New Montana Hunter

A

aaron_a

New member
Joined
Jan 8, 2018
Messages
43
Location
On the road/whitefish,mt
Howdy. I just moved up from Pittsburgh, Pa to the Flathead Valley in northwest Montana this spring. I will be a resident by the time elk season opens up here and am looking forward to getting into the hills with my bow. The problem I am having, is I don't know where to start. There is so much land, and so much access here I feel like I could spend years just trying to pick a spot. I have never hunted elk, and don't know what criteria to really look for in an area to start scouting. I'm willing to walk and put in some work. I would love to find some areas close by so I can hunt after work during the week too. I'd love to pick some peoples brains here on how to get started.
 
Look into Randy's Youtube channel, as well as the Elk Talk Live sessions he puts on every Wed night at 8pm (facebook, bowtech, etc.). There is a lot of content that can help you answer the questions you have.
 
Check out the elk101 site, Randy has worked with them as well, lots of good info there and on the UEH program. It's worth it for a new elk hunter.

Get out and start hiking now, it will get you ready for the season and more than likely you'll find some spots to hunt.
 
Two friends and I will be coming out to MT from Pittsburgh for our first elk hunt this fall. We're hitting areas in the southwest for just a week or so, though. Seems like a pretty steep learning curve for us newbies, but one thing we all know for sure is that this won't be anything like a typical whitetail sit. I mean, where do you even find a tree for your climber out there?!

Randy's podcasts, Q&As and bag dumps have been super helpful resources. Highly recommend. Are you a native Yinzer, or a transplant who moved again?
 
Thanks guys. I think I'm gonna try and get a hike in this weekend. There's quite a bit of steep gnarly roadless area that I've been thinking about checking out. A coworker says not a lot of people hunt it, but those that do, pull pretty nice elk out of it. There are some nice lakes up there too, so I'm gonna bring my fly rod.

I listen to Randy's podcast pretty frequently, along with the meateater, and the hunt backcountry podcast too. I'll have to watch some of the youtube vids too.
 
Right on. Good luck! The southwest part of the state seems great. I've spent a few days in Bozeman, but thats about it. I gotta come clean though, I've never sat in a tree stand, I've always still hunted with my gun or bow. Hopefully that will make my transition easier. I've been able to get up close to some pretty nice deer that way. I did a spot and stalk archery mule deer hunt in Arizona this winter. Didn't close the deal but got within 70 yards of some nice bucks out there. I was having a pretty tough time dealing with the crunchy gravel desert ground.

I was born in Cape Cod, Mass. We moved to Pittsburgh when I was a young teenager. Got tired of it and came out west this year. Glad we did.
 
Sounds like you're pretty much on your way with a solid transition. I wish I had the patience to still hunt like that. It's a different kind of focus than being on stand, and I've tried several times but just haven't been able to make myself go slow enough. In your experience, how different are still hunting and stalking like you do more of out West?

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but moved around a lot after college, including a few years in Amherst, MA. I loved the northeast, but Pittsburgh was always calling me home, so I went to grad school at CMU, met my wife there and we stayed put.

Good luck this season! Keep me posted, especially if you have any good tips for getting in the right MT mindset.
 
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Went for a quick hike on Sunday to check out an area I’ve been thinking about. Tons of traffic, including motorcycles. Very little deer or elk sign too. Looks like a griz had been through a while ago. Nice views though. It was good to get hiking again, we haven’t been out since the winter. Gotta get my legs and lungs back into shape. Did about 6.5 miles round trip and a little over 1500 ft of elevation gain on the way up.
 
Stagg412 said:
Sounds like you're pretty much on your way with a solid transition. I wish I had the patience to still hunt like that. It's a different kind of focus than being on stand, and I've tried several times but just haven't been able to make myself go slow enough. In your experience, how different are still hunting and stalking like you do more of out West?

I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, but moved around a lot after college, including a few years in Amherst, MA. I loved the northeast, but Pittsburgh was always calling me home, so I went to grad school at CMU, met my wife there and we stayed put.

Good luck this season! Keep me posted, especially if you have any good tips for getting in the right MT mindset.
Click to expand...


I really like the challenge of still hunting. I kind of play a game with myself to keep my movements as slow and quiet as possible.

I was a lot more stationary while spot and stall hunting. I would kind of still hunt while I scoured the areas. But when I found good sign, and a nice vantage point I’d stay posted up behind my binos for hours on end. It was tough because I would see a lot of deer, but they would vanish into these little drainages that all kind of braided into each other. I would lose sight and just have no idea where to go to find them.


Good luck on your trip out here this fall!
 
I was born and raised in Pittsburgh, and now live outside of Philly. There is a thought with the family to hang-up this urban rat race and head out west. I hunted the NW corner of Montana up around Libby last fall. It is tough hunting with the bow to say the least. The sign and critters are there, you just got to find them.
 
I’m glad we made the move out here. I really enjoyed a lot of the time we spent out in the woods in pa, but this is just great out here. It’s astonishngly thick country though. I’m excited to start figuring it out. Might need to find a hunting buddy or something though. My girlfriend isn’t too excited about the thought of me going off into grizzly country by myself.
 
FredoTwoWheels said:
I was also born on Cape, in Dennis to be exact. I ended up in Los Angeles, and you ended up in Montana?! Some people have all the luck.
Click to expand...

No kidding, I was actually born in Dennis too. Well, Barnstable hospital, but my parents lived in Dennis at the time.

My younger sister just moved out to LA for some reason. She seems to like it out there. It’s cool to visit, but I couldn’t live there.
 
You should be able to hear some bugles as archery season nears. Also, the stand you never sat on back home can be good over a wallow for elk.
 
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