Non resident hunting advice

[Kydeerslayer64]

I'd have a real hard time paying for a land trust for elk hunting without having first hand or very trustworthy (not internet stranger) second hand knowledge of the area and how animals use it. Seems like a setup that is overwhelmingly more likely to be a bust for the $ paid than worth it. Flexibility is huge, especially if a guy is not physically capable of covering a lot of ground in rough country.

Great point , thanks for replying

 

[Bob-WY]

One thing i would add, as an easterner who went elk hunting, the term raghorn shouldnt stop you. I shot a 5x4 in ID on a guided bowhunt, yup a raghorn. Except when it strolled in, i shot and ehen i walked up to it, MASSIVE critter

 

[Kydeerslayer64]

One thing i would add, as an easterner who went elk hunting, the term raghorn shouldnt stop you. I shot a 5x4 in ID on a guided bowhunt, yup a raghorn. Except when it strolled in, i shot and ehen i walked up to it, MASSIVE critter

A unicorn would not stop me.
Thanks for your reply!

 

[Elky Welky]

Most people are friendlier in person than on HuntTalk, unfortunately.

This is very true, many local Montana elk hunters are friendly to a fault. I've made the mistake of telling other hunters where the elk were and gotten burned for it, so my advice would be if you do see elk and there are other hunters around, be ready to enter a footrace. Don't expect other hunters to respect your hunt or make ethical shots. The later the season, the further people think they can shoot at elk and ruin it for the rest of us. People get real weird about elk.

I'll also buck the newby trend of saying hike to one spot and sit there all day glassing. That's all fine and dandy if there aren't other hunters around, but since most public at this point is 2:1 hunters to elk, covering ground, burning boot leather, and going where other people aren't is a pretty effective strategy if your goal is to get meat on the ground.

If you're in it for the antlers and don't want to put in that kind of work, pay an outfitter.

 

[Kydeerslayer64]

This is very true, many local Montana elk hunters are friendly to a fault. I've made the mistake of telling other hunters where the elk were and gotten burned for it, so my advice would be if you do see elk and there are other hunters around, be ready to enter a footrace. Don't expect other hunters to respect your hunt or make ethical shots. The later the season, the further people think they can shoot at elk and ruin it for the rest of us. People get real weird about elk.

I'll also buck the newby trend of saying hike to one spot and sit there all day glassing. That's all fine and dandy if there aren't other hunters around, but since most public at this point is 2:1 hunters to elk, covering ground, burning boot leather, and going where other people aren't is a pretty effective strategy if your goal is to get meat on the ground.

If you're in it for the antlers and don't want to put in that kind of work, pay an outfitter.

Thanks for taking the time to reply!
Even though I have the means,
This won’t be the trip I drop $10k for a guided bull hunt and it might not even be the state that I do as well.
Getting in the draw is first and I what do after that I’m still figuring out. As much as a guided Cow hunt sounds intriguing, if I’m going to drop $4k on a Cow, I would much rather spend $10k on a bull.
What ever I do after I get drawn will be an experience regardless and if that entails walking around some beautiful countryside, sitting and glassing, and not seeing anything…I am fine with it on this hunt and I promise you I won’t be the only one that might not see anything.
Thanks again for your comment s!

 

[Stocker]

I know it’s been said a bunch, but the learning curve is steep. I’d been in elk country a fair amount as a younger kid with my uncles hunting elk and really relied on them. Once I got older and decided to go on my own I was very confident in my hunting abilities, the one thing I lacked solo was the ability to find elk where they are and not where I thought they should be. Or even elk where I could reasonably hunt them. I’d find them in small thickets that were so thick you’d need a howizer to shoot through it. Along with not finding elk where you think they should be comes the mental tailspin. Hiking miles away from everyone else to the most perfect elk looking drainage on OnX doesn’t mean there’s gonna be elk in it. A 10-15 mile ass kicking hike to be proven wrong is a pretty rough thing to overcome.

I’d suggest a guide, if you go DIY be very adaptable. Have plans A-Z and be prepared to change up if things aren’t working. Don’t sit around wasting time on things you think “should” work. Otherwise on your way home from an unsuccessful hunt you’ll regret the hell out of it.

