Good Places to Turkey Hunt in Montana? Don’t Ask a Local, They Ain’t Tellin’
An innocent question from a newbie prompts pretty hilarious responses from Montana locals. Giving up good locations for hunting isn't something people do around here.
The "Secret Bozeman" Facebook page is a gold mine of helpful information about a wide variety of topics, big and small. But once in a while, a question will be asked that prompts the snark in real locals. (Generally pretty innocent, nothing too nasty.)
I'd argue that the page is one of the most engaging 'local' Facebook pages since more often than not, the responses are genuinely helpful. Tweak the question a bit, and you're in for some funny answers.
Recently, a poster asked an innocent question: "Recommendations for where to Turkey hunt around the area? Places that are accessible, please. — looking for recommendations."
The responses were gold (and some were actually helpful!):
- "Not a good idea to ask hunters for their secret spots. Your out-of-State is showing. Just FYI North Central Montana has some great turkey hunting."
- "Right next to my huckleberry spot."
- "Daniel’s meats."
- "No one will give up their spots. Notellum creek. What I recommend is researching the environment turkeys prefer, then finding a public land parcel that fits their preferred grounds, and go there."
- "The people who have spots to hunt have put in the work and made the connections to find them."
- "Pm me. I’ll let you in on my mushroom and huckleberry spots too." (my personal favorite response)
- "Step 1: Stop asking people to just give you places to go. You have to put in the work. If you’re not willing to then don’t hunt.
Step 2: Scout. Drive. Spend the gas money and hours like the rest of us.
Step 3: Go on the public land you find birds on or ask for permission if it’s private land.
Step 4: Hunt."
And then there was one, very extensive and very helpful response. Somehow it's reassuring to see there's always going to at least one Montanan in the group who is willing to help :-)
You can hunt turkeys on any public land in Gallatin County with a general state-wide tag. We don't have a lot of turkeys on public land in Gallatin County but I have seen a few on forest lands.
The benefit of spring turkey hunting is that turkeys gobble as this is their mating season. It doesn't take long to stop at a few spots, give a call and listen for a response. They are fairly easy to locate.
You can buy a Forest Service map for the Custer Gallatin Forest from REI that shows all public lands, you can use the All Trails App, the Onxmaps App, even the Montana Cadastral website shades public land on their online maps.
The other thing to note is that Block Management Lands that are the walk-in lands on private land are not in effect during the spring. They are only available during mid August through the fall. Good luck!