Unit 425 (Sun River WMA)
Montana Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 425 lies in Lewis and Clark County and covers about 143 square miles. Ground runs from 4,019 to 5,420 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 425
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit 425 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.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Elk Hunting in Unit 425
Unit 425 lies in Lewis and Clark County and covers about 143 square miles. Ground runs from 4,019 to 5,420 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 425
Montana FWP draws an exact line around unit 425 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Lewis and Clark County. It runs to about 143 square miles.
The lines of the unit: Sun River, Sawtooth Mountain and Cutrock Creek
Montana FWP draws unit 425 in Lewis and Clark County with a boundary that runs on US Highway 287, and on Sun River, Sawtooth Mountain, Cutrock Creek and Lime Ridge, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Sawtooth Ridge, Lime Ridge and Roost Hill
Named high points inside the unit include Sawtooth Ridge at 8,097 feet, Lime Ridge at 7,470 feet, Roost Hill at 6,721 feet, Black Butte at 5,114 feet and Sandy Butte at 4,598 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: Alkali Flat and Kirkaldie Flats
Below them sit Alkali Flat at 4,369 feet and Kirkaldie Flats at 4,072 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.
Water in this unit
The water inside the unit line comes to 2 mapped stream reaches, 2 lakes and 1 stock tanks. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
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 4,019 feet to 5,420 feet, averaging 4,499 — not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.
Unit 425 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,019–5,420 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,499 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 142.7 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
- 1 tanks
- 2 stream segments
- 2 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: Sawtooth Ridge (8,097 ft), Lime Ridge (7,470 ft), Roost Hill (6,721 ft), Black Butte (5,114 ft)
Holding ground: Alkali Flat (4,369 ft), Kirkaldie Flats (4,072 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 425
Elk Success Rates
Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit 425 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) | 30 | 172 | 17.4% | — |
| Rifle — B License either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 1 | 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 425. 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 425?
What is the elk success rate in unit 425?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 425 hunt?
Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro
Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.
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