Medicine Lake and Potholes around Plentywood

[Levajo]

Hey guys I have a brother who is into duck hunting and upland hunting. He is wanting to come out and do some hunting with me next year and he will be driving in from IL while I live in Bozeman. Him and I have both had outstanding hunts in ND for pheasant and duck but we are wanting to switch things up and try Montana this next season. I have been focusing my time on big game since I moved and am not real familiar with where the larger numbers of birds are through out the state. I have been looking on onX at the Medicine lake wildlife refuge and the potholes north of it. We love to run and gun and enjoy shooting divers as well. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[onpoint]

I have a bird hunting buddy who lives real near there.
He's really really really fond of the internet...............

 

[The Hedgehog]

I grew up there. If bird hunting is your thing - it’s probably not too bad. The refuge gets pounded but it’s still good. Used to be spectacular for whitetail hunting. I grew up on the south border of the refuge. The big bmas are good to walk if you’ve got a dog. There’s a bit of cactus though.

Pretty sure I’ve shot my rooster limit a dozen time in pajamas or a bath robe. It kinda ruined me.

 

[phutch30]

Waterfowl- Opening day theres a lot of shooting then If you time it right it and hit the first big push south can be phenomenal....miss the main slug of migrators and bird numbers drop fast. Specks/snows come then canadas and ducks...sometime at the same time sometimes a couple weeks apart

 

[Irrelevant]

I been over there a couple times to stay in the metropolis of Froid. There's a couple birds. I believe the saturday before pheasant opens the Firehall does an big prime rib feed. Usually a pretty good time.

 

[406LIFE]

Put in for Swan for Freezeout Lake. That is a waterfowl bucket list.

 

[Hunting Wife]

Upland bird numbers aren’t even close to what they were a few years ago. Some of those big BMAs that used to have fantastic CRP have broken it all. That has put a lot of pressure on the refuge, and it gets pounded. Birds are patchy- you have to find little out-of-the-way places that don’t get hunted 4 times a day. Expect to put on a lot of miles to find birds.

Waterfowl can be phenomenal if you time it right. Migration is different every year. When it’s dry (like the last couple of years), most of the potholes you see on the imagery are dry and the birds slide east. You can sit in Westby on a big migration day and watch them flying high to North Dakota. You can catch the local nesters opening weekend, then it gets slow until right before it freezes. Our best hunts have been the day or two before the lake freezes over.

Honestly, if you traveled even slightly east into ND, you’ll see a lot more of both.

 

[Irrelevant]

That disappointing to hear HW, I haven't been back there in almost a decade, but my best bird hunting memories are from that area. It seemed like there were so many birds they'd form clouds at the ends of a good drive.

 

[300stw]

very short window for good to great waterfowl hunting,,,, many people scouting morning and night, lots of competition for fields when the birds do land,

couple paid full time scouters around also, some phd types around trying to throw money at potholes(landowners} that hold birds,,,, pretty rude in the field,

north Dakota has better habitat better concentrations of birds,,, reservation around frazer has thousands of birds last couple weeks, don't know if you can waterfowl hunt on reservation,,,,

you gotta burn lot of calories this year to find phesants reliably, 1 here 2 there type of deal, I run 4-5 wirehairs, they are all worn out by the time we get a limit or 2 of birds

crane permit and a swan permit can get a neat hunt around there,,,, but its all about timing,,,,