Unit 417 (Armells Creek)
Montana Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 417 lies in Fergus County and covers about 858 square miles. Ground runs from 2,729 to 3,967 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 417
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit 417 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 417
Unit 417 lies in Fergus County and covers about 858 square miles. Ground runs from 2,729 to 3,967 feet. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 417
Montana FWP draws an exact line around unit 417 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Fergus County. It runs to about 858 square miles.
What bounds unit 417
Montana FWP draws unit 417 in Fergus County with a boundary that runs on US Highway 191 and Route 236, and on Missouri River, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.
High ground inside the line: Sheepherder Peak, Coal Hill and Bald Butte
Named high points inside the unit include Sheepherder Peak at 3,942 feet, Coal Hill at 3,459 feet, Bald Butte at 3,451 feet, Sullivan Ridge at 3,450 feet and Bloomfield Butte at 3,421 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.
Holding ground: Dexter Coulee, Deadman Coulee and Antelope Coulee
Below them sit Dexter Coulee at 2,922 feet, Deadman Coulee at 2,824 feet, Antelope Coulee at 2,722 feet, Thompson Coulee at 2,628 feet and Sawmill Coulee at 2,575 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.
Water in this unit
The water inside the unit line comes to 46 mapped stream reaches, 19 lakes, 507 stock tanks and 7 springs. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.
Reading the land status
Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 77%, BLM 15% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. The unit runs from 2,729 feet to 3,967 feet, averaging 3,258 — not much relief, so the animals move laterally rather than up and down.
Unit 417 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 2,729–3,967 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,258 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 858.1 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
Who owns the ground
- BLM — 15%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 77%
Roughly 23% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 507 tanks
- 7 springs
- 46 stream segments
- 19 lakes
Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.
Named features inside the unit
Glass from: Coal Hill (3,459 ft), Cutbank Ridge (3,387 ft), White Horse Butte (3,241 ft), Reppe Butte (3,233 ft)
Holding ground: Burnshed Coulee (3,139 ft), Dexter Coulee (2,922 ft), Deadman Coulee (2,824 ft)
Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.
How to Hunt Elk in Unit 417
Elk Success Rates
Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no elk row for unit 417 that we can read back to this unit on its own. Where the agency reports a unit inside a grouping, or prints a table our parser cannot resolve to a single column, we leave the number out rather than publish a statewide average as though it had been measured here. Montana FWP's current harvest estimates are the place to check before you apply.
Elk Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rifle — B License either sex (resident) | 47 | 159 | 29.6% | — |
| Rifle — B License either sex (nonresident) | 2 | 9 | 22.2% | — |
Data from 2025 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.
Open in Draw Odds EngineMontana FWP's draw recap has no elk record we can tie to unit 417. That usually means the licence is sold over the counter, is issued under a hunt code covering several units, or was not offered in the years we hold. Rather than estimate a point requirement, we leave it blank — check Montana FWP's own draw recap for the hunt code you mean to apply for.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Colorado unit 417?
What is the elk success rate in unit 417?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 417 hunt?
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Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- Montana FWP Hunting District Legal Descriptions, 2026/2027 — deer-elk hunting districts (pp. 19-35) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: GMU boundary description, Counties the unit lies in · accessed 2026-10-24
- FWP hunting district feature services — deer/elk, antelope, moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat districts (2026 and 2027 seasons) — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks · supports: Mapped extent of the unit, Which named ground falls inside the unit line · accessed 2026-10-24