Getting a general tag for elk with a muzzleloader will most likely be difficult if not impossible. Bow hunting yes, but not rifle. I am MZ cow hunting in Washington on the 2nd of October , and it took 7 preference points to draw. This will be my 57 or 58 th season. Your getting lots of good info here. I have never called in an elk, but have killed a couple with a MZ and came very close with a Bow. I like the later season hunts WITH A RIFLE where there is a chance of snow, which herds them up and makes them easy to find. I think they are pretty easy to hunt if you have a general idea of where they are living. A new area is always very tough, but they always eat and drink and that helps. Some will bugle clear into the middle of October, and that really makes them easy to locate. My first day elk last year was taken at 6 pm. We got up on them at daylight but they were already back into the timber, where three of them bugeled, and grunted until 10 am. We set there all day (which many can't do) and waited . At 6 they started coming out of the timber. I picked a nice fat one, shot her and my season was over. My 3rd day bull was in November, with 6 inches of snow on a long ridge with 40 or 50 of his brothers and sisters with him. As they frequently do, they had walked out of the timber to feed at 1 in the afternoon. He was about 50 yards from the timber and 420 yards away when I killed him. His brothers and sisters watched him slide down the hill a ways, and did not leave until we were well up the hill to retrieve him.. Again lots of good info here, listen, ask questions, and START PLANNING NOW, you can pm me if you would like
