Hunting districts / Antelope
Antelope hunting district · Region 5 (Billings)
District 556
Montana hunting district 556 (Antelope), FWP Region 5 (Billings): 3,976 sq mi in Carbon, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Park counties; 46% USFS, BLM, state trust and FWP land (mostly Custer Gallatin National Forest); median elevation 4,925 ft; FWP estimated 88 antelope harvested in 2025.
What stands out
- Among the most wilderness of 61 antelope districts: 19% designated wilderness. USFS wilderness boundaries (calculated)
- Among the quietest for antelope hunters of 60 antelope districts: 0.2 antelope hunter-days per square mile in 2024. FWP harvest estimates (calculated per sq mi)
- Among the most rugged of 61 antelope districts: 9,094 ft from low point to high point. AWS Terrain Tiles (calculated)
- Among the largest of 61 antelope districts: 3,976 square miles. FWP district boundary
Publicly administered land
| US Forest Service | 34.0% | |
| Bureau of Land Management | 9.2% | |
| Montana state trust land | 2.6% | |
| National Park Service | 1.1% | |
| City & county | 0.1% | |
| Montana FWP | 0.1% | |
| Other State of Montana | 0.1% |
Area of Montana State Library 'Montana Public Lands' polygons (derived from the Montana Cadastral Framework, Department of Revenue ownership records) intersected with the FWP district boundary, measured in NAD83(2011) Montana State Plane (EPSG:6514). Ownership is not access: some public land is closed to hunting or has no legal access.
Antelope harvest estimates
| Year | Hunters | Days | Total Harvest | Bucks | Does | Fawns |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | n/e | n/e | 88 | 68 | 20 | 0 |
| 2024 | 148 | 737 | 71 | 55 | 15 | 0 |
| 2023 | n/e | n/e | 77 | 64 | 14 | 0 |
| 2022 | 140 | 830 | 52 | 40 | 11 | 0 |
FWP estimates from the annual hunter harvest survey; they carry sampling error. "n/e": FWP did not estimate district-level hunter numbers that year (2019, 2021, 2023, 2025). Boundaries of a numbered district can change between years.
Landscape
- Counties
- Carbon, Stillwater, Sweet Grass, Park counties
- National forests
- Custer Gallatin National Forest
- Wilderness
- Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness (19%)
- Wildlife management areas
- Silver Run
- Mountain ranges (GNIS)
- Beartooth Mountains, Granite Range, Pryor Mountains
- Highest named summits
- Castle Mountain (≈12,516 ft), Mount Wood (≈12,454 ft), Silver Run Peak (≈12,369 ft), Tempest Mountain (≈12,343 ft)
- Passes and gaps
- Sundance Pass, Silver Pass, Jordan Pass, Mill Creek Pass, Meyers Creek Pass, Missouri Cutoff
- Towns and places
- Absarokee, Alex Boggio Place, Alpine, Bearcreek, Beehive, Belfry, Bowler, Boyd, Bridger, Caledonia (historical), Chance, Cherry Springs (historical), Coalville (historical), Columbus
Elevations sampled on a regular grid inside the district from AWS Terrain Tiles (Terrarium, zoom 10, ~105 m pixels; compiled from USGS 3DEP and SRTM). Approximate: summits read lower than their surveyed height.
Sources
- District boundary: Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks hunting district layer.
- Public land: Montana State Library, Montana Public Lands (published 2026-10-06).
- Harvest: FWP Harvest Estimates, retrieved 2026-10-30.
- Places: USGS Geographic Names Information System. Wilderness and forests: USDA Forest Service.
- Elevation: AWS Terrain Tiles (USGS 3DEP, SRTM).
Live weather, snow, fire and access conditions are in the atlas card for this district.