I hunted the river bottom east of Harlowton exactly once, it was primarily whitetails, but there were a ton of them. I haven't been back since the mid-90s.
In all the years I spent hunting antelope over there, I never recall seeing a buck mule deer over 150 or so. There were some good whitetails, some of them out in the prairie country a long way from the river bottoms.
I Hunt goats in that area and like previously posted the numbers are down. Bad winters and diesease and fwp giving out extra doe tags during low numbers. This winter should help.
So I've been working in that area for the last two weeks. I've been putting about 100 mile a day there. I've seen like 6 small groups of antelope. Seems like I've seen a few more mule deer than normal so hopefully they are doing better but antelope seem to still be struggling
We drew the tag on our 3rd choice one year, limited access, lots of outfitter leased property, and very few lopes. we ended up going home empty handed out of 4 tags. unless you know someone that owns property there, I wouldn't waste your time applying for that one
I have hunted Antelope for 10 years or so west of Harlowtown. As well as Deer and Elk. This past year, Antelope numbers had been so low, that I decdied to not even apply for the area. Numbers have been low enough that I actually feel bad about shooting the antelope that are there. In 3 days in that area my Dad saw 3 antelope this past fall. I spent two more days Deer hunting, and in two days chasing Deer, I didn't see a single antelope on the 5500 acre property I was hunting. I probably won't apply there for a few more years while that population rebuilds.