Montana Archery Elk 455

[kad1429]

I'm from over in Billings and going over to 455 for elk this archery season. I have 12 days off just for elk hunting. Does anybody have any advise on this area? I was also looking at the Whitetail Prairie right above Cotton Creek which was bought and added to the Beartooth WMA last year. I'm not looking for a monster just wanna get into bulls any advise?

 

[Deleted member 20812]

Are you on foot or using horses?

Watch out for rattlesnakes.

Most of the horseback hunters in there are nothing more than organic road hunters. They won't be far from a trail. Find areas away from trails.

Don't focus on one area, rather go where the elk are.

PM me if you have more specifics.

 

[mtmuley]

"Organic roadhunter." I fricken love that! mtmuley

 

[Straight Arrow]

"Organic roadhunter."

That is a dandy. I have a hunch we're gonna see that term some more on HT.

 

[Z Barebow]

"Organic roadhunter." I fricken love that! mtmuley

Don't eat the trail apples left by the horseback hunters! Good one Jason!

I wish I could help, but I don't have first hand knowledge. I have done some research though and there is gold to be mined in Jason's comment.

 

[starvingoutdoorsman]

That is a dandy. I have a hunch we're gonna see that term some more on HT.

Ill be using it everywhere. I like it!

 

[Deleted member 20812]

"Organic roadhunter." I fricken love that! mtmuley

I witnessed the epitome of this back in the Scapegoat Wilderness during the early rifle season about 12 years ago. I had already killed an elk, and we had waited out several days of snow and fog. My buddy and I rode to the top of a divide to glass for muley bucks the morning the weather broke. We were on our way back to camp to cook breakfast and had cut a bunch of fresh elk tracks in the snow. There were several small parks about 1/4 mile above the trail, and I'm sure the elk were firmly planted there.

We ran into two crusty old men that had Budweisers in their horn bags. They asked if we had heard any bugling, and I told them we hadn't heard any bugles but there were some smoking fresh elk tracks about 1/2 mile up the trail. One crusty looks at the other crusty, then asks me "were they bugling though"? I told thim they weren't, and crusty shrugged his shoulders and they rode back down the trail.

 

[Stone_Ice_1]

I archery hunted in their last year, mostly just to scout for the deer tag I had in my pocket. Sent a PM.

 

[Nameless Range]

I don't know much about this district, but I do have a friend who was successful in there a couple years ago on an elk.

He was able to access a lot of the country further back in the unit by riding a bike in. He ended up Hauling his bull out on that thing.

 

[rmyoung1]

I've hunted the Beartooth WMA a couple of times. Fun place to hunt! The problem with the archery season is that the elk typically don't show up in numbers until snow piles up in the higher country surrounding the WMA. If the region gets early storms, you could be in business. If it's a warm, dry fall then things might be pretty slow during the archery season. It's great country to hunt, though, and you can use a mountain bike on the old ranch roads if you don't have horses.

 

[Capsfan]

I planned on hunting the beartooth wma this year for archery elk and from what i understand from the regs its either sex elk with a general license am i correct ?