It's starting to look like I'll be spending some quality time on a project up in almost-nowhere Montana starting in mid-August. There's also a good possibility that I'll need to drive up instead of flying (lots of COVID fears by the folks I work with and a serious lack of a convenient airport) so....I might get to drag along some bird hunting gear. I've searched online for a sense of what the opportunities for wing-shooting might be in that neck of the woods but nothing's popped up so-far. Does anybody here have any familiarity with the region?

Lloyd, Glasgow itself is not much to look forward to. There's an abandoned Air Force base and a lot of open space. However, the bird prospects are awesome.Pheasents open later than huns and sharptails.It's a great place, lots of public lands and farmer/ ranchers who don't seem to mind bird hunters. Just don't come expecting great restaraunts.

I have hunted the area quite a bit.

River bottoms hold pheasants, waterfowl, and Deer. The high country hold more sharpies and Huns. The block management program is the best public access in the West. You could do much worse for an area to spend some time in the fall.

That was great dog, all heart, still miss that one.

I'll be riding a drilling rig on that abandoned air force base Bill, so I appreciate the warning about the food options. I guess I'll either be bringing my GF victuals along or be eating very sparingly. Steve, I just started to figure out the block management program you've described. Very exciting! This is a part of the world that I've never had a reason to explore so... I'm looking forward to the experience. My only true fear is that it will possibly overlap with my bird hunting in Minnesota this Fall, but it's out of my hands anyway. I'll roll with it.

You only need one meal a day, the Breakfast Pizza at the Kum & Go will lay in the bottom of your belly all day. No problem with covid there as the coffee will kill anything.

The hunting is worth it.

My grandfather homesteaded 320 acres and taught school in nearby Opheim, Montana. We have retained the mineral rights (which probably amounts to nothing.) I've always wanted to take a hunting trip out there.

As others have mentioned, public access is there by the buckets. Bring your other fun guns and maybe your reloading fiddling, they have a good shooting range in town. I don’t know about the gas station food, but I actually have had some pizza at Eugene’s there, unfortunately that may be the highlight.

Eyes wide open about the off road conditions, the mud can be something else, and be ready for weather surprises, maybe have chains handy? With your crew, you will likely have help if you get in a bind, but you may learn the truth about cell coverages and cell gps optimism.

There is some world class fishing up there too at Peck, but that is big water. You will see some really good Muleys and Pronghorn out on the plains and nice Whitetails in the bottoms, run a decent grill guard if you can. You will probably be within a couple of hours of the upper Missouri River breaks, and go through that area on the way up. It is not always so easy winter traveling if you are planning driving visits back down to CO, or over to MN. Flying would probably be okay, as it’s easy to get to Denver through Billings. But, good luck if you had hopes of flying with any amount of gear.

I really enjoy the area, and I should try to get back up there now and then, but it is somewhat out of the way. Have fun.

craigd: Many thanks for all that! Would that I was up there for purely sporting purposes. Driving up there with a good double and some hunting gear will be the usual complication (keeping everything concealed and secure is always the challenge). Work generally involves 10 to 12-hour days, leaving little time (& energy) for much of anything else. My faint hope is that while in "down moments" (that aren't filled with laundry and other self-maintenance activities) I can look around a bit. Actually picking up the gun and walking around with it would be almost to good to hope for, but it is a carrot that I might just hold out for myself. What I'd do with anything I'd actually be able to bag would be the next challenge. Not insurmountable, but complicated none-the-less.

Bring a rod. If you get a couple hours before dark, a couple miles north up the road on the west side, there's some trout ponds, on a road called Trout Pond Rd. Bring some skeeter repellent. I lived on that base from 62-65 and learned to hunt and fish there.

Only a thought, but if you won't have a dog, see if you can hunt near work. You will almost certainly see an occasional pheasant that you can follow up at lunch time maybe? Like most places, by legal bird season, the days will be too short with those long hours you mention. There is a lot of elbow room up there, it may look relatively barren of game, but you may walk right past more than you might imagine. If you get one, maybe just breast it out in a minute or two and throw it in a frying pan?

Only a thought, but if your coworkers are not overly offended, you will probably see gophers around and near the site. Unless there is some restriction, none of the locals will think it is unusual for someone to have at it during a lunch break with a 22. If you happen to have something like you've showed in the past, there's bound to be a coyote pop up now and then. Neither need any license or have season restrictions. Don't mind me Lloyd, I just don't want you thinking to self isolate the whole time up there.

You should do some scouting for a handful or two of birdy looking cover, and drag your MN grouse buddy out west to beat some brush for a few days with his setter?

We used to hunt a bit in Porcupine creek, off the east end of the base. There's a road out the back. But I don't know if it's private or not.

craigd: That sounds so-much like the world I grew up in. Very nonchalant about hunting where and when you could in rural 1960s Pennsylvania. There will likely be security issues on the site so everything will have to be after hours and during downtime on weekends, hopefully.

It has been my experience that getting permission to hunt on private land will be very difficult, especially if you are deemed an outsider. The more people in the party the harder it will be.

If you want to PM me, I can give you a few suggestions.

Good luck.

Good to see you around Chuck.

Chuck H: Are these the trout ponds you mentioned earlier?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLnWtaAcaAI&t=9s (Caution, the backgound music isn't great)

YouTube can be a surprising resource for some pretty obscure places...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSQSByZ-nT0

Also, in meetings discussing the work, it was mentioned that Sovereign Citizens are regularly encountered up there. Easily identified by the lack of licence plates on their vehicles. They have been, evidently, very curious about the preliminary surveys already going on there. We were instructed to be cautious but open about the work we would be performing.

If you find water and you find crop you will find more pheasants then you can imagine. The biggest problem years ago was getting your limit of pheasants before your dog got in a good workout.

Hey Lloyd, I don't know about that infomercial, but that 'pond' looks pretty much like a prairie pothole. You'll see ducks on small water like that, keep an eye on the weather, any decent Canadian front will push them down. You may not run into too many traditional crop fields, but lots of hay/wheat fields. I bet you'd see pheasant around water like that. If it's legal season and a legal hunting area, that kid wouldn't care for a second if you walked by with a shotgun and waived hi. If it's not restricted, that's also the kind of area you can idle along in a truck and shoot gophers, though the grass is high now and it's a bit warm.

It's been dry, a little bit of a fire type season going on in much of MT, the critters will also seek out the water. It may not look it, but there was some moose in the area that're probably still around. Don't worry too much about any compound types, mostly just good ole boys that will keep to themselves, don't hoot and holler in the bars about how the Colorado women could kick their arses. You could consider not washing your vehicles, after a rain or two and some dusty wind, you can't read company logos and out of state lic. plates, folks will be small town curious.

The kids does pretty good considering he's using his spinning rig upside down.