Unit 116 (North Black Hills)
Wyoming Hunting Guide — Elk
Elk Hunt Area 116, which Wyoming Game and Fish names North Black Hills, covers about 2,296 square miles in Crook County. It belongs to WGFD's Black Hills elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 33.3%, with 1,353 hunters taking 451 elk at about 25.8 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 12% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 116
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Wyoming Unit 116 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 116
Elk Hunt Area 116, which Wyoming Game and Fish names North Black Hills, covers about 2,296 square miles in Crook County. It belongs to WGFD's Black Hills elk herd unit. WGFD's 2025 harvest survey put elk success here at 33.3%, with 1,353 hunters taking 451 elk at about 25.8 days of hunting per animal. Federal land covers about 12% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Elk Hunt Area 116
The Wyoming Game and Fish Commission names elk hunt area 116 "North Black Hills". It runs to about 2,296 square miles, almost all of it in Crook County. WGFD reports these elk as the Black Hills herd unit, which also takes in elk hunt areas 1 and 117. The boundary and the harvest figures are WGFD's. The read of the country inside them is ours, and it says so where it starts.
Where elk hunt area 116 begins and ends
WGFD's 2026 Chapter 7 walks the line around elk hunt area 116 corner by corner. It starts where the Montana-Wyoming state line crosses the Rocky Point Road (Crook County Road 145). On the way round it follows Crook County Road 145, Interstate Highway 90, Wyoming Highway 116 and U.S. Highway 16, and Rocky Point. Read it as the legal edge of your license rather than as a hint about animals. The full text is in Section 9 of that chapter, with this year's season dates and license limitations in Section 2.
Not the same ground as the other hunt area 116s
WGFD numbers each species' hunt areas on its own grid, so the number 116 also belongs to its deer hunt area 116. None of it shares a county with this one. A license is good only in the hunt area of its own species, so this page is about the elk area, and the cards at the foot of the page link the others.
Ground WGFD opens: Crook 4 and Crook 7
WGFD also lists 2 Walk-In Areas covering about 2,760 acres open for elk, among them Crook 4 and Crook 7. WGFD's 2026 regulations open Access Yes land only for the species and dates listed for each area, with each area's own rules on WGFD's site and no motorized travel unless WGFD says otherwise.
High ground inside the line: Bear Lodge Mountains, Warren Peaks and Smith Ridge
Named high points inside elk hunt area 116 include Bear Lodge Mountains at 6,651 feet, Warren Peaks at 6,651 feet, Smith Ridge at 6,467 feet, Houston Ridge at 6,410 feet and Bull Hill at 6,390 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: Reuter Canyon, Krusee Canyon and O'Haver Hill
Below them sit Reuter Canyon at 5,245 feet, Krusee Canyon at 5,131 feet, O'Haver Hill at 5,072 feet, Tent Canyon at 4,910 feet and Jacobson Draw at 4,895 feet. Those are the basins and bottoms of the area, and they are what you glass into from above.
Water: Pearson Spring, Box Spring and Loafman Springs
Named water inside the line includes Pearson Spring, Box Spring, Loafman Springs, Little Beaver Spring, Allread Spring and Jim Wayne Spring. Nothing in the data says which of it runs in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
Unit 116 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 3,238–5,135 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,178 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 2,290.9 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
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
- 194 tanks
- 3 springs
- 258 stream segments
- 36 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: Bear Lodge Mountains (6,651 ft), Houston Ridge (6,410 ft), Sheep Mountain (5,820 ft), Ellsbury Divide (5,543 ft)
Holding ground: Massengale Flats (5,770 ft), Jim Wayne Canyon (5,450 ft), Tent Canyon (4,910 ft), Walk-In Area Crook 7, Walk-In Area Crook 4
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 Elk Hunt Area 116
Elk Success Rates
Wyoming Game and Fish's 2025 harvest report estimates 33.3% elk success in elk hunt area 116: 451 animals taken by 1,353 active hunters over 11,651 days of hunting, or 25.8 days per animal. By residency, residents 29.7% (251 taken by 846) and nonresidents 39.4% (200 taken by 507).
These are WGFD's own estimates from its hunter survey, for this hunt area and season only — not a statewide average. One season isn't a trend, so check the current report before you read one into it.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (resident) | 84 | 78 | 100.0% | — |
| Rifle — General Type 1 either sex (nonresident) | 2 | 99 | 2.0% | — |
Data from 2026 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 EngineWyoming Game and Fish's 2026 demand report for elk in elk hunt area 116, residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different license pools:
- Type 1 (any elk), nonresidents: 99 first-choice applicants for 2 licenses, 2% drawn
- Type 1 (any elk), residents: 78 first-choice applicants for 84 licenses, 100% drawn
Wyoming residents draw elk licenses without preference points; nonresidents draw part of their quota on points, highest balance first (Chapter 44, Section 19), and the nonresident figures above are from WGFD's random draw. WGFD publishes no preference-point level at which a hunt draws, so none is given here. Every figure was checked against WGFD's demand-report PDFs on 2026-08-10.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Wyoming elk hunt area 116?
What is the elk success rate in elk hunt area 116?
Is elk hunt area 116 the same ground as deer hunt area 116?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-25.
- Chapter 7 — Elk Hunting Seasons (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Name and legal boundary of elk hunt area 116, Season dates, license types and limitations by hunt area · accessed 2026-10-25
- Elk 2025 Harvest Report — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Hunters, harvest, percent success and days per animal for elk in elk hunt area 116, The same by license type and residency · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD draw results and odds — demand reports 2021-2026 — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: First-choice applicants, licenses and percent drawn, by license type, residency and year · accessed 2026-08-10
- Chapter 44 — Regulation for Issuance of Licenses, Permits, Stamps, Tags, Preference Points and Competitive Raffle Chances — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Which licenses are drawn on preference points (Section 19), When preference points are deleted · accessed 2026-10-25
- Chapter 2 — General Hunting Regulation (2026) — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Mandatory CWD sample submission (Section 17) · accessed 2026-10-25
- 2026 Antelope, Deer and Elk Hunting Regulations — Wyoming Game and Fish Commission · supports: Access Yes Walk-In and Hunter Management Area rules · accessed 2026-10-25
- WGFD ArcGIS feature services — hunt areas by species, CWD sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas, Walk-In Hunting Areas — Wyoming Game and Fish Department · supports: Mapped outline of the hunt area, Herd unit and square miles, 2026 CWD mandatory and priority sampling areas, WHMAs, Public Access Areas, Hunter Management Areas and Walk-In Areas inside the area · accessed 2026-10-25
- TIGERweb State_County — Wyoming county boundaries (used only to measure which counties a hunt area lies in) — U.S. Census Bureau · supports: Which counties the hunt area lies in, and in what share · accessed 2026-10-25