Whenever I think of Montana hunting I think of the Southeastern part of the state and antelope, turkey and both whitetail and mule deer hunts that will forever live in my memory.

Montana hunting

I started hunting Montana in the late 70s and had my most productive hunts along the Little Missouri River near the small Montana town of Alzada, in Carter County near both the Wyoming and South Dakota borders. This hunting area is about 205 miles southeast of Billings, Montana and 87 mile northwest of Rapid City, South Dakota and is mostly private property although there is some public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). There are many ranches in this area that will allow day hunting for a fee.

Montana hunting fun

The country is primarily open sage brush cattle range with rolling hills. The major drainage is the Little Missouri River which is a very small stream in the vicinity of Alzada but this stream and it’s bottom land provide excellent whitetail habitat.  It was never uncommon to see nearly one hundred deer in a four hour hunt on foot.

Montana hunting for trophies

The mule deer in the area were more likely to be found in the open sage brush areas and were never as common as the whitetails.  Groups of four to six deer were not uncommon while groups of ten to twenty although less common were not unusual to see in both early morning and late afternoon.

Montana hunting for food

The antelope frequented the open fields both grain and sage brush and were usually in herds of ten to fifty animals.  Both bucks and does populated these herds and we had no difficulty seeing several hundred antelope each day.

Montana hunting success

Now, the turkey hunting is another story!  Almost no hunters and hundreds of turkey.  Montana has both a spring and fall hunting season and there are plenty of birds.

Montana hunting