My Dad and I drew Montana deer tags (general) for this year. What are some area we should check out. I am taking a trip out to Big Sky Country over labor day to check it out. Any ideas of public land to hunt on the Eastern half of the state?

Thanks
ddj

Welcome to the Big Sky. I hope you have a great hunt. As for areas with public land access in eastern Montana.
1. The Custer National Forest south of Ashland both east and west of the Otter Creek valley. Yes, it can be crowded, but be willing to walk at least a mile from the nearest road, and that these days includes 4 wheelers traffic.
2. Custer National Forest at Long Pines southeas of Ekalaka near the Dakota border.
3. BLM and State land intermixed north of Boyes and east of Broadus and south/southeast of Powderville.
3. The Terry Badlands due north of Terry across the Yellowstone River. Extremely rough country and hard to hunt, but nice bucks hand out in there. Be in shape or take your knife, fork, and salt shaker with you.
4. Missouri Breaks northwest of Jordan and north of Jordan. Maybe 1 million acres of BLM and ajoins the C M Russell Wildlife Refuge along the shores of Ft. Peck Resevoir. This is very big country and a long way to town for a pop and a burger. Access is just fine with some of the better habitat more or less blocked off by landowner/outfitters. However, screw 'em if you can read a map and know how to read a GPS.
5. Call the state FWP office in Miles City ASAP since the yearly roster of block management lands is due out very soon for all regions. These are a mixture of private and public land that allows access for hunting from the ranchers by reservation method or at least pre-approved permission. It is administered by the FWP. Miles City is Region 7

Good luck and post some successful pictures.

Hey Congrats and welcome to our great state. The Big Sky awaits you.
I agree get a copy of the block mang map from FWP.
Never have hunted east, but wish all the best of luck.
MM

Jeez Yellowstone, give away all the best places!!

There will be deer pretty much all over Eastern Montana. One place is not much better than another aside from how far you're willing to walk off the road and how hard you'll hunt especially towards evening. If you get tired, like many people do, around noon its almost best to not start hunting till a few hours before sun set.

The terrain and fence lines can be very confusing. I strongly recommend getting a GPS and loading corners of public land as way points and knowing where your truck is and how to get back. If you're way off the road you're certain to run into some a-hole land owner and you'll need your map (GET BLM 1:100,000 whereever you're going!!) and your GPS to show him you're on public. Been there, done that, will be doing it again.

A less hunted area with lots of block management is North Eastern MT near Culbertson up to Westby all the way back to Malta, north of HWY 2. Also lots of public land. Good white tail hunting but make sure you're in an area with good cover. I've found huge swaths of public land on a map, made the long drive only to find miles and miles of grass with no cover to hold a deer. Google Earth helps.

I hope you have a great time hunting with your dad, sounds like a great trip. Best of luck.

Well heck, I didn't say anything about the areas around Bozeman, Ennis, Dillon, White Sulphur Sgs, Helena, Great Falls, Red Lodge, Billings,
So many places, not enough time.

I sure wish those areas in eastern Montana were still secret, but..........you been there lately>

I saw these two on my way to work a few days ago.

I would like to run into either one of those in November.

quote:

Originally posted by yellowstone:
Well heck, I didn't say anything about the areas around Bozeman, Ennis, Dillon, White Sulphur Sgs, Helena, Great Falls, Red Lodge, Billings,
So many places, not enough time.

I sure wish those areas in eastern Montana were still secret, but..........you been there lately>

Thats why I haven't hunted out east. So friggen many nice dear here in central MT. Why travel? I do however go up and hunt the Milk River every few years. Man is there some huge bucks up there. Three years ago I had to let the second biggest buck I have ever seen walk away. He was 825 yrds out, and 100 yrds from the Can/Us border. I thought man if he doesn't drop at the hit, and runs. I would never forgive my self. Sure sucked watching him walk over and cross into Canada!!

Dempsey There are a lot of nice bucks down your way. Those two fields between the river and I 15 seem to always have nice deer out there just before dark. All the way to Hardycreek for that matter
MM
MM

quote:

Originally posted by Montana Maddness:

Dempsey There are a lot of nice bucks down your way. Those two fields between the river and I 15 seem to always have nice deer out there just before dark. All the way to Hardycreek for that matter
MM
MM

The problem with that area is that it's all posted no hunting since most of those yeahwho's in the canyon view the 50 some deer feeding in their front yard as pets. Then some of the nicer backcountry spots have been bought up by Elway and or the Deerborn Ranch. I am only a little bitter as you may have noticed. I have inspected powerlines going thru both those places and seen both montrous mulies and elk only to be told by the ranch hands that nobody local gets to hunt there. Sorry for going offtopic there.

