Montana elk hunters spent an estimated 1.1 million days in the field in 2024, with nearly 40% of that hunting time concentrated in southwestern Montana, according to the most recently available Fish, Wildlife & Parks harvest estimates.
The figures offer a snapshot of where hunters have recently concentrated their efforts as Montana’s general deer and elk hunting season opens Saturday, Oct. 24.
FWP estimates that hunters spent a collective 432,635 days pursuing elk in Region 3, which covers southwestern Montana. That’s roughly twice as many hunter days as western Montana’s Region 2, with 216,706, and nearly three times the 157,287 hunter days recorded in north-central Montana’s Region 4.
A hunter day represents one hunter’s day afield. The figures measure cumulative hunting effort, not the number of hunters present in an area at a particular time.
Southwestern Montana also accounted for the state’s largest elk harvest. Hunters harvested an estimated 11,795 elk in Region 3, more than 40% of the statewide total of 28,188. That includes 5,306 bulls, also the most of any region.
North-central Montana had the second-largest harvest of the 2024 season, with 5,579 elk.
The regions with the most hunter activity weren’t necessarily the ones with the largest harvests relative to the hunting effort.
Southeastern Montana’s Region 7 recorded just 44,428 hunter days — about one-third the activity in northwestern Montana — but hunters harvested an estimated 1,941 elk there, compared with 1,301 in the northwest.
That translates to approximately 4.4 elk harvested for every 100 hunter days in southeastern Montana, compared with fewer than 1 per 100 in the northwest. Southwestern Montana’s figure was about 2.7 elk per 100 hunter days.
Those ratios aren’t measures of an individual hunter’s chances of success. Hunting opportunities, access to private and public land, elk populations and license restrictions differ between regions.
FWP’s harvest estimate figures are estimates based on post-season hunter surveys, rather than direct counts of hunting activity or animals killed. They also don’t necessarily reflect how crowded an area feels to hunters, since the seven regions cover different amounts of land and offer different hunting opportunities.
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