Unit A450 (Hound Creek)

Montana Hunting Guide — Antelope

Unit A450 lies in Cascade and Meagher counties. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit pronghorn success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

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Antelope guide

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Antelope Hunting in Unit A450

Unit A450 lies in Cascade and Meagher counties. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit pronghorn success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit A450

Montana FWP draws an exact line around unit A450 and says nothing about where the pronghorn 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 Cascade and Meagher counties.

The lines of the unit: Smith River, Two Creek and Trout Creek

Montana FWP draws unit A450 in Cascade and Meagher counties with a boundary that runs on Smith River, Two Creek, Trout Creek and Black Canyon, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.

High ground inside the line: Shellrock Ridge, Adel Mountain and The Pinnacles

Named high points inside the unit include Shellrock Ridge at 7,844 feet, Adel Mountain at 7,091 feet, The Pinnacles at 6,629 feet, The Sawteeth at 6,503 feet and Black Mountain at 5,963 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.

Holding ground: Mowing Machine Coulee, Herman Gulch and Spring Coulee

Below them sit Mowing Machine Coulee at 4,744 feet, Herman Gulch at 4,472 feet, Spring Coulee at 4,358 feet, Too-nah-hin Hollow at 4,341 feet and Mud Gulch at 4,070 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: 18N01E24B___01 Well, Mountain Spring and Castner Falls

Named sources include 18N01E24B___01 Well, Mountain Spring, Castner Falls, 18N01W35____02 Well and 18N01E13A___02 Well. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Unit A450 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Shellrock Ridge (7,844 ft), Adel Mountain (7,091 ft), The Pinnacles (6,629 ft), The Sawteeth (6,503 ft)

Holding ground: Tender Gulch (5,811 ft), Mowing Machine Coulee (4,744 ft), Chestnut Valley (3,342 ft), 18N01E24B___01 Well, Mountain Spring

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 Pronghorn in Unit A450

Montana FWP publishes no pronghorn success figure for unit A450 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

Glassing from Baldy, Eagle Rock and Turtle Butte

Take a position on one of Baldy (5,600 ft), Eagle Rock (4,412 ft), Turtle Butte (4,366 ft) and Rocky Reef (4,217 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Shellrock Ridge, Adel Mountain, The Pinnacles and The Sawteeth as places to see from, and Tender Gulch, Mowing Machine Coulee, Chestnut Valley and 18N01E24B___01 Well as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.

What we can't tell you

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it. We have no pronghorn success figure for this unit that survives checking against Montana FWP's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.

Montana rules that decide your day

Summarised from FWP regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Montana has no general off-road retrieval allowance; travel stays on open routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag and attach it to the carcass before moving the animal.

Leaving meat

Wasting game meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No discharging a firearm within 150 yards of an occupied dwelling without permission, and no shooting from or across a public road.

Antelope: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Antelope Success Rates

Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no pronghorn row for unit A450 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.

Antelope Draw Odds

Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit A450?

Unit A450 lies in Cascade and Meagher counties. Montana FWP draws unit A450 with a boundary that runs on Smith River, Two Creek, Trout Creek and Black Canyon, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit A450?

Montana FWP publishes no pronghorn success figure we can tie to unit A450 on its own — the 2023 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check Montana FWP's current harvest estimates before you apply.

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Sources & Verification

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 — antelope hunting districts (pp. 5-9) — 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