Unit M292 (West Garnet)

Montana Hunting Guide — Moose

Unit M292 lies in Missoula, Granite and Powell 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

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit M292

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Montana Unit M292 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

Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.

Moose Hunting in Unit M292

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit M292

Montana FWP's material on unit M292 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its Shiras moose live. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Missoula, Granite and Powell counties.

What bounds unit M292

Montana FWP draws unit M292 in Missoula, Granite and Powell counties with a boundary that runs on State Route 200, State Route 141, US Highway 12 and Interstate 90, and on Nevada Creek Dam, 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: Old Baldy Mountain, Fourth of July Ridge and Devil Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Old Baldy Mountain at 7,503 feet, Fourth of July Ridge at 7,440 feet, Devil Mountain at 7,435 feet, Hoodoo Mountain at 7,210 feet and Little Baldy at 7,131 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: Sand Park, Deer Park and Bilk Gulch

Below them sit Sand Park at 6,058 feet, Deer Park at 6,054 feet, Bilk Gulch at 6,042 feet, Wild Horse Parks at 5,913 feet and Weasel Gulch at 5,671 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: Southern Cross Spring

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

Unit M292 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Old Baldy Mountain (7,503 ft), Fourth of July Ridge (7,440 ft), Hoodoo Mountain (7,210 ft), Windy Rock (7,101 ft)

Holding ground: Cottonwood Meadow (6,666 ft), Chamberlain Meadows (6,127 ft), Sand Park (6,058 ft), Southern Cross 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 M292

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure for unit M292 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 Mount Baldy, Granite Mountain and Chamberlain Mountain

Take a position on one of Mount Baldy (6,937 ft), Granite Mountain (6,892 ft), Chamberlain Mountain (6,847 ft) and Anderson Hill (6,835 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: State Route 200, State Route 141 and US Highway 12

We have no road inventory for this unit, so the only routes we can name are the ones Montana FWP draws the boundary with: State Route 200, State Route 141, US Highway 12 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 Old Baldy Mountain, Fourth of July Ridge, Hoodoo Mountain and Windy Rock as places to see from, and Cottonwood Meadow, Chamberlain Meadows, Sand Park and Southern Cross Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock moose tactics for HD 292-50

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Moose Success Rates

Montana FWP's 2023 harvest estimates carry no Shiras moose row for unit M292 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	135	0.7%	—
Rifle — General either sex (nonresident)	0	14	0.0%	—

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 M292. 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

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Moderate to strenuous. Willow bottoms and wet meadows require careful approach and recovery.

👥

Hunting Pressure

Low for moose specifically. General deer-elk hunters share access.

🌦️

Weather

Big Hole nights can turn sharply cold. Plan for early snow and temperature inversions.

📋

Permit Notes

All HD 292-50 licenses are issued through FWP's special drawing.

Note: Coordinate with FWP Region 3 biologists for current moose sighting and habitat notes before the season.

Pro Members Only

Unlock full logistics for HD 292-50

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Colorado unit M292?

Unit M292 lies in Missoula, Granite and Powell counties. Montana FWP draws unit M292 with a boundary that runs on State Route 200, State Route 141, US Highway 12 and Interstate 90, and on Nevada Creek Dam, walked corner by corner in its hunting district legal descriptions.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit M292?

Montana FWP publishes no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to unit M292 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.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Montana Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

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