I wouldn't reccomend Malta if your goal is a mulie to brag about. Over the last ten years it has een hit hard by both hunters and disease. If you can find access along the Milk River you might be able to bag a whitey you can be proud of though.

Lots of good places to go for deer in the state isn't there!?

The Dearborn is nice if you can get access, and some do...

I know most of the Cascade people pretty well and like it.

The High Line is way cool especially late in Nov for me. One of my fav hunts was the fall of 2000. I hunted a really good ranch that had tons of birds and I took two nice whitey does as well as a nice whitey buck. The only problemo for me with this area is that it's about a half a world away from me anymore...grins

The Milk is really nice, I have a couple of very good contacts up there as well.

Too much country to hunt and not enough time and or gas money...<g>

Then again there's the Yaak and the Chalk buttes...

Need more time and more tags!

Mark D

if you get along the milk river near chinook, let me know. the best mulies i've seen in that area are in the farm country north and south of there up on the plains. lots of public land and also lots of farmers/ranchers willing to let you hunt, if you ask.

for guaranteed nice mulies look in the area around lewistown - good public land opportunities there. or you can strike out between great falls and helena as mentioned in dempsey's post. access is tough, so you might not be able to put something together, but as the pix show, the potential is huge.

another good area is southwest of great falls in the sand coulee/stockett area. lots of public land and it's pretty hard to go wrong.

this one was my son's first deer ever just southwest of chinook:



it may not be B&C material, but it was sure a nice one.



last year, several were seen that were even better on public a few miles north of chinook. they can be found on the milk river but to see the majority of them, get up out of the valley and onto the plains.

the above comments are from my own experience. there might be better places but i know those will give you good opportunities.

It may be not be B?C material but the pic and the smile are and I don't that your son cared.

Thx for sharing.

Mark D

quote:

the pic and the smile are and I don't that your son cared.

amen, mark ~

quote:

Originally posted by tasunkawitko:
for guaranteed nice mulies look in the area around lewistown - good public land opportunities there.

I second that, some of the biggest bucks I've seen were north of Winifred while I was working around there.

quote:

Originally posted by yellowstone:
Well heck, I didn't say anything about the areas around Bozeman, Ennis, Dillon, White Sulphur Sgs, Helena, Great Falls, Red Lodge, Billings,
So many places, not enough time.

I sure wish those areas in eastern Montana were still secret, but..........you been there lately>

Good points. I go there a bit too often for my budget, grew up in Billings and can't get Eastern MT out of my blood.

What I've seen though are lots and lots of people driving around doing short walks. I've never seen a soul (other than pissed ranchers who don't want you on their public land) when I'm a mile or three off the road.

I'm REALLY hoping that the cost of gas keeps some people home this year, but I'm not holding my breath.

We've got it very good in MT, still lots of places to go and not enough time or money to see them all.

Montana has never really managed their mule deer herds for trophy quality, but we have a lot of them! There are a couple of permit areas now scattered across the state that FWP has tried to upgrade. I only suppose it works O.K.
It seems that Montana buck antlers grow up and tall rather than wide and out, and the mass just doesn't seem to equal the muleys from down south. Nevertheless, if a mule deer buck can live long enough around here to make it 4+ years they still can get your attention. From what I've seen though, the majority of the spindly racked 2, 3 and 4 ponters on publc land get whacked every year. Tightly controlled private land and access gtows big bucks. Period.
Montanans have just got to git their deer so's they kin do sum real huntin and git afer 'n elk.

I do know know of one area on an unnamed national forest in Montana that holds really big bucks. And I ain't tellin!! We've all got stories like that.

quote:

Montana has never really managed their mule deer herds for trophy quality

this, in my opinion, is why we have some great opportunities.

I changed jobs this year and I am not going to be able to hunt Mt. I am going to miss it. Great deer, Great country, Great people.

quote:

Originally posted by yellowstone:
Well heck, I didn't say anything about the areas around Bozeman, Ennis, Dillon, White Sulphur Sgs, Helena, Great Falls, Red Lodge, Billings,
So many places, not enough time.

I sure wish those areas in eastern Montana were still secret, but..........you been there lately>

How about Absarokee to Red Lodge and on into the Bear Tooths for wt & md

The problem is that there is so much great country to pick from. Its hard to narrow it down and just pick one spot.

trout -

if youhave any quesitons about northcentral montana in the area from lewistown to canada or from cascade to harlem, shoot me a PM or get in touch with me at www.baitshopboyz.com.

What part of the season do you plan on hunting and how long of a trip have planned?