Montana elk up high?

wisconsin243

New Member
Jan 12, 2016
10
0
Spent the last 3 days putting miles on in area 362 and have yet to see any elk on the hoof. I'm thinking they r way up in the snow. Next few days will be putting the miles on to go high. First attempt to hunt elk is really an eye opener.
 

Gr8bawana

Veteran member
Aug 14, 2014
2,671
605
Nevada
Are you hunting for bulls or any elk? Post rut bulls will be in the roughest, nastiest stuff or up really high until the snow forces them down. I've hunted them in knee deep snow and the elk were still higher up the mountain.
 

wisconsin243

New Member
Jan 12, 2016
10
0
At about 8k there's sign. Lots of it. But it's weeks old. Went up to about 9500 today.. nothing again.
 

rammont

Active Member
Oct 31, 2016
228
4
Montana
Go where the cover is. Find a nice running stream or seep that has heavy blow downs and standing timber around it with small parks of grass on flat benches on the northern or eastern faces of the mountain. I'm just west of the divide and our mountains are only about 7500 feet high and I've seen the elk at almost all altitudes along the mountains but more often than not, during hunting light, I see them in their daytime beds about 2/3 of the way up the slopes. They start grazing up the slopes just before sunrise and by 10 AM they are sitting tight in their secure park among the darkest timber they can find. These small grassy parks with water close by allow them to sit tight and not move very much, that's why it's tough to find them, you have to find that one small grassy park where one or two bulls are quietly chewing their cud.