Questions for you seasoned elk hunters out there...

[Mthuntinfool]

Everyone else pretty much covered things, but I will give you my 2 cents as well.

First, if you don't have them already, invest in some good binos. they are worth their weight in gold for finding elk bedded or picking out a bull in a herd.

Second, from experience, I wouldn't bother hunting the Gallatin NF. High numbers of hunters, both the 2 and 4 legged kind. unless you have friends or family you are staying with, I would hunt the Beaverhead NF south of butte. I hunted the area for years, and if you would like to PM me, I can give you some spots to try. In several districts, you can take either a cow or a bull with your general tag, which allows for much more opportunities. Hope that helps some.

 

[harleymc]

I'll add a couple points.

1. You asked what looks 'elky' on a map. As mentioned, start with stuff that is hard to access. Second, look for north facing timber near some grazing areas and not too far from water. Small pockets of grazing that are secluded are best, and these areas can indeed be located on Google Earth.

2. What I wish I knew when I started. Don't worry too much about being loud, because elk aren't whitetails. Elk are 500-800lbs and they make noise in the woods. I've had elk bugle at me because they heard me walking on a gated road or game trail and thought I was another elk. Elk don't have a small home range like a whitetail, they can be in one drainage one morning and an entirely different drainage the next. You will need to cover a lot of ground to find where they are at, and making a little noise along the way is ok.

I think of a week long hunt like this. 1-2 days hiking and glassing to find out what region/drainage the elk are in (this is where having spots pre-selected helps). 1 day to figure out how to get close to them at the right time, then 1-2 days to kill one or blow them out. Then repeat if necessary.

I think a lot of whitetail hunters think of elk hunting like still hunting for a big whitetail. But its totally different as even good habitat might only have one band of elk within several square miles - they range a lot. It starts by covering a lot of ground to locate them, and having good optics and viewing locations will allow you to cover a lot of that ground with your eyes instead of your legs, which save a lot of time.

 

[JLS]

I have a .kmz land ownership file for MT that you can drag and drop into google earth if you want to PM me your email. I look for habitat on the fringe of private/ where it's not obvious to your average Joe if it's public or not or maybe too small to hold elk. Perfect example I saw 40 hunters opening day about 4 miles back in a walk in only area that looked perfect on a topo map, didn't see an elk. On my way home I swung by a small piece of public that you have to climb straight up over a mountain and drop down the other side into, sure enough there were 5 bulls hanging out in a little meadow.

Welcome to Hunt Talk. Hopefully you stick around and share some stories and photos.

Are you good with graphs and spreadsheets?