by www78<
Question by Mark K: Is it better to hunt elk in the morning or evening? What habitats do they like? Should I be in the mountains?
Is it better to be in the flats, near a stream? High elevation or low? I am in the Bozeman MT area and have tried the Bridger range at Corby creek drainage, Olson creek (bangtail trail), Squaw creek and hylite.
Best answer:
Answer by USMCstingray
morning.
Answer by dca2003311@yahoo.com
BOTH.*
Answer by mikes_muse
Well, it depends on you the hunter really. It is easier to hunt the morning because the elk are moving to the feeding grounds and if you have been a diligent hunter and scouted the area and know where that is, then you can beat them to the feeding area and get a good shot on an elk. If you prefer to hunt the evening, you need to be a bit more careful because the elk have been bedded down most of the latter half of their day after their daytime feeding and are now going to move to the night time bedding area. This can differ from day to day so it is hard to cut them off or put a good stalk on them, plus elk seem to be more wary after the sun has been up for a long time. It is my personal opinion though that morning is better and that the elk are more easily patterned during this time and thus you can more easily predict what they will be doing and consequently get a better chance at a bull.
Now as far as locations go, there is no doubt in my mind that the big boys hang out in the highest elevations until a really heavy snow pushes them down the mountain. So that being said, it depends on the weather and the time of the year whether or not you should be hunting the flats or the mountains. If it hasn’t snowed real heavy in the mountains yet, then get up there and scout for them. If it has snowed a lot, then they should be heading down to the flats. If you can find a nice, well used wallow that bulls have been tearing up with their antlers then you have found a really good spot to hunt. Stick with it and more often than not you will have an elk eventually wander over to it. If it was me, since I am not familiar with the areas you mentioned, I would scout my butt off and look for heavily used trails and watering holes and wallows. Those three things will lead you to elk. It is too late in the season to use any kind of calls so put those away and do some serious foot work out in the field. Montana is legendary for its elk and if you put in the effort then you will be rewarded, but elk hunting is one of the toughest do it yourself hunts out there. Good luck!
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