We go elk hunting near White Sulfur Springs in the Big and Little Belts. Most years we pray for snow on the opening day. From what news i can see there has been tons already. Does anyone out there know if this has moved the elk around at all? Talking to locals over the years they always tell us the hunting gets better later in the season because of the snow. We have been going there for about 15 years. Many years it has been very warm and dry, am looking forward to this,i think? Are there any Montana folks who have seen if all this early snow has changed things?
thanks

I was hoping to get another load of firewood out of the Little Belts, but from the looks of it they may not be too accessible. I can't speak for the elk, but there is plenty of snow up there. The plains are suppose to be near 70 mid week so you still might not have much snow by the opener.

From what I've seen it's not going to really affect anything.

I'm not in the Belts but in southern MT the snow is leaving fast. Some of the elk are still in the rut so this will keep them spread out until they can stand to be around each other again. I did see some elk this evening that had been coming into the green hay fields and starting to get into there early winter patterns, but this will change if the weather gets warm again...Griz

A lot of snow there now but like the rest said some or most will go. It really will depend on what the snow cover looks like and temps on the opener. I have hunted that area many time and it was always better hunting with snow for many reasons. We have horses though which also makes a difference to get where we need to easier and faster. We mostly hunted the Stanford side of the range, Neihart and Monarch and south.
The 10 day looks like 30's, 40's and one 50's degree days. If you can the middle season hunt can be better then opener IMO.
Good luck.

I have hunted the little belts on the north side,good hunting ,hunt the lower BLM land.just 2 miles north of monach and mile west