4 or 5 days

[Flatlander3]

New area for me, opening weekend general MT elk - rifle. What do you all think the schedule should be for hunting vs. scouting? The other days are travel.

1 day scouting 5 days hunting or 2 Days Scouting 4 days hunting ?

 

[Montana_Wanderer]

Personally, I would scout two or even three days prior to opening day. It could take you a few days to even find a bull in an area that you are unfamiliar with. You need to have him located and be ready to kill on opening morning. That is unless you happen to find an area with little pressure, which is unlikely for general elk in MT. Good luck!

 

[Salmonchaser]

Go with at least two days. A day setting up camp doesn't’ count.

 

[Straight Arrow]

Scouting is important to learn the lay-of-the-land, but too often the elk seen while scouting are gone when arriving back at that spot once hunting season starts.

 

[belshawelk]

Scouting is good. This year where I drew they don't allow any entrance to unit before opening morning so I am going in blind which can lead to wasted time opening morning. Never been there. No scouting, hiking, shed hunting or anything. If you can get a at least a day in thats good. It lets you see where others may be heading.

 

[Gr8bawana]

You can always "scout" with your weapon of choice within reach if the season has already in progress.

 

[Bob-WY]

I'd max out hunt days. Turn the first day or 2 into scouting with your bow/gun. With limited time why go looking for an elk you can't shoot when you find em

 

[Pagosa]

If it was a limited tag the scouting would definitely help. But that is not many days of actually hunting in MT to even have a good chance. I would focus on hunting. It's all going change by opening morning and you have to resort back to locating elk after they have been pressured.

 

[2rocky]

New area for me, opening weekend general MT elk - rifle. What do you all think the schedule should be for hunting vs. scouting? The other days are travel.

1 day scouting 5 days hunting or 2 Days Scouting 4 days hunting ?

I'd need to know more about how you would use your scouting time....

Thing is you are only going to see elk morning and evening most likely so your scouting is going to be mostly midday getting to know the lay of the land. If you know where you will camp then have just one scouting day. If you need to find a camp spot, then add an extra day and spend it assessing how you will access your hunting area.

Ideally the night before your opening day you will find some elk coming out to feed and have a plan to go after them in the morning. If you don't find elk, you are still flying blind but at least you have a rifle in your hand if you stumble onto a bull or a herd.

During your hunt keep a paper map with areas you have written off as not worthwhile marked out. Then work your way through the good prospective country in an ordered manner. Be sure you don't hike by country because something farther away looks good unless you have elk sighted and are going to kill one.

Unless you have elk spotted doing a routine unbothered, any sightings you have will be a one and only kill opportunity.

 

[Edgar6]

Traveling across country i would also just have all hunting days and as many as you can. i did that later in the season last year and basically considered the first five days "scouting with my rifle" for deer and elk until i found some on the sixth day....

 

[Flatlander3]

I'd need to know more about how you would use your scouting time....

Thing is you are only going to see elk morning and evening most likely so your scouting is going to be mostly midday getting to know the lay of the land. If you know where you will camp then have just one scouting day. If you need to find a camp spot, then add an extra day and spend it assessing how you will access your hunting area.

Ideally the night before your opening day you will find some elk coming out to feed and have a plan to go after them in the morning. If you don't find elk, you are still flying blind but at least you have a rifle in your hand if you stumble onto a bull or a herd.

During your hunt keep a paper map with areas you have written off as not worthwhile marked out. Then work your way through the good prospective country in an ordered manner. Be sure you don't hike by country because something farther away looks good unless you have elk sighted and are going to kill one.

Unless you have elk spotted doing a routine unbothered, any sightings you have will be a one and only kill opportunity.

Theoretical 2 scouting day plan- First day arrive around 7pm and set up camp. 1st day scouting day, glass sun up from anticipated good glassing location from drive up location. Drive around mid day look for pressure, other potential spots and access. Evening, glass a different good drive up glassing location. 2nd scouting day, depending on results first day, try 3rd drive up glassing in the morning, if nothing on the 1st 3 drive up spots, mid day, begin hike to Evening glassing location away from roads. Each hunt day following, plan more off road glassing. Thoughts on this approach?

 

[Salmonchaser]

Reads as if you’ve done some e scouting, that will help. I prefer long main ridges with lots of finger ridges. The bow hunters have been on them for a month, no virgins, they’ll be looking for feeding areas near cover I would think.
Of my 56 seasons elk hunting about 45 have been in the same unit. Killed my first bull there in 1967. I know it very well. I still go up three to five days early to scout and set camp. I’ll bet I’ve killed 60 if not 70% of my elk on opening day. Maybe 10% throughout the week and I’ll wager 20% on the last or next to last day. Those last couple of days can really get things to quiet down, the elk are tired and hungry. The advantage I have is I know that I only need to check three main areas. I’ll find a good herd in one of them. Typically I’ll get in a mile before daylight and sit. Pretty rare I have some one come past my hideout.
Good luck on your hunt. Look hard at the sign you find, are they moving at night or are they leaving the AO? You’ll need to use the main ridges to get around but work at getting off them, work into the basins and draws between the ridges, that’s where the elk will be.

 

[OR_Hunter20]

Depends on a lot of things for me including weapon, season length, pressure, species, number of hunting partners, terrain, and more.

If it’s elk and I am solo hunting somewhere rugged, if I scout two days and only hunt four, I may not be able to shoot an elk the last two days because it would take me two days to get him out, so I’d likely opt for one more hunt day.

If the season is short, like a week long, and desirable at all, I know the pressure is going to be high and consistent through the hunt. If I have a rifle I’d want the extra scouting day to try to turn and animal up before the season and then get them opening day. If it’s archery that matters much less to me though just because my odds of getting a specific animal opening day are pretty low.

Too many factors for me to say I would prefer one over the other.

 

[2rocky]

I'm assuming you will have E-scouted the Hell out of the unit. If not this will help...

at 14:50 or so he shows his day by day plan based on his camp location.

Use your midday road scouting (your first Full day) to ground truth your access to roads and trails. Chances are by Late October those Bulls are going to be at least a mile from the road, so don't expect to glass much from those points. You will see most likely where you need to get to in order to potentially glass a bull.
If I had your tag I'd focus on finding Sanctuary areas. Make sure you don't hike into an area a bunch of miles and find out someone could drive up the back of the ridge from the other side.

I think if you e-scouted well enough you can have just one Scouting day. Use that to approve or veto your preliminary planned days. You would veto a spot based on a water hole if the Waterhole was dry for example. I had a scouting morning in a promising but distant spot with no fresh elk sign. We took that distant spot off the list the day before opening day.

I find that I seem to have my best luck on hunt day 3. Probably because we get some close encounters on day 1 and/or 2 and narrow in on an area. I'd say if you are limited to 6 days total, spend as much time as possible with a rifle in your hand.

 

[Benfromalbuquerque]

I cast a vote suppose impulsively on what I knew was the correct answer. But you know what, it doesn’t matter. Scout as much as time allows and if it’s a day only then so be it.

 

[mtmuley]

Opening Montana general? Just show up and hunt. mtmuley

 

[8andcounting]

I’d skip any scout days for this tag. It all changes after the first morning . Scouting would be a waste of time .

 

[Bullshot]

For a short hunt, I would not scout at the expense of an extra day with weapon in hand.

 

[brockel]

Opening Montana general? Just show up and hunt. mtmuley

Exactly. The elk are definitely going to be getting moved around