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turkey hunting in southeast montana

I'm wanting to turkey hunt in Montana this spring and have been doing a little research on the Custer National Forest in Carter, Powder River and Rosebud counties. Wondering if there's a good population of birds to hunt and how bad the hunting pressure is. Not looking for exact locations but general starting points would be much appreciated. Or if someone knows a rancher or has family that lets people turkey hunt on his land, I'd even be willing to pay a reasonable trespass fee, there will be 4 of us coming out to hunt, me, my dad, my dads best friend, and my best friend, we will be hunting in groups of 2, not individually and will be using shotguns. Or if someone is looking for a new state to hunt, Indiana, my family owns a couple hundred acres of land, plus, me and my dad have special hunting permits that gives us access to thousands of acres of privately owned coal company land that surrounds my families land. I only have eastern wild turkeys and whitetail deer to offer you to hunt. We don't have big mature bucks hiding behind every tree like I see on t.v, and see some people advertise that they do, and I'm not guaranteeing that you'll kill one, but I can guarantee that we have the land and more than enough mature deer and turkey to hunt. Thanks

Those are some big bodied whitetail and heavy racks.

Not to be a "jack-wagon", but SE Montana is pretty big country and there a quite a few turkeys. The turkeys are where you find them . . . . . . Some time you see them near a road and get out a shoot one . . . . . Other times you can hike your butt off and not see one. There is opportunity both north and south of Ashland. You will encounter other turkey hunters, so be prepared to have a plan A, B, and C. This area gets hunted, so the birds can be educated. They tend to have there roosting trees and then they pretty much wonder all day. They seem to gobble more in the AM and then shut-up as the sun get higher in the sky. So, if you can locate them in the "early morning" (some time in the dark, pre-sunrise), you can get yourself into the area when they fly down from roosting.

Good luck.

Thanks for the info, I should have been more specific. The areas of the Custer National Forest that I'm looking into is around ashland and further to the east around, ekalak, those are the 2 towns that we'd be staying in, but if we find a area to hunt that's a long drive away from either of those towns, that won't stop us from hunting it. Just looking for general starting points. I've hunted South Dakota and Kansas twice, and Nebraska and Oklahoma once, so I'm familiar with how they roam all day long and how they usually roost in the same area. Thanks again for the info.

I've never turkey hunted this area, but I have mule deer hunted this area several years ago. We'll see if someone else wil chime in.

Thanks

Full Strut. I have deer hunted the Long Pine, Ekalaka hills and Chalk Buttes - rarely seen or heard turkeys. Not sure why.

What I would do us pick up last years block management booklet and see which ranches in the area have turkeys listed. There us a LOT of block management land registered in the SE. I have seen them more often this way even though I don't hunt the ranches too often.

Good luck.

We had a awesome trip to Montana. We seen some beautiful country, all kinds of different wildlife, met some great people, experienced some good, but hard hunting the last 9 days of turkey season. We ended up killing 7 birds between the 4 of us. All were shotgun kills, 0 bow kills, but I still wanted to share my story and tell everyone thanks for the help and information.

Looks like you did well.

Was the cat stalking your turkey decoy?

What area did you end up hunting? Planning a trip out there this year! I am a female hunter and any help is appreciated. I’ve killed several merriams before in South Dakota. We are driving up from Mississippi

well done. Ill be in NW Mt for a day or so. Any turkey tips are helpful. Lots and lots of upland last fall and saw few T'Birds during that time!

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