Ken Barrett's Fast Facts
For The TRCP's Life in the OpenMontana Block Management Pronghorn Location: Miles City, Montana - Miles City is located on Interstate 90 and is a good jumping off point for antelope hunting in Montana. The closest airport of any consequence is in Billings, approximately a two hour drive from Miles City.
Access: I hunted a large 50,000 plus acres ranch, enrolled in Montana’s Block Management Program, which allows free limited public access to private lands (see www.fwp.state.mt.us ) located about 50 miles north of Miles City. There are many such ranches in the area along with extensive public BLM land open to hunters. See www.blm.gov where you can find maps and other information about these lands. If you plan ahead and communicate with FWP you’ll be able to line-up a couple of properties to hunt. Call FWP as soon after August 15th as possible to get info about Block Management and reserve a place to hunt. Best time to go: Rifle season for pronghorns usually open the first Sunday of October and runs for four weeks. Go for opening day or wait and hunt the week before the general deer and elk season open, which usually opens the third Sunday in October, Check details at www.fwp.state.mt.us License Availability: Residents have virtually a 100% chance of drawing a tag in Area 700, which covers much of the eastern part of Montana. Non-residents chances are better than 1 in 3. The cost of a non-resident tag is $203 and applications are due by June 1. See www.fwp.state.us.us for details. Recommended equipment: Any good flat shooting rifle from a .243 on up is a good choice. Bring your best and most comfortable boots; you’ll do plenty of walking. Good binoculars are a must and a GPS and/or a compass and maps are a very good idea. This is big country and it’s deceptively easy to get turned around in it. A range finder is a good item to have as well. Antelope are small animals found in vast open country and judging the distance for a shot is always a challenge. Bring a day pack to carry water and food and to shed clothes as the day warms up. Cost: Besides the license and getting there this is a very affordable hunt. I often camp out on BLM land or else stay in a local motel, where rates per night vary from as low as $30 to as high as $70. Food and drink out in this neck of the woods is pretty basic. If you don’t camp and do your own cooking, plan to eat steaks and/or chicken for dinner in the local cafés and restaurants. As for wine lists, outside of Miles City it will probably be limited to “red” or “white,” and many times the red will arrive at your table amply chilled! Best to stick with beer. On the other hand breakfasts in Montana cafes are good and ample. Fuel up in the morning, you’ll walk it off. Tips & Commentary: No serious rifle hunter should miss the opportunity to hunt pronghorns; they are our only easily available plains game. Get comfortable with shots out to 300 yards and be prepared to fall under the spell of the big lonesome, with its seemly endless horizons. Here’s a hunt which any serious do-it-yourself hunter can undertake and pull-off successfully, with some planning. If you haven’t guessed it, I just love being out on the endless prairies and grassland hunting pronghorns and once you try it, you’ll love it too! Special thanks go to: South Dakota Prairie Chickens Location: Pierre, South Dakota - Just south of the capital of South Dakota is the Ft. Pierre National Grasslands, home to prairie chickens, sharptail grouse and the ever present pheasant. There’s over 100,000 acres of grass in this complex.
Access: The Ft. Pierre National Grasslands, under the management of the US Forest Service, is open to the public. In addition there are a number of private properties bordering or adjacent to the Grassland’s that are enrolled in South Dakota’s “Walk-in Program.” See www.sdgfp.info Note: There’s a million acres enrolled statewide in the program. It’s just a short drive from downtown Pierre to numerous access points to the Grasslands and Walk-In areas. Stop at the ranger station, just across the Missouri River on you left as you leave the city to get a map. Best time to go: Mid to late September and through October are the best times to go, but be forewarned the weather can be downright hot early on (http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/cities/sd_pierre.html) . Be careful with your dogs and carry lots of water. Licenses: Non-resident upland licenses are $100 and they are good for two 5 day periods. Some people, like me, use one period for pre-pheasants, while saving the other for hunting the raucous red dragons of late October and November. Should you be so lucky as to get more than two trips, you can buy an additional license. See www.sdgfp.info/licenses.htm for additional information. Recommended Equipment: Early in the season a twenty or twenty-eight gauge is adequate because the birds usually hold tight, but as the season progresses the birds tend to get up a bit further out, add some prairie wind and your twenty might be a tad light, I’d go with a sixteen or even a twelve gauge. Size 6 shot is the best all round, especially later on when pheasants might be part of your bag. Bring a comfortable vest, capable of carrying water for both you and the dog. And good boots are a must; the key to finding prairie chickens is walking: the more ground you cover the better your chances at finding birds! Cost: I drove the ten hours from my home in Montana and stayed at a local motel and ate at local restaurants and café’s. You can fly into Pierre (www.pierreairport.com), the most isolated state capital in the country, and rent a rig there. Once on the ground with license in had, you’d be hard pressed to spend much more than a $150 a day unless you buy a new gun or run up a big liquor bill at LaMinestra, the best, and as far as I’m concerned, the only place to eat dinner in town (http://www.laminestra.com/). I love this place: great tap beer, good sized drinks and wonderful food. At the end of a day where you may have walked ten miles or more, you’re going to love it too! Tips & Commentary: If your idea of great bird hunting is going to South Dakota to whack and stack roosters, this may not be a hunt for you. If on the other hand you are willing to walk all day for a shot or two and want to experience hunting one of our great native game birds in a spectacular setting, and one reminiscent of a time and place gone by, then hurry yourself to the Grassland of South Dakota. There’s a three bird limit, which is extravagant given the fact that these wonderful birds have been extirpated from much of their former range. In case you hadn’t already picked-up on it, I truly love our native grouse. And the prairie chicken, with its yellow feet, may be my favorite. To hunt them is a religious experience, for me. I’d trade fifty roosters for one exquisitely mature male prairie chicken, decked out in his full feathered regalia. Hunting chickens in SD is like turning back time. The best hunter/guide in South Dakota is Wicker Bill, call him at 605-224-0681 or 605-222-9957 and book him for a day or two, you’ll make a friend for life. Special thanks go to: |