Unit 215 (East Deer Lodge)
Montana Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 215 lies in Deer Lodge, Silver Bow and Powell counties and covers about 577 square miles. Ground runs from 4,633 to 6,957 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 215
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit 215 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 215
Unit 215 lies in Deer Lodge, Silver Bow and Powell counties and covers about 577 square miles. Ground runs from 4,633 to 6,957 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 215
Montana FWP's material on unit 215 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Deer Lodge, Silver Bow and Powell counties. It runs to about 577 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Continental Divide and MacDonald Pass
Montana FWP draws unit 215 in Deer Lodge, Silver Bow and Powell counties with a boundary that runs on US Highway 12, Interstate 15 and Interstate 90, and on Continental Divide and MacDonald Pass, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.
High ground inside the line: Cliff Mountain, Electric Peak and Sugarloaf Mountain
Named high points inside the unit include Cliff Mountain at 8,367 feet, Electric Peak at 8,334 feet, Sugarloaf Mountain at 8,244 feet, Black Mountain at 8,015 feet and Bison Mountain at 8,011 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.
Holding ground: Woodville Canyon, Horse Canyon and Alaska Gulch
Below them sit Woodville Canyon at 6,102 feet, Horse Canyon at 6,101 feet, Alaska Gulch at 6,051 feet, Connors Gulch at 6,028 feet and Cooney Gulch at 5,974 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Water: Limburger Spring
The water inside the unit line comes to 179 mapped stream reaches, 33 lakes, 102 stock tanks and 1 springs. Named sources include Limburger Spring. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.
Reading the land status
Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 32% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. The unit runs from 4,633 feet to 6,957 feet, averaging 5,905 — enough relief to separate summer range from winter range.
Unit 215 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,633–6,957 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,905 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 577 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 32%
Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 102 tanks
- 1 springs
- 179 stream segments
- 33 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Cliff Mountain (8,367 ft), Electric Peak (8,334 ft), Black Mountain (8,015 ft), Bison Mountain (8,011 ft)
Holding ground: Blackfoot Meadows (6,623 ft), American Gulch (6,122 ft), Cooney Gulch (5,974 ft), Limburger Spring
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Elk in Unit 215
Elk Success Rates
Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit 215 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. Montana FWP's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — B License either sex (resident) | 241 | 685 | 35.2% | — |
| Rifle — B License either sex (nonresident) | 7 | 30 | 23.3% | — |
Data from 2025 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.
Open in Draw Odds EngineMontana FWP's draw recap has no elk record we can tie to unit 215. That usually means the licence is sold over the counter, is issued under a hunt code covering several units, or was not offered in the years we hold. Rather than estimate a point requirement, we leave it blank — check Montana FWP's own draw recap for the hunt code you mean to apply for.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 215?
What is the elk success rate in unit 215?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 215 hunt?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- Montana FWP Hunting District Legal Descriptions, 2026/2027 — deer-elk hunting districts (pp. 19-35) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in · accessed 2026-10-24
- FWP hunting district feature services — deer/elk, antelope, moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat districts (2026 and 2027 seasons) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-24