Unit M230 (Lolo-Fish Creek)

Montana Hunting Guide — Moose

Unit M230 lies in Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli 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 M230 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 M230

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit M230

What Montana FWP publishes for unit M230 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose map. 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 Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli counties.

The lines of the unit: Carlton Lake, Carlton Creek and Quartz Creek-North Fork

Montana FWP draws unit M230 in Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli counties with a boundary that runs on Highway 93, USFS Trail 620, USFS Trail 176 and Interstate 90, and on Carlton Lake, Carlton Creek, Quartz Creek-North Fork and Fish Creek Divide, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Bitterroot Mountains, Lolo Peak and Lantern Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Bitterroot Mountains at 9,137 feet, Lolo Peak at 9,137 feet, Lantern Ridge at 8,041 feet, Crater Mountain at 7,659 feet and Straight Peak at 7,646 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.

Holding ground: Foley Basin, Irish Basin and Fletcher Gulch

Below them sit Foley Basin at 5,613 feet, Irish Basin at 5,480 feet, Fletcher Gulch at 4,628 feet, Sally Basin at 4,560 feet and Snowy Gulch at 4,457 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: Granite Springs, Martin Spring and Snowshoe Falls

Named sources include Granite Springs, Martin Spring and Snowshoe Falls. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Unit M230 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Bitterroot Mountains (9,137 ft), Crater Mountain (7,659 ft), Straight Peak (7,646 ft), Shale Mountain (7,558 ft)

Holding ground: Schley Saddle (6,801 ft), Chilcoot Pass (6,763 ft), Lost Park (5,918 ft), Granite Springs, Martin Spring

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

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How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit M230

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure for unit M230 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 Saint Patrick Peak, Heineman Ridge and Telephone Butte

Take a position on one of Saint Patrick Peak (7,117 ft), Heineman Ridge (7,117 ft), Telephone Butte (6,874 ft) and Deer Peak (6,705 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

The way in: Highway 93, USFS Trail 620 and USFS Trail 176

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 93, USFS Trail 620, USFS Trail 176 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. Check each of them on a current motor-vehicle-use map before you count on it, because a line on a boundary description is not a promise of public access.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bitterroot Mountains, Crater Mountain, Straight Peak and Shale Mountain as places to see from, and Schley Saddle, Chilcoot Pass, Lost Park and Granite Springs 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 M230 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)	4	617	0.6%	—

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 M230. 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

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit M230?

Unit M230 lies in Mineral, Missoula and Ravalli counties. Montana FWP draws unit M230 with a boundary that runs on Highway 93, USFS Trail 620, USFS Trail 176 and Interstate 90, and on Carlton Lake, Carlton Creek, Quartz Creek-North Fork and Fish Creek Divide, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit M230?

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit M230 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

Unit M230 (Lolo-Fish Creek)

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit M230

Moose Hunting in Unit M230

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit M230

The lines of the unit: Carlton Lake, Carlton Creek and Quartz Creek-North Fork

High ground inside the line: Bitterroot Mountains, Lolo Peak and Lantern Ridge

Holding ground: Foley Basin, Irish Basin and Fletcher Gulch

Water: Granite Springs, Martin Spring and Snowshoe Falls

Unit M230 terrain and land status

Named features inside the unit

How to Hunt Shiras Moose in Unit M230

Glassing from Saint Patrick Peak, Heineman Ridge and Telephone Butte

The way in: Highway 93, USFS Trail 620 and USFS Trail 176

A first plan from the pins on this page

What we can't tell you

Montana rules that decide your day

Legal shooting hours

Motorized retrieval

Tagging

Leaving meat

Where you may not shoot

Moose: where to put the shot

Shots to refuse

Moose Success Rates

Moose Draw Odds

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

Water

Road Conditions

Cell Service

Nearest Town

Frequently Asked Questions

Free Hunt Planning Tools

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Sources & Verification