My first elk hunt

[Indian Summer]

How did you know you were getting a divorce in fall of 2022? Thats predicting the future right there! LOL

My advice is stay far away from NW Montana. Only wolves , lions , bears and cody carr up there.

Region 2 isn’t NW

 

[goetzc]

Congrats on the tag. I've hunted MT several times in the general units so I have some experience. I'm a cyber scouting nut as I live in NC and don't have the luxury of putting boots on the ground for my scouting.
1. First thing I learned is it's way steeper than it looks on aerial photos and even topos. Thus, be in the best shape that you possibly can be.
2. When solo, I will not hunt further than 2 miles from the truck but I'm old. Packing elk quarters is hard-add in blowdown, thick timber, steep slopes and grizzly bears and it can be hell on earth.
3. Stay mobile and hunt from the truck the first few days.
4. When you find elk, slow down. Elk hunting is not a race.
5. Be bear aware. Do not do cold calling setups. Follow USFS rules for food and camp security. I limit traveling in the dark. If you kill an elk, move the meat away from the carcass as soon as possible.

There's much more I could add but I don't want to give away some of my secrets so hit me with a PM and I'll share a bit more.

Thanks man! That's all great advice - I've driven through Montana a few times but never with the idea of packing out an elk at the time... coming from MN I'm certain it'll take some time to adjust to the elevation physically and mentally... I'm planning for that.
I'm not looking for any secrets as I do want to be able to say this hunt is DIY as are all my other hunts but I will definitely send you a PM to discuss any other suggestions as I enjoy the planning as much as the hunt.

 

[Indian Summer]

Thanks for the offer Joe - I will research your site and other postings and be in touch.

I did mistakenly say I had a "cow tag" in my original post but was corrected so I fixed my blunder to avoid further confusion.

I have a general elk tag that allows antlerless elk in the archery season and I drew a permit that allows brow-tined elk all season. So for my purposes I can hunt either during archery season and if I need/want I could possibly come back during rifle for a brow-tined bull on the permit... though I'm hoping to get it done during archery since I have can take either.

No need to really look at my website other than for something to do. But feel free to reach out to me for help in your specific area. Elk are different than deer in many ways. Deer are evenly spread out through their home range and their home range is usually somewhere around one square mile. They’re relatively easy to find. Elk have much much bigger home ranges and at any one time they can be in one spot while other areas have none at all for a week or even several weeks. You could go into an area for several days and see no elk and mistakenly leave when one just one ridge over you would be in the game. So it really pays to know what areas elk prefer to hang out in as well as what areas aren’t worth spending much if any time in.

As far as your priorities, do you really want to kill an elk or are you just there for experience and hoping to kill one? Numbers don’t lie. Success rates in archery or a fraction of what they are in gun season. So instead of thinking is gun season as an afterthought you should really plan on making that an important part of your hunt plan. But make no mistake if you hunt during archery season your chances of success are much higher calm gun season.

 

[KHNC]

Region 2 isn’t NW

sorry, i read it too fast. Thought he had a statewide GEN combo. I forgot MT is region specific

 

[Indian Summer]

sorry, i read it too fast. Thought he had a statewide GEN combo. I forgot MT is region specific

It’s not region or unit specific. You can hunt any general unit that doesn’t require an additional permit on a general elk combo license. He has a permit for a region 2 unit so he’ll be further south than those wolf infested super thick areas in the NW. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy up there! Grizzlies up there too.

For now he can hunt his permit area as well as units that don’t require permits. But I have heard talks about restricting permit holders to only being able to hunt the unit they have a permit for if they did apply for and draw one. To me that shouldn’t matter. Pick a unit and have faith in it. You might be mobile in that unit but there’s no reason for a major relocation.

 

[KHNC]

It’s not region or unit specific. You can hunt any general unit that doesn’t require an additional permit on a general elk combo license. He has a permit for a region 2 unit so he’ll be further south than those wolf infested super thick areas in the NW. I wouldn’t send my worst enemy up there! Grizzlies up there too.

For now he can hunt his permit area as well as units that don’t require permits. But I have heard talks about restricting permit holders to only being able to hunt the unit they have a permit for if they did apply for and draw one. To me that shouldn’t matter. Pick a unit and have faith in it. You might be mobile in that unit but there’s no reason for a major relocation.

While i appreciate you explaining it, someone mentioned he should remove the region off of his post. Which he did. Now you have mentioned it twice. Now that you have done this, I will elaborate. I was very clear that he had drawn a specific area and i was trying to defer away from it. Also, what i said about NW is accurate and IS part of his area, as you know. But since you said his specific region again, its back out there public. Hopefully he will find a good area to kill a bull. I wouldnt go first week anyway. Rut activity should be better second week.

 

[87TT]

That's great advice! I have never experienced a pack out the size of even a cow elk... biggest was my WI black bear last fall that was about 225-250lbs dressed.
I'll definitely be looking at my pack out route/distance before I take the shot as I'd rather take a picture of a great shot opportunity than put an arrow in one and not get every ounce of meat out.
As for my plan to pack my camp on my back - I am very cognizant of the keeping the winds in my favor and also have no desire to blow up an area for other guys. I'm thinking of doing this because I want to be near the elk at night so I can experience the bugling and locate them as quickly as possible in the morning. That's my current thought process anyway but am certainly open to suggestions like yours as to what I'm not thinking about. The areas I've e-scouted are impossible to get more than 2-3 miles from any trail so the trick will be going where other guys don't want to - I think.

An elk shot with a bow can go a long long way and usually away from the rig.

 

[Skerhunter]

An elk shot with a bow can go a long long way and usually away from the rig.

Or they can run 50 yards and die a half mile from the trail head?

I would suggest you focus your energy on finding elk and not worry about back packing (i.e. maybe hit up some high ridges 2-3 miles for your base camp that you can glass/locate from - or a 5-10 mile loop you can cover in one day without blowing everything out). No sense wearing yourself down packing camp around, if you don't know where the elk are to start with.

 

[Indian Summer]

While i appreciate you explaining it, someone mentioned he should remove the region off of his post. Which he did. Now you have mentioned it twice. Now that you have done this, I will elaborate. I was very clear that he had drawn a specific area and i was trying to defer away from it. Also, what i said about NW is accurate and IS part of his area, as you know. But since you said his specific region again, its back out there public. Hopefully he will find a good area to kill a bull. I wouldnt go first week anyway. Rut activity should be better second week.

No… while I can appreciate your reasoning they asked that he edit out the unit number which he did. That’s a big difference from a region. A region is a vast area made up of many units. Hunting within a single unit can and does vary. Hunting within a region varies like night and day. The bottom line is spot burning which isn’t possible by stating an area that encompasses a good portion of one side of a state. Region 1 is NW. It’s nothing like regiion 2. The northern part of region 2 is nothing like the southern portion of region 2. There are hundreds of units but only 7 regions.