Units 062, 064, 066–068 Elk Hunting, Nevada
Nevada hunt units drawn together · 5,570 sq mi
Draw hunts — squared bonus points
Every hunt here is a draw hunt, named by its weapon, what may be taken and its dates. In Nevada's draw an application is given one random number plus extra random numbers equal to its bonus points squared, and tags go to the lowest numbers first, so more bonus points always improve a hunter's chance but never guarantee a tag. Residents and nonresidents have separate quotas. One hunt here has no nonresident tags; a nonresident cannot draw it.
What hunting Units 062, 064, 066–068 is like
Units 062, 064, 066–068 are drawn together as one region, and the hunts described below all apply across that combined ground. The country is rolling, with some steeper breaks, running from around 4,000 feet up to roughly 10,400 feet, and most of it is foot country rather than horseback country given the gentle to moderate grades that dominate the landscape. Lower elevations mix shrub and brush with grass and meadow and a touch of riparian cover, mid elevations open into grass and meadow with shrub and brush, and the higher country adds patches of conifer and pinyon-juniper and a little deciduous forest. Four wildfires have burned into this region in recent years: the Martin fire and the South Sugarloaf fire, both from 2018, and the Cottonwood Peak and Jakes fires, both from 2025, together touching a meaningful share of the ground and shaping how elk use cover depending on how long ago the fire ran through.
About 65 percent of the region is public land under BLM, National Forest and State Wildlife Management Area management, but ownership alone does not make access simple, since reaching some public ground may still mean crossing private land first. Roughly 3 percent of the region is tribal land, which is closed to public hunting and is not opened by a state tag, and a similar share falls outside huntable ground as closed military land. The remaining roughly 32 percent is private, and permission there is on the hunter to arrange.
The seasons here span archery, muzzleloader, any-legal-weapon spike, and a later any-legal-weapon bull hunt, and each is drawn separately, with its own odds for the resident and nonresident pools; antlered, antlerless and spike elk are the three separate bonus point categories.
Elk hunts in Units 062, 064, 066–068 (2026-27)
Each row is a hunt, told apart by its weapon, what may be taken and its dates. Draw difficulty is in words from the 2025 draw results: good, fair, long or very long odds, read for a hunter with no bonus points and for one holding 5 bonus points, in each pool. A hunt that covers only part of a unit says so under its name.
| Hunt | Dates | Legal elk | Resident | Nonresident | Rut phase |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Archery | August 16 – August 31 | Antlered elk (bulls) | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Fair odds | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Very long odds | Pre-Rut Transition |
| Muzzleloader | September 1 – September 16 | Antlered elk (bulls) | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Very long odds | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Very long odds | Rut Onset, Primary Rut |
| Any legal weapon | September 17 – October 4 | Spike elk | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Long odds | No nonresident tags | Primary Rut, Late Rut / Early Post-Rut |
| Any legal weapon | October 22 – November 5 | Antlered elk (bulls) | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Very long odds | No points: Very long odds 5 points: Very long odds | Post-Rut Recovery, Migration Transition |
"No nonresident tags" means a nonresident cannot draw that hunt. "No draw odds shown" means that pool has tags for the hunt but too little draw history to put its odds in words. Odds are per application, never a promise, and a hunter with no bonus points can draw. A hunter needs no particular number of points for any hunt.
Some hunts take in these units together with other units, so they have their own guides. Check them too:
Archery · Antlered elk (bulls) · August 16 – August 31
Hunting the archery season means working the tail end of the Pre-Rut Transition phase, when bulls are shedding velvet but still holding close to the ground they used through summer. The rolling terrain and mixed shrub, brush, grass and meadow cover favor sitting water sources or glassing open country for a stalk, rather than covering long distances. The legal animal is an antlered bull, and a resident hunter with no bonus points faces very long odds while one holding five bonus points moves into fair odds; a nonresident faces very long odds at both zero and five bonus points.
Muzzleloader · Antlered elk (bulls) · September 1 – September 16
The muzzleloader hunt runs through the Rut Onset and Primary Rut phases, putting a hunter in the field as bull behavior shifts into the most active stretch of the year. Working this country on foot through its rolling draws and breaks, with shrub, brush and grass and meadow cover at every elevation band, means covering ground carefully and using the moderate slopes to move and glass without being skylined. The legal animal is an antlered bull, and both resident and nonresident hunters face very long odds whether they hold no bonus points or five.
Any legal weapon · Spike elk · September 17 – October 4
This hunt falls across the Primary Rut and Late Rut / Early Post-Rut phases, a stretch when elk activity is still elevated and animals may move toward different ground as the rut winds down. It's a resident-only hunt for a spike elk, with no nonresident tags available at all. A resident hunter with no bonus points faces very long odds, improving to long odds with five bonus points held.
Any legal weapon · Antlered elk (bulls) · October 22 – November 5
By the time this later hunt opens, elk are well into Post-Rut Recovery and sliding into the Migration Transition phase, and bulls tend to pull back into secluded pockets where they don't have to move far to meet their needs, making them harder to catch in the open and more like hunting mule deer. Early mornings and late evenings are best spent glassing feeding openings, while the slower midday hours reward walking likely ground for tracks and droppings; once sign turns up, staying on it pays off better than moving on. Later in the season bachelor groups may re-form, and as November's cold sets in — average lows near 25°F with modest snowfall — elk begin shifting toward wintering country, so fresh sign along that transition is worth more than old sign from past years. The legal animal is an antlered bull, and both resident and nonresident hunters face very long odds at zero bonus points or with five.