It I go into hunt and cross off every plan on my list and bust my ass for 7-10 days and come up empty, I just have to tip my cap to the elk and the terrain and know I did everything I could and it just didn’t work out.

 

[Kydeerslayer64]

I know it’s been said a bunch, but the learning curve is steep. I’d been in elk country a fair amount as a younger kid with my uncles hunting elk and really relied on them. Once I got older and decided to go on my own I was very confident in my hunting abilities, the one thing I lacked solo was the ability to find elk where they are and not where I thought they should be. Or even elk where I could reasonably hunt them. I’d find them in small thickets that were so thick you’d need a howizer to shoot through it. Along with not finding elk where you think they should be comes the mental tailspin. Hiking miles away from everyone else to the most perfect elk looking drainage on OnX doesn’t mean there’s gonna be elk in it. A 10-15 mile ass kicking hike to be proven wrong is a pretty rough thing to overcome.

I’d suggest a guide, if you go DIY be very adaptable. Have plans A-Z and be prepared to change up if things aren’t working. Don’t sit around wasting time on things you think “should” work. Otherwise on your way home from an unsuccessful hunt you’ll regret the hell out of it.

It I go into hunt and cross off every plan on my list and bust my ass for 7-10 days and come up empty, I just have to tip my cap to the elk and the terrain and know I did everything I could and it just didn’t work out.

Thanks for taking your time to reply…

 

[Nick87]

know it’s been said a bunch, but the learning curve is steep. I’d been in elk country a fair amount as a younger kid with my uncles hunting elk and really relied on them. Once I got older and decided to go on my own I was very confident in my hunting abilities, the one thing I lacked solo was the ability to find elk where they are and not where I thought they should be. Or even elk where I could reasonably hunt them. I’d find them in small thickets that were so thick you’d need a howizer to shoot through it. Along with not finding elk where you think they should be comes the mental tailspin. Hiking miles away from everyone else to the most perfect elk looking drainage on OnX doesn’t mean there’s gonna be elk in it. A 10-15 mile ass kicking hike to be proven wrong is a pretty rough thing to overcome.

Man, does that ring a bell.

 

[David Gough]

I know it’s been said a bunch, but the learning curve is steep. I’d been in elk country a fair amount as a younger kid with my uncles hunting elk and really relied on them. Once I got older and decided to go on my own I was very confident in my hunting abilities, the one thing I lacked solo was the ability to find elk where they are and not where I thought they should be. Or even elk where I could reasonably hunt them. I’d find them in small thickets that were so thick you’d need a howizer to shoot through it. Along with not finding elk where you think they should be comes the mental tailspin. Hiking miles away from everyone else to the most perfect elk looking drainage on OnX doesn’t mean there’s gonna be elk in it. A 10-15 mile ass kicking hike to be proven wrong is a pretty rough thing to overcome.

I'm not sure if these ass kicking days hurt my legs or my pride more.

 

[RidgeRunner76]

So at 45+/- minutes per 1000ft elevation gain, and 1-1.5+/- Hours per mile in actual timed hikes with elite athletes, yall should be in Iron Man contests. My hats off to you let alone hauling an elk out in a backpack. Let's not forget the long term damage of anything over 30-35% of body weight for extended time periods.

 

[SAJ-99]

Thanks for taking your time to reply…

Any update post draw?

 

[Wind Gypsy]

So at 45+/- minutes per 1000ft elevation gain, and 1-1.5+/- Hours per mile in actual timed hikes with elite athletes, yall should be in Iron Man contests. My hats off to you let alone hauling an elk out in a backpack. Let's not forget the long term damage of anything over 30-35% of body weight for extended time periods.

Hammerin' aint for everyone.

 

[sclancy27]

So at 45+/- minutes per 1000ft elevation gain, and 1-1.5+/- Hours per mile in actual timed hikes with elite athletes, yall should be in Iron Man contests. My hats off to you let alone hauling an elk out in a backpack. Let's not forget the long term damage of anything over 30-35% of body weight for extended time periods.

Basically, everyone overstates their physical capabilities and/or the distances and elevation they actually go.

 

[Gerald Martin]

Basically, everyone overstates their physical capabilities and/or the distances and elevation they actually go.

