Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting Looking for cow elk in 2018

Montana can't kill enough cow elk. I bet you can do it on your own. Check with the fwp office in Missoula. They can likely head you in the right direction. Hunt between Dillon, and Missoula. Lots of elk, and usually lots of access for cow elk hunters. Also the state prison ranch in Deer Lodge is always needing hunters to shoot cow elk. A few hoops to jump through, but lots of elk.

Montana can’t kill enough cow elk because out of state transplants have bought up the ranches and shut off hunting access. So, it’s not quite so simple. There’s isn’t lack of resident hunters wanting to kill them.

Not to mention social (instead of science) based objectives in a dated Elk Management Plan that has to be followed...

There are indeed large holdings that don't let hunters on to hunt. That is unfortunate,and I don't know what the answer is for that since it IS privately owned. But there are alot of ranches that will gladly let hunters on to hunt cow elk. And in S. West Montana there are a lot of cow elk. Bottom line, if you can't kill a cow elk here in a week of hunting then you aren't a very good hunter. It is not that hard, public, or private.

A bud and i are looking for a couple cow elk meat hunts in 2018. Nothing fancy, just a 1 to 3 day hunt with a reasonable opportunity to kill. Thanks for any suggestions.

Atse, my wife and I have hunted around Plains last year and Heron this year. Could you be a little more specific about areas that have a large population of cow elk. In the 2 years of hunting, I have not seen an elk in a legal hunting situation, the wife watched 24 cows but out of range. No bulls period!!! Plus cows were not legal to shoot. Feel free to PM . Thanks

Just returning from Montana, my self and a friend spent 10 days out there in some fairly tough late season weather. I will give you a couple of pointers we learned from doing elk and deer this year in Montana.

We found animals, but more often than not they where on private and no access was given. With all the snow in November the elk cam down right onto the ranches. Also don't bother with a State wide tag we learned our lesson on that one as well. We could have easily used points and drawn a decent unit to hunt and had better access and odds.

For a no frills high percentage hunt you guy should 100% hire someone or prepare to stay out at least 10-14 days. We talked about it on the ride home and we both wish we would have located a few trespass fee ranches ahead of time instead of relying solely on BLM land and Forest service land.

Bottom line, 10 days in bad weather simply wasn't enough time for us.

I would suggest locating a rancher that can put you on them in 1-3 days and there's plenty of that late season for around $1200 per person. We tried DIY , but simply ran out of time and didn't have the right permits to take home an elk.

Hope that helps you

Just returning from Montana, my self and a friend spent 10 days out there in some fairly tough late season weather. I will give you a couple of pointers we learned from doing elk and deer this year in Montana.

We found animals, but more often than not they where on private and no access was given. With all the snow in November the elk cam down right onto the ranches. Also don't bother with a State wide tag we learned our lesson on that one as well. We could have easily used points and drawn a decent unit to hunt and had better access and odds.

For a no frills high percentage hunt you guy should 100% hire someone or prepare to stay out at least 10-14 days. We talked about it on the ride home and we both wish we would have located a few trespass fee ranches ahead of time instead of relying solely on BLM land and Forest service land.

Bottom line, 10 days in bad weather simply wasn't enough time for us.

I would suggest locating a rancher that can put you on them in 1-3 days and there's plenty of that late season for around $1200 per person. We tried DIY , but simply ran out of time and didn't have the right permits to take home an elk.

Hope that helps you

Just returning from Montana, my self and a friend spent 10 days out there in some fairly tough late season weather. I will give you a couple of pointers we learned from doing elk and deer this year in Montana.

We found animals, but more often than not they where on private and no access was given. With all the snow in November the elk cam down right onto the ranches. Also don't bother with a State wide tag we learned our lesson on that one as well. We could have easily used points and drawn a decent unit to hunt and had better access and odds.

For a no frills high percentage hunt you guy should 100% hire someone or prepare to stay out at least 10-14 days. We talked about it on the ride home and we both wish we would have located a few trespass fee ranches ahead of time instead of relying solely on BLM land and Forest service land.

Bottom line, 10 days in bad weather simply wasn't enough time for us.

I would suggest locating a rancher that can put you on them in 1-3 days and there's plenty of that late season for around $1200 per person. We tried DIY , but simply ran out of time and didn't have the right permits to take home an elk.

Hope that helps you

Just returning from Montana, my self and a friend spent 10 days out there in some fairly tough late season weather. I will give you a couple of pointers we learned from doing elk and deer this year in Montana.

We found animals, but more often than not they where on private and no access was given. With all the snow in November the elk cam down right onto the ranches. Also don't bother with a State wide tag we learned our lesson on that one as well. We could have easily used points and drawn a decent unit to hunt and had better access and odds.

For a no frills high percentage hunt you guy should 100% hire someone or prepare to stay out at least 10-14 days. We talked about it on the ride home and we both wish we would have located a few trespass fee ranches ahead of time instead of relying solely on BLM land and Forest service land.

Bottom line, 10 days in bad weather simply wasn't enough time for us.

I would suggest locating a rancher that can put you on them in 1-3 days and there's plenty of that late season for around $1200 per person. We tried DIY , but simply ran out of time and didn't have the right permits to take home an elk.

Hope that helps you

Call Kiowa Outfitters or Tri State Oitfitters

Both are out of Raton New Mexico and offer cow hunts on private land near Raton both with otc landowner tags available

Those are good leads, though they do fill up fast well in advance.

Also, there are several other outfitters in New Mexico who offer cow elk hunts.

If you want a modest priced hunt, Google "Ruidoso cow elk hunt" and you will find hunts on the Mescalero Apache Reservation near there. A Mescalero guide is mandatory and I have not reviewed that, but the hunt is much cheaper. A local has told me there are a bunch of elk there.

Norm