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Units / Montana / District 442

Same number, different ground: Goat district 442

Unit research · Montana District 442

District 442 — Montana

100% public across 190,844 ac. Real backcountry here — 72% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. Almost none of the public land is landlocked.

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District 442Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
4,380–9,320 ft

elevation range

100%

public land

72%

of public >1 mi from a road

4 ac

landlocked public

0.43

road miles per mi²

123 mi

maintained trails

Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →

Tags & season

Draw hunts on this ground.

One limited-entry elk hunt is drawn on District 442: apply in the Montana draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Elk tag · 1 draw hunt (2026)$9.00 resident · $9.00 nonresident
Plus: Conservation license$8.00 resident · $10.00 nonresident

Season dates: see Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks's regulations

2026 Deer/Elk/Antelope regulations (FWP PDF)

Montana elk draw calendar

  • Sep 30, 2026point window closes

Fees and draw dates from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, 2026, verified 2026-08-05 — past its verify-by date, confirm with the agency. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a district that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: FWP license fees for 2026 (fee schedule PDF) · 2026 Deer/Elk/Antelope regulations (FWP PDF) · 2026 Moose/Sheep/Goat/Bison regulations (FWP PDF) · FWP application & drawing dates · MCA 87-2-505 (B-10 combination, $1,312 eff. 2026-03-01).

Land & access

USFS 99%BLM 1%SFW 1%□ Private 0%
Unit area190,844 ac
Public land189,954 ac (100%)
Landlocked public4 ac (0.0%)
Elk draw pressure0.084 tags/mi² public (0.084 of total area)
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)129 mi
Maintained trails123 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road137,242 ac (72% of public)
Road density0.43 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 188k ac · BLM 2k ac · SFW 1k ac
Elevation4,380–9,320 ft
Median elevation6,420 ft
Median slope22°

Where the ground sits

4,380 ft9,320 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 17%
E 29%
S 16%
W 38%

Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing

North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.

USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →

Unit intelligence report

39,809 ac of this district has burned — 21% of the unit. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.

Open the report →

Season conditions — measured, not vibes

Historical temperatures · 2000–2025

Monthly normal highs and lows, °F35° high18° lowJFMAMJJASOND

Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month

Measured at GREAT FALLS INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT, 111 km from the unit’s center and ~2,800 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

44 harvested

no district-level hunter estimate published

38 bulls · 7 cows · 0 calves

Elk harvest · 2004–2025 · 135 → 44

Deer · 2025 · success = harvest ÷ hunters

22.9% success

94 taken by 410 hunters · 2,463 days afield

55 bucks · 39 does · 0 fawns

NR 29% · Res 22% success

Deer hunter success · 2004–2025 · 45% → 23%

FWP survey estimates per hunting district, split resident and nonresident. These are estimates from FWP's hunter survey rather than registration counts — its own column legend reads "Estimate of…" — and that holds even for the limited-permit species, so they are not the same quantity as a state that counts checked animals. Bighorn sheep, moose and mountain goat are numbered in their own district systems, separate from the deer and elk districts and using the same numbers for different ground, so each is shown on its own geography. FWP publishes per-district hunter and effort estimates for deer, sheep, moose and goat; elk and antelope pages show harvest and composition without a district-level success rate, because inventing one from statewide effort would be wrong at this grain. Success rates are derived as harvest ÷ hunters from FWP's own published columns wherever both are given. Source: FWP Harvest Estimates search (myfwp.mt.gov) · FWP Harvest Estimates CSV export (sheep, moose and goat).

How these numbers are made

public_land_pct = public_area / unit_area
landlocked = public ∖ reachable(roads, corners)
remote = public ∖ buffer(roads, 1 mi)

Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.

Nearby districts

District 45029% public · 21% remoteDistrict 42539% public · 4% remoteDistrict 42498% public · 49% remoteDistrict 150100% public · 100% remoteDistrict 44140% public · 59% remoteDistrict 42245% public · 70% remote

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What happens nextSep 30Elk point window closes · details →
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