Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Montana Elk Hunt - Thompson Fall Lolo NF

My father and I were lucky enough to get 2 out of state elk tags and I also have a mountain lion tag - figured we may as well try luck at anything and the Elk "Big Game" tags also include a mule deer or whitetail.

My father has hunted north of Thompson Falls 4 times with great success/luck. The last time was in 1997. How is the elk hunting in that area? How about the thieves taking from camp sites? Any info would be great.

Good luck with all the fires up there. I am supposed to go bring my gear up oct to help my dad hunt, but he is very disapointed with all the fires

We just returned from that neck of the woods. It was really smokey on Thursday but things cleared up by the time we drove back through today. I'm not sure how much burned.



Thursday's smoke. We were under 'sunny' skies when I took this pic.

IBUY50MGBRASS, go to the link below. It is a current fire map of the areas here in the west that are burning. Click on where you'll be hunting, etc.

http://activefiremaps.fs.fed.us/#

L.W.

Its dryer than a popcorn pfart there and has a lot of fire activity close by. That can be tough country to hunt, but productive. There are some monsters in that straight up & down just west of Thompson Falls.

Thanks for the info. I'm glad I found this forum.
I've been practicing my long range shots.
We have a kawasaki mule and OHV permit so we may setup camp near a ranger station and drive the forest roads from there.

If you know of a semi-secure camp site near a ranger station in the LOLO area feel free to let me know. I've read alot about thieves taking antlers, meat, guns, and everything else. I have topo maps of the whole area 1:24000 but I also purchased a book of Montana topo maps which has decent detail.

Thanks again.

Sam, that't the Chippy Creek fire and it's now over 100K acres!! Largest fire in the state. It's burned basically everything from north of T Falls along the Thompson river road north to Hwy 2 and east all the way to about 20 miles west of Kalispell. We got some rain the last two days but not enough to tame it.

IBUY make sure you have good binos and a good spotting scope and don't be set on one area just because it looks or feels elky. With the fires it has a lot of animals in places they normally aren't. Be prepared to do a lot of driving and spotting. I wouldn't worry about campsites, I've lived in NW Mt my whole life and only ever heard of one TRUE horror story of things being stolen. Just don't "flaunt" your kills or your goods, you should be ok. Besides the only good "secure" camp site is the KOA outside of Missoula.....I take that back the greenies will get you there!LOL

Nice info. We have a Leupold spotting scope and good binocs from our long range shooting (I love 50 bmg, can't help it). I may take a 338 lapau rifle I am just now getting used to shooting past 500 yards. I would never plan on shooting that distance at an animal but I have shot that distance hundreds of times. It's fun but we won't be hiking with all that gear we use in competition.

The last few years have seen some pretty impressive numbers of elk taken in the area, and a few real hogs that I know of. If you've already hunted the area you know there's only two directions in that country...up and down. Hope you did some conditioning in preparation for that. Good luck on your hunt!

For the last few months I've used a treadmill 4 days a week going at a fast walking pace for an hour - during 2 TV shows, and I'm getting used to new boots at the same time. The treadmill goes up to about a 10 degree incline. I'm going to use it every day for 2 hours during the 2 weeks b4 we head west. I've been using my pack and some cases of deer slugs for weight. I've also been scouting whitetails around here taking my frame pack with some lunch and a camera, the hills are short compared to the rockies, but they are steep in southern Indiana. The weather helps with conditioning too, it's been 90+ degrees almost every day, some over 100, and it's always humid here.

Blessing about this country is low humidity, and the temps have been dropping at night (thank goodness). I'll be heading out for some bow hunting mid Sept around Trout Creek, which is about 20 miles West of Thompson Falls. We'll be heading in about 12-15 miles on horseback to get away from the foot soldiers...the elk tend to be more cooperative with less pressure. Haven't put an arrow in an elk yet, but hope to change that this year. Sounds like you're getting ready with your conditioning. Find yourself some stadium steps and do it with a pack on your back those last few weeks. You might even start with a day or two a week now. That'll make things easier when you get out this way...seems, at least to me, that no matter how much I've prepared, the mountains humble me.

Be carefull you don't over train and pull something. I've done it twice so far this year.
I suggest you workout every other day, or do a much lighter/different body muscle group workout on your off days. the body needs a day's rest to recover if you pushit hard.
Been doing one of my local canyons with a loaded pack since the end of March. Lots of heat here too. E

Dead Man and Telegraph southwest of Noxon has been good to me for near record bulls. The terrain is tough and the bulls are rank and wily, so get in good shape. A few years back they (re-intoduced) Grizz in that area. It's a drop-off spot for bears that have encountered humans, so watch yer topnot.

Wayne

Trout creek and Noxon area is some of the finest elk hunting in the country but you better be in good shape. Mountains are steep and the under brush is a killer. I have taken several nice bulls in that part of the country and also just over the hill in Idaho. Have honestly been into elk I refused to kill for no other reason there was just no good way to get them out. Would have to eat them were you shot them.

We leave next week for Thomspon Falls Montana. We setup our camp this week here at home in Indiana just to make sure we have everthing (or too much for that matter) We are going to scout areas North of Thompson Falls and East of Noxon in the LOLO Forest. If anyone knows exactly were the elk are feeding, sleeping, and hanging out in that area please pass along. LOL! Like anyone wants to give up that info..

Can't wait to get to Montana.

Good luck!!!

Don't forget the camera!!!