Hey everyone, we officially drew our MT NR elk tags and will be coming out Sept. 9-23. We are planning on the Bridger Range, (after much debate) I am looking for any help or advice any of you much more seasoned hunters care to share. The area tha I have been looking at pretty hard is north of the Bridger Sky Bowl around Fairy Lake. Again any advice or suggestions on better areas will be greatly appreciated. It is hard being so many miles away here in WI and just dreaming about the mountains. Thanks in advance Curt
Any Help....
- Thread starter WIbiggame
- Start date
AH_14
Member
Why the Bridgers? not that I think this is a bad selection, I was just curious about your reasoning. Possibly wanting to be close to Bozeman?
theat
Well-known member
I have never hunted the Bridgers, but I did spend quite a bit of time hiking up there when I spent a summer working in Bozeman. I hiked up Sacagawea Peak several times and saw plenty of other hikers as well. I did see a few cow elk and muleys, but I think with how easy the access is and how close the trailhead is to Bozeman I would go elsewhere.
Decided on the Bridgers after looking at the harvest rates from 2004-2012. They look pretty good, not a lot of archery harvests which I read as not a lot of archery pressure. Maybe I am naive. Also an older gentleman we know lives in Belgrade and elk hunts (rifle) and speaks highly of the bridgers as far as number of elk. This is our first trip out there we will be hunting from September 9-23 with archery. If we dont like what we are seeing we might go down to teh Gallatin Canyon.
Elkwhisper
Well-known member
There are elk in there for sure..... but if I had two weeks to burn there are better places to spend them with far less pressure.
AH_14
Member
ElKWhisper---that is exactly what I was thinking. If you hunted it hard for two weeks it would produce some encounters. Just depends on what you are looking for.
AH_14
Member
And yes----there is archery traffic, definitely not a quiet place, as well as other recreational trafffic. Bozeman is the northwest capital of all things outdoors, trailheads are extremely busy compared to areas just a little further away. Definitely some elk too though
SWMontana1
New member
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- Sep 21, 2011
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- 337
The harvest statistics are a bit skewed due to high, high volumes of private land and elk taken off that private land in the Bridgers... There are elk up there but be ready to see a lot of them on private land. Like others said, why not go elsewhere if you have two weeks? I would mix it up and not spend my entire 2 weeks up in the Bridgers... maybe a couple days to see what's going on
THank you very much for all the replys and suggestions. It is nice to come to a site and get actually informaiton from others without all the drama. We are not really trophy hunting, more just getting away and spending time in the mountains with the hope of harvesting an animal as a bonus so size structure is not a huge influence on where we go. Our main is getting away from other hunters and it looks like the Bridgers are not a place for that. All of you have mentioned that there are areas around that are better for that close to the Bridgers would anyone be will to share such areas? Thanks again guys really appreciate your time.
AH_14
Member
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