Where to Hunt????

[Sickforit23]

Hey All,
This year was my first year hunting Elk and i didn't have the best experience. I went with my dad (who's gone 8-10 times) and his buddy (who's gone 10-15 times) and we put a lot of trust into my dad's buddy on the area we chose. We ended up going to Central Montana around the Lewis and Clark National Forest about 60 miles from Great Falls. We ended up only seeing 8 elk in the 10 days we hunted. The area was all dark thick timber and we had no luck with bugling elk or any sort of rutting action going on. I was really disappointed because we had hoped we'd be able to spend some days glassing and being able to pattern the animals that way but it was extremely hard to do in such dense, dark timber. I know one of the reason's we didnt have much luck was because we probably went too early in the year (Opening day).


I'm looking to go out again this year but would like to go to an area where i can glass and have a chance to at least "see" more elk! I know it's never a guarantee that you'll see elk but being able to have a chance to at least be around more elk and learn as much as possible about hunting them is what i'm looking for.

Does anyone have any advice on what states to look at that would provide better opportunities for glassing and spot and stalk hunting? Was i just in the wrong part of Montana??


Thanks guys, any advice would be great!

 

[mikemulligan32]

Even though my season was also unsuccessful, I always hunt southwest Montana. It'll be hard work to get to good glassing spots but, search around in the southwestern mountains in Google earth

 

[Wyo67]

Sickforit,

A little more information is needed.  What type of hunting were you doing (archery or rifle).  Opening day needs to be defined as well.  For example, in Wyoming archery opens generally on 9/1 in most areas and rifle opens up usually much later (10/15 or so) again depending on the area.

Information would be helpful, because I hunt archery elk in September a whole lot different than rifle in later seasons. 

 

[backcountry_hunter]

Guessing he's talking archery as they were looking for rut action and said he was early but I could be reading into to much....


elk are always where you find them....


I've been on hunts before where they were as thick as flies, same area same season the following year...ghost town. I've hunted a full seasonand not seen an elk also. I wouldn't neccessarily say you were in a bad or wrong spot.... you were just in the wrong spot, when you were there this year. Generally if I get out to an area I anticipate elk and they're not there I move.... be it in elevation or (if my tag allows) different area. Sometime's it takes work to find them, sometimes... it's easy. I realize none of this is helpful really but it's the truth. You were likely in a good spot, but the elk weren't there... not much you can do.


As far as other states or areas go, every state will have good opportunities and your luck will increase with limited draw tags. I also strictly focus on wilderness's myself but you need to be set up to hunt those a little differently. It also rules out Wyo for me....


all of this I'm sure you knew, unfortunately there's no golden-otc zone where elk are bountiful, rut for 6 mos long and have zero hunters....

 

[Sickforit23]

Thanks for info so far guys. To clarify a few things... I only hunt archery and we went from September 2nd to September 12th. No rutting action whatsoever. I'm not necessarily looking for any golden spots or anything like that as i definitely understand (or at least think i understand) the amount of work it takes to harvest an elk.


I'm really looking for info on states or areas that offer more opportunities for being able to glass and spot and stalk hunt as we were mostly limited to stationary static hunting in the area i was in due to the dense/thick timber. We hiked up to about 8000 ft every day as we noticed the elk were high so we did try a lot of different strategies it just wouldve been nice to be in an area where we could've glassed and been able to truly identify how many elk were in the area.


So, any ideas on good regions to focus on if a guy want's more open country?

 

[backcountry_hunter]

I'd be looking in SW part of the country, specifically AZ and NM then... Even the  san juan's in Southern CO are thick. Bob Marshall..... thick, Frank Church.... Thick.


I'm still waiting to pull my Gila tag but everything I've seen is it opens up a little down there.... but that's a tough tag to draw. Utah I think has some more open setting but you may have alot of competition there also depending on location, tag and season. I've never been on an easy elk hunt with abundant numbers, easy access and low hunters.... usually you have to sacrifice one or more of those elements. Generally central montana is a pretty good area to do some glassing, I'm surprised you didn't get what you were looking for there.


To me I wouldn't rule out your area from this year. It just sounds like you were too early. Next year could be 180 degrees the opposite. I have yet to be anywhere where I could take a accurate inventory on animals and "know what's in the area"simply by glassing. Usually thick timber you can use to your advantage.... in your case if they were quiet and not rutting then it gets a little harder. Generally if you start at low elv. this time of year keep working up until you find them.... another week or two later I think you may have had different results in terms of rutting action.


for what it's worth the whole country seemed a little late on the rut this year..... best reports I had/heard were the last week of most archery seasons in the Sept. 20's........Usually that Sept. 10'th -20th can really be good.