Unit 282 (Blackfoot-Clearwater WMA)
Montana Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 282 lies in Missoula and Powell counties and covers about 41 square miles. Ground runs from 3,910 to 5,435 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.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 282
Unit 282 lies in Missoula and Powell counties and covers about 41 square miles. Ground runs from 3,910 to 5,435 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 282
What Montana FWP publishes for unit 282 is a boundary, not a elk map. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Missoula and Powell counties. It runs to about 41 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Seeley Lake and Cottonwood Creek
Montana FWP draws unit 282 in Missoula and Powell counties with a boundary that runs on State Route 83, USFS Road 477 and State Route 200, and on Seeley Lake and Cottonwood Creek, 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: Boyd Mountain
Named high points inside the unit include Boyd Mountain at 4,908 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: Blanchard Flats
Below them sit Blanchard Flats at 4,034 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 in this unit
The water inside the unit line comes to 3 lakes. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
What is published about unit 282, and what is not
The public datasets name only 2 terrain features inside this unit, and no agency access property at all. That is the finding, and on public ground it is less of a problem than it looks: unnamed country is still country, and it carries no other hunters following the same name to the same knob. What the unit does have is 41 square miles of it, and the elk living on it are there whether or not anyone has mapped a name onto the ground.
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 3,910 feet to 5,435 feet, averaging 4,371 — not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.
Unit 282 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 3,910–5,435 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,371 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 40.8 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
- 3 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: Boyd Mountain (4,908 ft)
Holding ground: Blanchard Flats (4,034 ft)
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 282
Elk Success Rates
Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit 282 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) | 24 | 615 | 3.9% | — |
| Rifle — B License either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 6 | 0.0% | — |
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 282. 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 282?
What is the elk success rate in unit 282?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 282 hunt?
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
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