I've been hunting Montana for about 25 years. It's not the kind of place where you generally find wide spread concentrations of birds. The birds are a few here, a couple there, and a handful over the ridge. It's a state that is highly dependent on good rainfall to create good pheasant hunting. While the irrigated crop area's along the major waterways are usually good, year after year, they are very limited in scope, and get hunted hard. Some of the best hunting is found in somewhat dry areas that don't have much in the way of irrigated croplands. Dry land wheat with area's of CRP are highly productive....WHEN THE RAIN FALL IS GOOD. When it's not--like this year--hunting can be tough. This year we found some area's that were obscure and off the beaten path. Never saw another pheasant hunter on opening day. We did OK...but not great. Saw more Sharptail's than Pheasants, but still got some roosters.
What happens is that over the years you learn the spots that hold pheasants and the spots that don't. Keep track of the productive area's and you will find that over time, you'll acquire quite a list of spots to hunt. They may be small and only take an hour or less to hunt. But they will hold birds. This is especially true for hunting after the opening week. The birds develop a routine. I know of one piece of public land that usually has a little grain. The birds will sit on a piece you can't hunt all day long--but then fly out to feed in the grain the last hour before dark as long as the weather is cold. Once you figure that out, it can be some really fast hunting with easy limits, a full month after the opening. But it takes time to find those spots. The good thing about Montana is that you usually don't see a lot of other hunters after the first week. So if you know a spot where you can find birds the 3rd week of the season, odds are you'll be able to return year after year and get a little bit of action in the same spot.
I have many memories of flushing and shooting roosters from the exact same brush pile on public land, later in the season, over the course of 20 years. Way back when it was with my Springer "Dutch". Then my Springer "Shadow". More recently it's been with my Lab "Annie". Since I lost her I haven't been back to that spot. But the memories remain and become sweeter with the years. It's what hunting should be all about.
In good years, you can just hit area's of CRP in prime rooster country and put up a decent number of birds. But you only get good years--when all the stars align--about 25 % of the time. The rest of the time is tougher. But if you want to make Montana a destination hunt every year, you'll find your spots and with time find some really good pheasant hunting. It's not like South Dakota in a normal year. But I've had really tough hunt's in SD because hunters were just everywhere. In SD you'll pull up to a WIA, and get your dog's ready as someone else is leaving. You hunt it for a couple hours, and get ready to leave when someone else pulls up waiting for you to go so they can start to hunt. It can be like that, just one big merry go round of pheasant hunters. All hoping to find a WIA that hasn't been hit for a couple days and will then have birds.
In Montana, the birds are much fewer, but so are the hunters. Even in a good year with decent pheasant numbers, wait a couple weeks after the opener and you can hunt an entire week and see few, if any bird hunters. You learn the spots and find a few birds. Most days you won't limit up. Some days you'll get skunked, but at times you'll have a limit in 20 minutes. Heck, I have in 5 minutes when I find the right spot, 3 weeks after the opening day. It's just a matter of spending the time to find the little honey holes.
Montana is a great spot for someone who wants to explore big wide open country. It has pheasant's, but not lot's of them unless it's a great year. Even then, only 20% of the state will have 90% of the pheasants. But if you like to hunt and have tons of room to roam by yourself with just you and your buddy, it can't be beat. Just keep your expectations moderate and you'll probably be satisfied.