Unit M126 (CC Divide)

Montana Hunting Guide — Moose

Unit M126 lies in Sanders and Mineral counties. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit Shiras moose success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Montana Hunting Guide

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit M126 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.

Moose guide

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Moose Hunting in Unit M126

Unit M126 lies in Sanders and Mineral counties. Montana FWP publishes no per-unit Shiras moose success figure we can verify for this unit. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit M126

Montana FWP draws an exact line around unit M126 and says nothing about where the Shiras moose 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 Sanders and Mineral counties.

The lines of the unit: Clark Fork River, Prospect Creek and Cherry Creek

Montana FWP draws unit M126 in Sanders and Mineral counties with a boundary that runs on Highway 471 and Interstate 90, and on Clark Fork River, Prospect Creek, Cherry Creek and Thompson Pass, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Cherry Peak, Coeur d'Alene Mountains and Penrose Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Cherry Peak at 7,350 feet, Coeur d'Alene Mountains at 7,338 feet, Penrose Peak at 7,214 feet, Eddy Mountain at 6,947 feet and Patricks Knob at 6,819 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose need standing water and willow, so on dry country they are tied to the few drainages that hold both.

Holding ground: Joan Creek Pass, Shamrock Gulch and Buzzard Gulch

Below them sit Joan Creek Pass at 4,581 feet, Shamrock Gulch at 3,766 feet, Buzzard Gulch at 3,536 feet, Gold Rush Gulch at 3,497 feet and Cruzane Gulch at 3,358 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Mass Spring

Named sources include Mass Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Unit M126 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Cherry Peak (7,350 ft), Penrose Peak (7,214 ft), Eddy Mountain (6,947 ft), Patricks Knob (6,819 ft)

Holding ground: East Fork Pass (5,550 ft), Knox Pass (5,181 ft), Lookout Pass (4,693 ft), Mass 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 Shiras Moose in Unit M126

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure for unit M126 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

Glassing from Sunset Peak, Taft Summit and Glidden Ridge

Take a position on one of Sunset Peak (6,327 ft), Taft Summit (6,307 ft), Glidden Ridge (6,302 ft) and Cameron Peak (6,092 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

The way in: Highway 471 and Interstate 90

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones Montana FWP draws the boundary with: Highway 471 and Interstate 90. Those are its edges, not its interior — useful because they are where you leave the pavement, and useless for telling you what the inside is like. Pick the edge nearest the country you mean to hunt and work in from it on foot, rather than driving the perimeter looking for a way through.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Cherry Peak, Penrose Peak, Eddy Mountain and Patricks Knob as places to see from, and East Fork Pass, Knox Pass, Lookout Pass and Mass Spring 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 Shiras moose 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.

Moose: where to put the shot

Broadside, behind the shoulder and a third up. Moose look slow to react — the first shot has to count.

Shots to refuse

Where it falls decides your next two days. Avoid shots that drop a moose in water or a bog.
A .30-06 class cartridge minimum, with a bullet built for heavy bone.

Plan the carry: roughly 350– 500 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — four or more large coolers, or a processor. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Moose Success Rates

Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no Shiras moose row for unit M126 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.

Moose Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Rifle — General either sex (resident)	1	73	1.4%	—

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 Engine

Montana FWP's draw recap has no Shiras moose record we can tie to unit M126. 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

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

Lewis and Clark National Forest campgrounds along the Rocky Mountain Front (Sun Canyon, Benchmark area). Dispersed camping on forest roads. Backcountry camping unrestricted on forest land.

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Water

Good. Sun River, Teton River, and tributary creeks run reliably through the season. Filter or treat.

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Road Conditions

Paved access on US-89 and MT-287. Forest roads into Sun Canyon, Benchmark, and surrounding drainages are gravel — maintained but rough after rain. 4WD recommended.

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Terrain Difficulty

Moderate to strenuous. Willow-bottom travel is slow and brushy; elevation gains into bedding timber run 1,000–2,500 feet. Less technical than sheep country but still demanding.

Note: Grizzly bears are present along the Front — carry bear spray, store food and meat properly, and plan pack-outs with paired-up hunters. Weather on the Front turns fast; pack for snow even on early-season trips.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit M126?

Unit M126 lies in Sanders and Mineral counties. Montana FWP draws unit M126 with a boundary that runs on Highway 471 and Interstate 90, and on Clark Fork River, Prospect Creek, Cherry Creek and Thompson Pass, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit M126?

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit M126 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 — moose hunting districts (pp. 36-42) — 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