Montana is a great state with vast Hunting resources. Many of which people don’t know about and when they call saying they are looking for a Hunting Ranch for sale the questions begin to help them discover what kind of hunting ranch for sale might fit their needs. This article discusses the 6 most common types of hunting ranch for sale and especially as it pertains to Montana.
First of all, there are exceptions to everything I will be writing about and many of these 6 types will have crossovers that a hunting ranch might possess two or three of these six types. That being said here is how I would break down the six types of hunting ranches for sale.
#1 Type is big game and this type actually has two subcategories so it will be 1A and 1B and will count as two! Big game constitutes a number of animals but here in Montana we normally would call that Elk, Mule Deer, Moose and Bighorns. Elk and muleys go together like peas and carrots so that would be your 1A. These two animals are found in similar country or terrain a lot of the time. The high timbered country that can be rough and challenging to hunt. 1B is moose and bighorns. Not because they are found in the same country but more because I would call them more fringe hunts. Licenses or draws on getting a tag for these animals is very difficult to acquire. More like once in a lifetime hunts. Once you acquire the tag, hunters can become very possessed spending every available minute hunting. This is because they know they won the lottery of draws and are very unlikely to ever be drawn again.
Whitetail are big game but aren’t treated like it in Montana. A lot of people in Montana view Whitetails as pests. Hunting ranches for sale with whitetails aren’t viewed as the quintessential Montana hunting ranch for sale. I put them in their own category because they are big game but the territory they live in usually doesn’t include any of the other big game species. Whitetails live in riparian areas. For those that don’t know what riparian means we are talking about creek or river beds. Many times you can see hundreds of whitetail coming out of the cover around the creeks and rivers and feeding in the fields.
The next type of hunting ranch for sale is upland bird land. Upland birds include pheasants, hungarian partridge(huns), grouse(sage, ruffed and sharptails) and turkey. Turkey and grouse found in the more treed forest areas are different than what most upland bird hunters are looking for in a hunting ranch for sale. Most people are looking for pheasant when they are talking about upland. Pheasant can be found in small grain crop fields, riparian areas along creeks and in wild grass fields with good cover that create seed crops. Most people don’t know this but Montana has very good pheasant hunting. Nothing is more enjoyable than chasing pheasants and being out in a field or along a creek with dogs while surrounded by mountains. Montana also surprises hunters with our turkey hunting. Montana has Merriam turkeys and actually has good areas full of birds on both public and private land.
The 5th type of hunting ranch for sale from a species viewpoint is Antelope. Antelope is kind of the red-headed grandchild of hunting animals. I think the reason for that is the terrain you hunt antelopes in is usually not as pretty as some of the other animals in this article. Antelopes are known for wide open country with few trees. Seldom to people purchase a hunting ranch for sale with the only purpose being hunting antelopes. Antelopes are a by-product of owning land for another reason.
The last type of hunting ranch for sale is waterfowl. Again, Montana will surprise you in this regard. Water and feed is what are important to draw waterfowl and Montana has an abundance of both. From small grain fields that draw hundreds of thousands of geese to the marsh areas and rivers that draw most species of ducks, Montana can be a great destination to hunt waterfowl.
I didn’t put into a category but Montana is also a great place for predator hunting. There are multiple species of predators that are very numerous and that seasons are held.
The best part of hunting in Montana is that you can combine a number of these types of hunting in one property. This means you can hunt pheasant or waterfowl in the morning and hunt elk or whitetail in the afternoon. That is what is special about Montana is the diversity, quality, and quantity of wildlife available to hunt.
If you are starting the journey of looking for a hunting ranch for sale I would encourage you to contact us for buyer representation. It costs you nothing but it does give you someone that is on your side and watching out for your interests. If you want more in-depth reading you might want to read Montana Ranches for Sale Real Estate Report 2017 or Buying Montana Ranch-13 Things to Ponder.
About Buzz
Buzz Tatom is a Partner at Venture West Ranches. He moved to Montana 6 years ago looking to retire. That lasted 6 months. Buzz still owns the 5T ranch in Texas and has extensive experience adding value to ranches. He has a BBA from Texas Tech and an MBA from SMU. When not mentoring students or being a part-time professor at MSU, Buzz and his wife, Kathy are involved in a number of business ventures.
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