Terrain & elevation
- Elevation
- 4,000–10,400 ft, typically around 5,700 ft
- Slope breakdown
- 68% gentle · 27% moderate · 5% steep · 0% rugged
- Public land by ownership
- ~3,603 sq mi
Habitat & cover
What grows here, by elevation. Each band adds to 100% on its own — these are shares of that band, not of the region.
Lower elevations
- Shrub and brush46%
- Grass and meadow42%
- Riparian8%
- Other cover4%
Mid elevations
- Grass and meadow59%
- Shrub and brush37%
- Other cover3%
Higher elevations
- Grass and meadow51%
- Shrub and brush44%
- Conifer and pinyon-juniper2%
- Other cover1%
- Deciduous forest1%
Across the unit
- Shrub and brush54%
- Grass and meadow43%
- Riparian2%
- Other cover1%
Cover classes from the USGS National Land Cover Database. “Other cover” is the remainder — bare ground, water, agriculture and developed land.
Recent fires
Wildfires in the last several seasons that burned a meaningful share of Units 062, 064, 066–068. Fire perimeters show how much of the region burned, not how hot — and closures change through the year, so check current fire closures and restrictions before you go.
- Martin fire, 2018 — about 218,000 acres in the region (6%).
- South Sugarloaf fire, 2018 — about 177,000 acres in the region (5%).
- Cottonwood Peak fire, 2025 — about 132,000 acres in the region (4%).
- Jakes fire, 2025 — about 82,000 acres in the region (2%).
Fire perimeters from the National Interagency Fire Center.
Land & access
About 65% of Units 062, 064, 066–068 is public land by ownership — BLM, National Forest and State Wildlife Management Area. Ownership is not the same as legal access: public land can be reachable only across private ground, and some parcels are closed or restricted.
- BLM58%
- National Forest6%
- State Wildlife Management Area<1%
- tribal land3%
- Other land<1%
- Private32%
About 3% of this unit is tribal land, which is closed to public hunting and is not counted as huntable. Your tag does not open it.
Private land: permission is the hunter's to get.
Fall weather
- August — highs around 86°F, lows around 51°F
- September — highs around 76°F, lows around 43°F
- October — highs around 62°F, lows around 33°F, about 0.4 in of snowfall
- November — highs around 47°F, lows around 25°F, about 3.4 in of snowfall
- December — highs around 38°F, lows around 19°F, about 7.6 in of snowfall
Units 062, 064, 066–068 elk hunting FAQ
Can a hunter get an elk tag in Units 062, 064, 066–068?
Yes, but every hunt here is awarded through Nevada's draw rather than sold over the counter. A hunter applies for a specific weapon and legal animal — archery bull, muzzleloader bull, spike elk, or the later any-legal-weapon bull hunt — and tags are allocated separately to resident and nonresident pools. There is no option to simply buy a tag at a counter for this region.
How hard are these hunts to draw, and does it differ for residents and nonresidents?
Draw difficulty varies by hunt and pool: most hunts in this region run very long odds for both residents and nonresidents even with bonus points held, though the archery bull hunt and the spike elk hunt improve for a resident holding bonus points. Nonresidents face a separate quota from residents, and one hunt here — the spike elk season — has no nonresident tags at all. In general, more bonus points improve a hunter's chance but never guarantee a tag in any pool.
Can a nonresident hunt every season offered in this region?
No. Nonresidents may apply for the archery bull hunt, the muzzleloader bull hunt, and the later any-legal-weapon bull hunt, but they cannot draw the spike elk hunt, which has no nonresident tags at all. A nonresident who wants an elk tag here needs to apply for one of the antlered bull hunts.
Does Nevada have bonus points, and how do they work for this region?
Nevada uses bonus points, not preference points, and antlered elk, antlerless elk, and spike elk are each tracked as separate point categories. A bonus point is earned by applying unsuccessfully for a category, or it can be bought instead of applying, and holding points improves a hunter's draw chances without guaranteeing a tag. A hunter who skips applying for a category two years running loses the points built up in it.
Which of these seasons fall during the rut?
The muzzleloader bull hunt, running September 1 through September 16, falls across the Rut Onset and Primary Rut phases, and the spike elk hunt, running September 17 through October 4, spans the Primary Rut and Late Rut / Early Post-Rut phases. The archery bull hunt in August and the later any-legal-weapon bull hunt in October and November both fall outside those rut phases. This timing reflects borrowed regional phenology rather than anything unique to Nevada.
Data sources & methodology
- Nevada Department of Wildlife — 2026 Big Game Application FAQ — how the draw works, how bonus points are earned, squared and lost, and how many hunt choices an application takes
- Nevada Department of Wildlife — 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 big game hunting seasons (Commission Regulation 25-07) — season dates, weapons and legal animals for each group of units
- Nevada Department of Wildlife — Bonus point and application choice trends — the draw results behind the draw-difficulty words
- USGS / MRLC — National Land Cover Database — habitat and cover classes by elevation band
- USGS PAD-US — Protected Areas Database of the United States — land ownership and access
- PRISM Climate Group — 1991–2020 normals — fall weather
- National Interagency Fire Center — wildfire perimeters — recent fires, their size and where they burned
Draw difficulty is a qualitative reading of the modelled chance from the 2025 draw results for each pool, not published odds. Rut phases are borrowed regional timing, not Nevada-specific dates. Land shares are separate, non-overlapping categories. Confirm every rule with the Nevada Department of Wildlife before you apply.