically changed sense then. Definitely can't win a trip in that fashion any more.

 

[katdaddy2013]

Awesome info, thinking of giving it a whirl in 2017.

Crazy Mtn Ranch. That's the Marlboro Ranch isn't it? My uncle used to moonlight there for security for extra spending money. Back in the day I'm told they used to have contests on the east coast at bars to see who could smoke the most cigarettes in a given time. Winner got to come to the ranch.

Clarktar, there are so many places to hunt elk around here it's silly. Bridgers, Bangtails(there is a huge piece of block management in there and the whole thing gets a ton of pressure. We counted 30-some sign ins on one day last Nov., but I think if you were to go to the trailheads and hike in, you might have better luck), the Gravelies, the Ruby Res. area, the Madison Range, Hyalite, Little Bear, Spanish Peaks. Lots of places between here and the Park going up Gallatin canyon. One place I'm kind of curious about is the way north end of the Bridgers. One place to get access on a road way out there. Pretty dang up hill to get off the road. And the road's crappy at best. Feel free to PM me.

 

[BH107]

Good luck! I just moved to Bozeman last month so I won't be hunting this year, but looking forward to it next year. It's back down to Colorado for deer in November this year.