Montana's Four Largest-Area Districts Reached Mule Deer Buck Harvest Top 10 All 22 Seasons

ISteady leaders

The four largest districts reached the top 10 in all 22 seasons

These rankings use the FWP district deer harvest estimates. District 704 led in 15 of the 22 seasons and finished no lower than second. District 705 placed first or second in 20 seasons and reached the top 3 in 21. District 703 finished no lower than sixth and reached the top 5 in 20 seasons. District 701 placed between fourth and ninth and reached the top 5 in 9 seasons, with none after Region 6 renumbered its districts in 2020.

Average bucks per season from 2022 to 2025 ranked 704, 705 and 703 in the top three places. Region 6 districts 640, 670 and 690 followed and 701 placed 7th. Region 6 renumbered its districts in 2020, which means 701's rank against those three since then is not a like-for-like comparison. District 701's own bucks dropped 30.0% between the 2016 to 2020 and 2021 to 2025 averages, near the 32.8% decline for all four combined.

IIGround and hunters

By bucks killed per square mile the four place 50th to 106th

Hunters looking for density, fewer nonresidents or a larger share of bucks in FWP's top point class need to look beyond totals. Of Montana's 138 numbered districts the four cover 18.5% of the area and produced 15.9% of the mule deer buck harvest in 2024 and 2025. Only 704 of the four topped the 24.8 bucks per 100 square miles for all numbered districts in those two seasons, averaging 29.9 (50th of 138). District 703 ran at 22.7 (74th), 705 at 22.2 (78th) and 701 at 13.2 (106th) bucks per 100 square miles. The densest districts averaging at least 200 bucks per season were small ones like 313, 335 and 392 at 95.5 to 105.8. These figures count bucks killed per square mile and tell us nothing about deer on the ground.

From 2021 to 2025 nonresidents took 75.0% of the mule deer buck harvest in 705 and 61.5% in 704. The split in 701 and 703 stayed close to even at 50.1% and 49.2%. Nonresidents took 56.3% of the buck harvest in Region 7's six districts combined, compared with 32.8% statewide.

IIIAntler point counts

District 703 led the four in its share of top-class bucks

FWP writes in its 2021 Mule Deer Adaptive Harvest Management plan that "Hunter harvest survey statistics record all points of an antler. Therefore, a buck with four points on one antler and a brow tine will be recorded as having five points in the hunter harvest survey statistics." A 2023 FWP Region 4 document on season setting also mentions "harvested bucks with 4 or more antler points per side". This count is per side on one antler and includes the brow tine. A three-point buck with eye guards falls in the 4 or More Points class.

By this count the two largest producers are close to the state average. From 2021 to 2025 the share in the 4 or more class ran 63.6% in 704 and 62.0% in 705, compared with 61.1% statewide. That share ran 72.4% in 703 and 67.6% in 701. Region 6 districts 640 and 690 had higher shares at 77.1% and 76.1%.

IVAfter the peak

The four's buck harvest dropped a third after 2016 to 2020

The four averaged 8,044 bucks per season from 2016 to 2020 and 5,404 from 2021 to 2025, down 32.8%. FWP's statewide mule deer buck estimate fell 18.0% from 41,452 to 34,006 bucks a season between those spans. The four hit their peak of 8,371 in 2016 and have run between 5,134 and 5,208 since 2022.

In the Montana section of the 2026 WAFWA report on black-tailed and mule deer Adam Kauth of FWP wrote that "Populations across the eastern two thirds of the state, in the prairie-breaks environments, have generally remained stable or decreased in response to drought and poor forage conditions." That section also says "Antlered mule deer harvest has been viewed as an index of population size and trend." These files cannot distinguish fewer deer from fewer hunters or lower hunter success. Our statewide Montana paper tracks total mule deer harvest from 2004 to 2025 and includes does.

VEstimate limits

District estimates have survey error and hunter counts include all deer

Every harvest figure here comes from an FWP survey estimate. FWP explains "The survey provides an estimate of harvest within an 80% confidence interval." District estimates have wider error than the statewide total, so ranks close together may be ties. The file's hunter and day counts include mule deer and whitetails together, so we do not give a mule deer success rate.

We removed the statewide, region and unplaced rollup rows. In 2020 districts 611, 641, 651 and 680 no longer appeared in Region 6's tables. That season 640 rose from 488 bucks to 1,038, so we do not track Region 6 trends across that change. District lists outside Region 7 changed again in 2022, as the count fell from 158 to 136 and Region 6 no longer included 631 and 632. The 640 and 690 point shares from 2021 to 2025 span that change. Region 7 had districts 700 through 705 in all 22 seasons, though we did not check the boundary text for each year. The square miles use the current FWP map of hunting districts and apply only to 2024 and 2025.

VIChoosing a district

Choose 704 for steady totals and look elsewhere for density or points

Our read is that 704 has been Montana's most dependable mule deer district in the harvest record since 2004. It placed first or second every season and leads the four in bucks per square mile. A hunter wanting a higher share of bucks in FWP's 4 or more class should consider 703 among the four (72.4%) and look beyond them at Region 6 districts 640 and 690 (77.1% and 76.1%), 2021 to 2025. Residents considering 705 should know that nonresidents took three of every four bucks harvested there from 2021 to 2025.