Not me. I actually hike 12 miles and carry 150lbs of meat out every time I go elk hunting….

 

[sclancy27]

Not me. I actually hike 12 miles and carry 150lbs of meat out every time I go elk hunting….

Same....

 

[Pucky Freak]

Here’s the million dollar question…
What specific areas offer the best odds at lower elevations and more manageable terrain?
I have been hunting for years and understand how weather and hunting pressure can increase or decrease the odds.
I will have to plan this trip months in advance and don’t have the local advantage of waiting for the best opportunities…just being out there hunting and the experience is often enough for me, shooting an elk is just as they say the “Icing on the Cake “ or here in Ky like sipping great bourbon.

The million dollar answer is a million other hunters want “the best odds at lower elevations and more manageable terrain”. The wealthy ones fork out 15k, and everyone else goes back to the drawing board.

There are Land Trust properties where elk pass thru or show up intermittently, but your trip dates might not line up with when they’re there. There might be zero elk on the property the entire hunting season before you arrive and then only show up two weeks after you leave. You’re paying for a tag and a trespass fee to look around for nothing. You can get the same experience, + elk, in YNP for a $50 gate pass.

Low elevation/manageable private land is well-roaded. It’s not like you’re hiking all about, if that is the image you had in mind.

One way to think about elk is canada geese. Geese migrate, bounce around, and have weather-dependent movement patterns. If they get shot at, they might leave the zip code. Theoretically, they could be found anywhere, but in reality they have very particular fields and bodies of water, and movement between them.

You rarely stumble upon elk. Instead, look at many square miles of the map and determine where they are going to be, then hunt there. They are nothing like a deer, or a rabbit, or a grouse that are far more scattered on the landscape. You need to be highly intentional about where you hunt. My elk research:scouting:hunting ratio is 40:2:1.

Public land DIY - forget it on a general tag w/ your terrain requirements. Elk don’t hang out in easy hiking areas, as they’d get killed. They live in private land sanctuaries, far from roads, or rough terrain. Gentle terrain elk can exist in areas with very hard-to-draw tags. Cows are also accessible on this type of terrain, especially late season (Dec-Jan) as they migrate down out of the mountains.

In short, if I had physical limitations, I’d focus on hard-to-draw elk tags, or guided hunts.

 

[RidgeRunner76]

Basically, everyone overstates their physical capabilities and/or the distances and elevation they actually go.

For sure. Once had a guy tell me he was 20 miles in the wilderness when he arrowed his bull. Packed it out all on his lonesome in early September......

 

[Laelkhunter]

Basically, everyone overstates their physical capabilities and/or the distances and elevation they actually go.

Certainly you're not talking about me. I scale those 10,000 foot ridges like a mountain goat with 100 pound pack on my back (and that's before I kill an elk) and I do it barefooot in the snow. Crispi & Kenetrek boots are for sissies and hunters that carry a 6.5 Creedmore.

 

[Hams42]

It has been hit on quite a lot in this thread but don't underestimate how much fun you can have on a cow hunt. I have been hunting elk in Montana for 16 years and 80% of the elk I have killed were cows and spikes. In the first 10 years I LUCKED into two cows. I was happy to see elk 5 miles away because at least that showed me that they were real.

I have ended up killed a few bulls recently when I am able to draw LE tags but when I don't have a LE tag I turn right back into a DIY public land cow hunter and I get just as excited to see a herd of cows as I do to see a bull.

As Randy has said multiple times MT hates elk. We can hunt cows for 6 months a year. I personally like to hunt for elk in the snow so I capitalize on late season availability to find the cows. Some of these late season hunts CAN be easier for people with limited capabilities.

I say most of this just to solidify that it's fun to see any elk but it's even more fun to see elk with a tag in your pocket. If Thanksgiving doesn't work for you maybe you and your BIL can go on a late season cow hunt around Christmas or New Years. You even get a cool momento if you are successful on a cow hunt. You can pull the ivories and make something cool with them.

Also I would plan to fly in and make your BIL drive. Out of state plates really get residents blood pumping.

 

[DIY HUNTER]

If you’re not in at least good shape it would be harder to get on an elk. Go with a guide that can get you where you need to be…unless you just want to go camping.