The best week of the whole season is right now
October 15 sits in the middle of the busiest stretch of western big game hunting. In Idaho, general elk rifle is wide open through Oct 24 and general deer has been open since Oct 10. In Wyoming, the southern general elk season opens today. Montana youth deer opens today, general antelope is into its first week, and the general rifle opener is nine days out. Colorado is in the middle of first rifle, and second rifle, the most heavily hunted week in the state, starts Oct 24. More tags are live right now than at any other point in the fall. The rut is winding down, the first storms are starting to move animals, and the pressure has not peaked yet in most places. If you were going to hunt one week this year, this would be a strong pick.
What is open this week
The dates below are the statewide windows for 2026. Your unit or zone can run narrower, and tag types change everything. In Idaho the A and B tags have different windows by zone, and in Wyoming the season depends on your hunt area. Confirm every date on your state hunt planner before you drive. The warden cares about your unit, not this page.
| State | What is open | 2026 dates | Tag notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Idaho | General elk, most zones | Oct 10 to Oct 24 | Any weapon; some zones carry a second window later in the fall |
| Idaho | General deer, many units | Opened Oct 10 | Regular deer tag, windows vary by unit |
| Montana | Youth deer only | Oct 15 to Oct 16 | Opens today; licensed hunters ages 12 to 15 |
| Montana | General antelope | Oct 10 to Nov 8 | Opened last Saturday |
| Wyoming | General elk, southern units | Oct 15 to Oct 31 | Opens today; other areas opened Oct 1 |
| Colorado | First rifle elk and deer | Oct 14 to Oct 18 | Draw only; ends this weekend |
| Colorado | Second rifle elk and deer | Oct 24 to Nov 1 | Elk over the counter in western units |
| Montana | General deer and elk rifle | Oct 24 to Nov 29 | The big one; runs five weeks |
Elk are tired, hungry, and moving
Bulls coming out of the rut are worn down and feeding hard to rebuild, and the herds are starting to regroup after weeks of bugling chaos. That makes feed the whole game. A bull that would not leave a ridge in September will walk a mile for good feed in mid October. The best feed sits where the forest burned a few years back or where a timber cut grew back into a salad bar, especially on south facing slopes that stay open. The burn scar and timber harvest layers show both. The first storms add movement on top of hunger: herds slide down through the same saddles and drainages every fall, and the migration corridors layer draws those published routes from the state and federal collar studies. Stack them. A corridor squeezing through a green burn scar near public land you can reach is the mid October pattern, and the full breakdown of how elk move this month is in the October elk guide linked below.
Mule deer are starting to slide downhill
The first cold fronts of October start pushing mule deer off the high benches toward winter range. They do not all go at once. The does and the resident bucks near the winter range move first, and the high country bucks follow when snow or cold shuts the feed down. That makes right now the window to intercept: animals are on the move but the big herds have not arrived low yet. Corridors narrow at the same terrain every year, and the same logic from the migration guide applies. Find where a published route squeezes through a saddle or a strip of public land between private ground, and you have a stand location that only gets better as the month goes on. For whitetails, Montana's general season opens Oct 24 and runs into the heart of the rut, which is why that five week window is the most anticipated deer opener in the West.
Storms move more animals than moon phases
One hard front in mid October does more for movement than a week of perfect moonlight. Snow piling up on summer range and cold snapping the feed shut are the triggers that flip herds from feeding patterns to migration, and this is the month those triggers start firing. Watch the weather like you watch the wind. The radar layer shows precipitation in real time, and the NWS watches and warnings layer refreshes every fifteen minutes with the winter storm and wind warnings that tell you which ranges are about to get hit. A front arriving Friday means the animals move Saturday morning. A storm that dumps a foot on the high country during Colorado's first rifle means the elk will be lower, on different feed, when second rifle opens. Check the forecast before every drive, and hunt the front, not the calendar.
Pressure is the other animal in the woods
Every season open right now shares one problem: other hunters. Colorado's second rifle season concentrates thousands of over the counter tag holders, resident hunters who did not draw, and outfitter clients on the same western units at the same time. Idaho's general elk rifle puts real pressure on public land across most zones. The animals that survived archery and the early rifle seasons are educated, and they handle pressure one way: they move deeper into timber, higher into rough ground, or onto private land. The answer is public land the crowd cannot be bothered to reach. Turn on public land and private parcels and count the access points on your unit. Two trailheads serving a huge block of public land means every hunter in the county knows both of them. One faint road that ends at a wilderness boundary means solitude if your legs are up for it. Mark spots a ridge past the easy access, get there before daylight, and hunt weekdays when you can.
The next two openers are nine days out
If you are not in the field this week, you should be e-scouting for next week. Montana's general deer and elk rifle season opens Oct 24 and runs five weeks, the anchor of the whole western calendar. Colorado's second rifle opens the same day, Oct 24 to Nov 1, and over the counter elk tags work in the western units. Both openers hit while herds are sliding downhill, which is exactly why they are so good. This week is the time to do the map work: unit boundaries, public and private shading, migration corridors, roadkill crossings where animals habitually cross roads, and burn scar feed. Put it together now and you walk into the opener with three marked spots instead of a truck full of hope. Cache the map tiles offline before you leave home, because the best spots never have signal.
Ten minutes to a plan
Here is the whole week as a checklist. One, confirm your unit, your tag type, and this year's exact dates on the state hunt planner, because nothing on this page is legal advice. Two, pull up your unit and find the public pockets with real access. Three, stack the feed and movement layers: burn scars, timber harvest, migration corridors, roadkill crossings. Four, watch the storm window and plan around the next front. Five, mark three spots and one backup lower down in case a storm pushes the herd while you are out. Six, cache the tiles offline and charge everything. Mid October only comes around once a year, and this year's version is happening right now.