Bird Dogs Afield host Paul Fuller is the gun dog columnist for Northwoods Sporting Journal. The Journal has granted permission to re-print Paul’s articles. Thank you Northwoods Sporting Journal.
Hunting Montana
“Go West Young Man” was a quote often heard early in the past century. The reference suggested that a person’s opportunity for success was greater in the growing Western United States. For the upland bird hunter, going west means birds-a-plenty. My wife, Susan, our two shorthairs and I left for Montana on September 11th in search of just that.
Our destination was Plentywood, Montana. Plentywood is in the Northeast corner of Montana; near the Saskatchewan and North Dakota border. The 40-hour drive was evenly divided into three days. Plentywood is a small hospitable town with just enough services to keep one happy; motel (Sherwood Inn), gas station, small grocery store, diner (Cousins) for breakfast and a small restaurant (Robin Hood Lounge) for evening meals. The friendly atmosphere toward outsiders makes for a pleasant stay.
The attraction, however, is the bird hunting; sharptail grouse and Hungarian partridge to be exact. The sharptail is more plentiful than the Hun. That’s fine with your writer because the sharptail holds better for the point. The Hun is slightly smaller than the sharptail and much faster. Both are covey birds and, early in season, have ten to fifteen birds in a covey.
Montana has an excellent walk-in hunting program called Block Management. Block Management is land in which the Montana Fish,Wildlife & Parks has entered into an agreement with ranchers for the public to hunt their private land. Thousands of acres are available for public hunting within a ½ hour drive of Plentywood. There is also state owned grass land. Block Management has very good hunting; however, after two or three weeks, the birds have been pushed hard. I would recommend to anyone making their first trip West to spend one hour per day searching out ranchers and asking permission to hunt posted land. If done so in a responsible manner, you’ll be surprised how many will say yes. In Plentywood, you can buy a Block Management map at the Hi-Line Sporting Goods store.
Depending upon the weather, here’s a typical day of sharptail and Hun hunting. Susan and I like to get out early so every other day we’ll skip breakfast and be at a field by 7:30 a.m. The birds are making their way from their roosting grounds to a feeding field such as a cut bean field or wheat stubble. We check the wind and try to come into the wind along the edge of the roosting field and feeding field. That technique will often move 30 to 40 birds in 30 minutes. If you’re a good shot, that method will often produce your limit of birds by 8:30 a.m. As bird dog folks know, there is nothing comparable to wild birds for training a young dog. And this is wild bird country!
We usually are finished for the morning by 10:30 a.m. If we haven’t had breakfast, we’ll go back to town and eat a late breakfast at Cousin’s. We’ll then visit with folks until about 3:00 p.m. and then return to the fields for the late afternoon feed. On a cool day, we’ll pack a lunch and hunt all day. During mid-day, the birds loaf on knolls where they can see when danger approaches.
Weather can change dramatically in the prairie. During our stay in Plentywood, we had a frost every night and the temperature never got into the 60s. However, one week after we left, day-time temperatures were in the mid-90s. When it’s really warm, most hunters only work their dogs two hours in the morning and then quit for the day.
Every upland hunter should have prairie birds on their bucket list. Your dogs will have more work on birds in one week than a full season of hunting ruffed grouse. Also, by hunting in September, you extend your season. Go West Young Man…or go at any age!
Paul Fuller is host of Bird Dogs Afield TV, which may be seen in the Greater Boston area on WBIN (Comcast Ch. 18) Fox 21 in Duluth, MN and Fox 23 in Portland beginning in November and running through December. Previous TV broadcast episodes, and dozens of training and hunting videos and Paul’s previous Sporting Journal columns may be seen or read on Paul’s website which is www.birddogsafield.com. Paul may be contacted at paul@birddogsafield.com.