Decimated

Thanks for confirming my decision. I have done a lot of scouting, but it is in SD. I will happy to let anyone know what area I hunted in. It was around Pierre. Great state parks set up for visitors, outstanding public hunting areas, and no double secrete BS about hunting birds. I have fished the Bighorn for 30 years and I always wondered why the locals only hunted in SD. There are pheasant in Montana but mostly on private land. The locals on the Bighorn did not even think it was worth the trouble to try locally. This forum is for sharing information among bird hunters not whipping it out to show how cool you are.
 
Ok, here is a tip. Stay away from the well know areas like Denton Ever hunt the reservation? Look like you are dirt poor. That look gets permission, if you hunt alone.Drive an old beater truck, and only have one dog. Wear old, beat up tennis shoes. Tell them you don't take hunting seriously, and can't hit anything. Wear an IH hat.
 
I can tell you we did better just NE of Lewistown than we did up near Circle / Wolfe point. I wish Id done a little more homework and studied rainfall data!!
 
I don't study anything, but I know how to get permission. That is key. One time I pulled thes Cowboys tractor out, and I've shot probably 50 roosters on that farm hands ranch.I watched him turn down 3 guys in a suburban one time.lol
 
Just got back from a long trip across the Hi-line. It was about like I expected. The farther east I went the worse it was. On the bright side there were almost no hunters so we had lots of space. Only shot one young bird east of Havre, all the rest were older. Farther west did find young birds. The so-so habitat in central MT seemed to have the same small numbers of birds like always. 2 or 3 birds during a long coulee walk, if lucky one would be a rooster that got up in range. Rivers still had birds and the biggest crop of burrs yet. The most depressing was the lack of cover in the northeast corner. Not only was it cut, much is going back to crop. Numbers were bad up there before, like in 97 after that bad winter. But then there was nesting cover so what was left could prosper, not so anymore. Don't see how it can come back to even a shadow of its former self.
 
I've done well north of Lewistown a little ways.The north east is dry, and farmed out, but I did ok on ranches that don't let a lot of people hunt.Just ok, not great.I know some areas around Shelby, that are always good.This one guy always lets me hunt, because I drive the same beater he does.
 
Alaskan swamp collies said:
Just got back from a long trip across the Hi-line. It was about like I expected. The farther east I went the worse it was. On the bright side there were almost no hunters so we had lots of space. Only shot one young bird east of Havre, all the rest were older. Farther west did find young birds. The so-so habitat in central MT seemed to have the same small numbers of birds like always. 2 or 3 birds during a long coulee walk, if lucky one would be a rooster that got up in range. Rivers still had birds and the biggest crop of burrs yet. The most depressing was the lack of cover in the northeast corner. Not only was it cut, much is going back to crop. Numbers were bad up there before, like in 97 after that bad winter. But then there was nesting cover so what was left could prosper, not so anymore. Don't see how it can come back to even a shadow of its former self.
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Agreed , I don't see where one could nest in that area now. This was my first trip , so I'm not giving up hope.
 
Just had a good friend have a guest from western Montana in last week with his Griff's, Hunted from Malta, Glasgow, Vida area, not one bird harvested. True, there are pockets in places that did have some moisture in spring and summer, but large area of what I consider pheasant belt was really hit tough. Just hoping for a mild winter so there are a few birds to breed. I will be filling deer tags and the one elk tag I have left hopefully the next few days. That is the one good thing living in this country, you have options as far as hunting. Supposed to be close to 60 on Thanksgiving over a large portion of Montana. Hopefully I will be sitting out on the porch, overlooking creek, enjoying a cold one, perhaps a little George Strait playing in the back ground, tags full on Sunday. Then load my shiny GMC duramax up and make the trip back home to Glasgow. Montana is good, even when things are a little down.
 
Any private land along the milk seems to be doing alright according to my source, he’s also been doing well on state land in and around Malta, he also said Hindsdale/Valhalla faired better through the drought.
 
Everyone has different expectations, based on their life experiences. I have close friends with irrigated ground on Rock creek, just north of the Milk, all private, I take my pups there to work them a bit, there is a few birds, not a lot by my expectations. Bright side, I have a friend near central Montana, he has planted 32 miles of hedge rows on one piece of ground he has, invited me up to bring dogs, says it is loaded with huns and sharptails, so all it not loss. Thanksgiving weekend was also very good, filled my gen. elk tag with a spike, and took 2 does along with it, so pretty productive weekend.
 
P
Skinwalker said:
Thanks for confirming my decision. I have done a lot of scouting, but it is in SD. I will happy to let anyone know what area I hunted in. It was around Pierre. Great state parks set up for visitors, outstanding public hunting areas, and no double secrete BS about hunting birds. I have fished the Bighorn for 30 years and I always wondered why the locals only hunted in SD. There are pheasant in Montana but mostly on private land. The locals on the Bighorn did not even think it was worth the trouble to try locally. This forum is for sharing information among bird hunters not whipping it out to show how cool you are.
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here is my opinion on the big horn River.There are birds on those ranches, but not lots.Some have good numbers, but impossible to get on.Wealthy, out of state idiots own those ranches.
 
Came back home Monday from hosting service member cow elk hunt, drove from Big Timber to just west of Glasgow, saw a couple birds in Lewistown area along road, saw 7 roosters all together along highway 2 , most roosters I have seen together all fall......sad. More optimistic note, we were able to fill all 6 cow tags we had. Plus 3 of the guys decided to take a turkey, great few days hunting with them, very sincere and grateful gentleman, but the honor was all ours to host them.
 
Congrats to those guys.The high line is spotty.Scouting is important, and having a few free , private farms helps.
 
I went to Montana for the first time this year. And my personal opinion is that it is a magical place with all kinds of game on it. We were there early so I actually had 2 full days to scout and bs with people. We hunted private land 70% of the time. Pheasants were good on the private land but the public land held more of a mixed bag so the last day I hunted almost all public. I would say the key to my success was the over-scouting. I would never drive around and scout for 2 days and waste an extra 75 bucks in gas, but what else was I gonna do...The places that the other guys have been before and had success on, were not so successful. So we would go to a patch where we saw some birds the day before driving and looking at cover. And we stayed in birds most of the day after that. When we found em, we found em. If I had gone without scouting and just hunted where the rancher said he saw the most, or where the guys that had been there before said they saw the most, or the locals told us to go, we would not have had near as much success. I've hunted in a few different states, and the one piece of advice I can give is, just because birds have been there in the past don't mean they are there now, but they are probably still close by in suitable cover for the current conditions. Gotta change up ur offense sometimes as a bird hunter.
 
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