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Units / Montana / District 525

Unit research · Montana District 525

District 525 — Montana

64% public across 1,044,365 ac. Real backcountry here — 65% 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 525Full map — ownership, roads, wind →
3,820–12,610 ft

elevation range

64%

public land

65%

of public >1 mi from a road

3,612 ac

landlocked public

0.79

road miles per mi²

327 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 deer hunt is drawn on District 525: apply in the Montana draw, by the agency's deadline below.

Deer tag · 1 draw hunt (2026)$5.00 resident · $5.00 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 deer 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 60%UNK 2%BLM 1%□ Private 36%
Unit area1,044,365 ac
Public land667,289 ac (64%)
Landlocked public3,612 ac (0.5%)
Deer draw pressure0.048 tags/mi² public (0.031 of total area)
Walk-in access3,820 ac
Motorized routes (MVUM + roads)1,286 mi
Maintained trails327 mi

Backcountry

Public land >1 mi from a road435,785 ac (65% of public)
Road density0.79 mi/mi²
Managed byUSFS 628k ac · UNK 26k ac · BLM 12k ac
Elevation3,820–12,610 ft
Median elevation6,580 ft
Median slope15°

Where the ground sits

3,820 ft12,610 ft

Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band

Slope mix

Which way the slopes face

N 32%
E 28%
S 21%
W 20%

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

201,740 ac of this district has burned — 19% 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, °F36° high20° lowJFMAMJJASOND

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

Measured at MISSION FIELD AIRPORT, 54 km from the unit’s center and ~1,900 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.

Harvest — agency survey estimates

Elk · 2025

421 harvested

no district-level hunter estimate published

223 bulls · 198 cows · 0 calves

Elk harvest · 2022–2025 · 489 → 421

Deer · 2025 · success = harvest ÷ hunters

51.3% success

1,198 taken by 2,334 hunters · 13,051 days afield

822 bucks · 372 does · 4 fawns

NR 57% · Res 50% success

Deer hunter success · 2023–2025 · 48% → 51%

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 56599% public · 74% remoteDistrict 31698% public · 89% remoteDistrict 5754% public · 4% remoteDistrict 31767% public · 64% remoteDistrict 31386% public · 60% remoteDistrict 5157% public · 17% remote

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What happens nextSep 30Deer point window closes · details →
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