Montana Elk 3 points

[vandeman17]

My old man and I are trying to make our elk hunting plans for this year and we are going to either hunt Oregon, Idaho or Montana for elk. I haven't hunted elk in years in Montana and it was with rifle and we are wanting to go archery. Does anyone have any recommendations on a decent unit with decent draw odds that would be worth applying for? Also, if we don't get drawn, any units or areas you would recommend? The few places we elk hunted when I was in high school have been hit hard with wolves and heard that elk numbers are low. We are most likely going to be hunting late deer in Montana so it would be nice to streamline the purchase process and all that if we had a place to hunt elk in Montana. I am willing to take a few weekend trips to go scouting as well as sharing any info on deer or elk hunting here in Wa or NE Oregon.

[Stein]

I rifle hunt, so this may be a bit different but the draw odds are similar to WA - save up points as you will need them.

I haven't hunted the NW part of the state, but the rest seems to be pretty good in terms of numbers.  The fees are going up this year - much, much higher for some (like me) so the pressure might be slightly down.

I don't have much info to give you as I only know a scant few places in late October.

[vandeman17]

I rifle hunt, so this may be a bit different but the draw odds are similar to WA - save up points as you will need them.

I haven't hunted the NW part of the state, but the rest seems to be pretty good in terms of numbers.  The fees are going up this year - much, much higher for some (like me) so the pressure might be slightly down.

I don't have much info to give you as I only know a scant few places in late October.

It seems like every state is going up and trying to price non-resident hunters right out of the game. We are also looking into NE Oregon again since my dad can buy a resident tag but we only know the areas that we got packed into as far as OTC hunts. The units we do know are spike only except for special permit. 

[Stein]

MT priced me out, we're headed to Wyoming this year to shoot some pronghorn does.  The price is right and the drive isn't that much farther from where we hunt in MT.

Heck, CO is a better value than MT along with way more areas, seasons and elk.

I feel bad for the mom and pop shops in the small hunting towns.  Eventually, the wealthy out of staters will all be on private ranches and they will wonder what happened.

[vandeman17]

MT priced me out, we're headed to Wyoming this year to shoot some pronghorn does.  The price is right and the drive isn't that much farther from where we hunt in MT.

Heck, CO is a better value than MT along with way more areas, seasons and elk.

I feel bad for the mom and pop shops in the small hunting towns.  Eventually, the wealthy out of staters will all be on private ranches and they will wonder what happened.

If I knew anything about Colorado I would go there in a heartbeat too. I am not looking to shoot a huge bull, just want to get on some bugling bulls and maybe get either my dad or myself our first archery kills. The reason we are looking into Montana at all is because of our scheduled deer hunt there late season.

[Stein]

The deer/elk/pronghorn overlap is a big plus, no doubt.

[bobcat]

I think you'd be better off in Oregon. Your dad lives close to some great elk hunting areas. They may be spike only for rifle season, but archery tags are OTC and most of eastern Oregon is open for either "any bull" or "any elk." Your dad could probably find time for a little scouting over the summer, since he lives there. They give you almost the entire month if September to hunt. What's not to like about that? The only thing I don't like is the cost- nearly $700 for license and tag, but your dad's would be at resident prices.

If it weren't for him living there, I would say go to Idaho, since the license and tag costs less.

[buckhorn2]

We hunted mt last year for elk even drew a snowy mountain bull tag andwe saw hundreds of elk some in the 400 class but all on private property if you put in make sure there is some public land and public land in mt. is going going gone

[vandeman17]

I think you'd be better off in Oregon. Your dad lives close to some great elk hunting areas. They may be spike only for rifle season, but archery tags are OTC and most of eastern Oregon is open for either "any bull" or "any elk." Your dad could probably find time for a little scouting over the summer, since he lives there. They give you almost the entire month if September to hunt. What's not to like about that? The only thing I don't like is the cost- nearly $700 for license and tag, but your dad's would be at resident prices.

If it weren't fur him living there, I would say go to Idaho, since the license and tag costs less.

We would like to go to NE Oregon again, preferably packed in like we did a few years back, but if we can't do that then I am trying to find other options. My ideal would be somewhere that we could camp at the end of a road or trailhead and use that as basecamp. I am good putting on miles each day and if we came across a good area that was a few miles in I would just spike camp it from there. Biggest hurdle is trying to find a starting point.

[idaho guy]

 In MT check out the missouri breaks archery permits. I dont know what the odds are for drawing the archery permit but I think they are not bad. I hunted  there over 20 years ago when archery was otc and it was pretty awesome then. Different kind of archery hunt but lots of fun.     

[Karl Blanchard]

If you decide on MT, shoot me a pm.  I looked at it on a map once

[vandeman17]

Pm sent