Montana Deer · Hunting District 311

Montana Hunting District 311 covers 362,117 acres and lies 9 miles south of Three Forks and 20 miles west of Belgrade. 15% of it is public land, mostly state trust land (10%) and BLM (2%). In 2025, 1,633 people hunted deer here and took 948, a 58% success rate. Its most applied-for hunt, 311-01, put up 20 tags (all residencies) in the 2026 draw for 16 nonresident first-choice applicants, 8 of whom drew.

Tags, 2026
40

2 licenses · NR capped at 10%

Applicants
16

first choice, NR

Hunter Success
58%

2025, all deer

Public Land
15%

12% State

Size
566 mi²

362,117 acres

Three Forks Belgrade Whitehall 311
58%hunter success 2025 · 1,633 hunters, 948 deer

Boundaries are drawn for orientation only. The written boundary description in the regulations governs.

Best Bets at 0 Points

Ranked by your odds times how often that license type's hunters filled their tag in 2025. Nonresident, first choice, 2026 draw; licenses with at least 10 tags that anyone can buy.

Every License in Hunting District 311

90–100% 50–89% 10–49% 1–9% under 1% fewer than 5 tags: one applicant swings it
311-01 Standard 41% —
Landowner 100% —

First-choice nonresident odds at your points, 2026 draw. Cut = points the last tag went at; ▲ = points added since the earliest draw on file. Not in the table, with no 2026 result: 311-00, 311-02.

Draw results: Montana FWP 2026 Deer B License Drawing Statistics…, retrieved Aug 31, 2026.

If you draw (2026 nonresident fees): Standard $92.50 ($92.50 to apply) · Landowner $92.50 ($92.50 to apply). Open Mar 1 – Apr 1, 2027 (expected). Full fee breakdown.

Harvest

All deer

Year Hunters Deer Success
2025 1,633 948 58%
2024 — 1,087 —
2023 1,596 968 61%
2022 — 935 —

White-tailed Deer

Year Hunters Deer Success
2025 — 653 —
2024 — 692 —
2023 — 648 —
2022 — 629 —

Mule Deer

Year Hunters Deer Success
2025 — 295 —
2024 — 395 —
2023 — 320 —
2022 — 306 —

A dash under Hunters: hunter counts not published for that year or sub-species.

2025 split: nonresidents 69 from 97 hunters, residents 879 from 1,536 hunters

What Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks publishes after each season, for everyone who hunted the area: harvest statistics, not draw odds. Montana's figures blend mandatory reporting with a phone and mail survey. FWP does not publish district-level hunter counts for elk or antelope, so success rates are missing for those. Source: Montana FWP 2025 Deer Harvest Estimates; Montana FWP 2024 Deer Harvest Estimates; Montana FWP 2023 Deer Harvest Estimates.

The Ground

Private 308,596 ac 85%
State trust land 36,791 ac 10%
BLM 8,364 ac 2%
State land 6,916 ac 2%
County or city land 507 ac <1%
Bureau of Reclamation 0 ac <1%
Department of Defense 0 ac <1%
National Park Service 0 ac <1%
National Forest 0 ac <1%
National Wildlife Refuge 0 ac <1%
Tribal 0 ac <1%
Other public 0 ac <1%

Source: Montana FWP 2026-2027 Deer Elk Lion Hunting District….

What the Agency Says About the Area

Elk Management Unit: Lower Madison

Source: Montana FWP 2026 Deer and Elk Hunting Districts.

▸ Sources 11
  1. Montana FWP 2026 Deer B License Drawing Statistics… draw results, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  2. Montana Legislature 2026 MCA 87-2-113 Application fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  3. Montana Legislature 2026 MCA 87-2-116 Base hunting license… fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  4. Montana FWP 2026 Hunting Requirements fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  5. Montana FWP 2026 Nonresident License Fees, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  6. Montana FWP 2025 Deer Harvest Estimates harvest, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  7. Montana FWP 2024 Deer Harvest Estimates harvest, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  8. Montana FWP 2023 Deer Harvest Estimates harvest, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  9. Montana FWP 2022 Deer Harvest Estimates harvest, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  10. Montana FWP 2026 Deer and Elk Hunting Districts boundary, area description, retrieved Aug 31, 2026
  11. Montana FWP 2026-2027 Deer Elk Lion Hunting District… land ownership, retrieved Aug 31, 2026

About These Numbers

Odds are from the 2026 draw, the latest on file, computed from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' published results. They are what happened in that draw, not a forecast. Under five tags a percentage carries a *, because one applicant either way swings it. A dash means the agency did not publish the number, and a date marked expected is last cycle's schedule rolled forward. How we compute these.

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Every report is checked against the agency source before we change anything.

We don't take applications: check Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks's site and apply there.

Prior-draw odds from Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks' results, not a forecast · Methodology · All Montana deer hunts