Unit 640

Medicine Lake anchors the western portion and serves as both a navigation reference and reliable water source. Johnson Lake, Long Lake, and Flat Lake offer additional orientation points. The Missouri River forms the southern boundary and represents the unit's most significant topographic break.

Scattered buttes including Round Butte, Wild Horse Butte, and Eagles Nest Ridge provide glassing vantage points in otherwise low-relief country. Numerous coulees and creeks—Hell Creek, Beaver Creek, Eagle Creek, and Spring Creek among them—carve through the grassland and offer travel corridors and drainage-bottom habitat.

The entire unit sits in the lower-elevation band below 5,000 feet, with rolling terrain ranging from roughly 1,800 to 3,300 feet. The dominant habitat is open prairie grassland and sagebrush country with scattered patches of cottonwood along creek bottoms and coulee drainages. Timber is sparse overall, confined mostly to riparian corridors and occasional buttes.

This is classic northern Great Plains terrain—treeless horizons broken by drainage systems and scattered shrubland. The lack of forest cover creates wide-open hunting country where spotting and stalking dominate the hunting approach.

The unit benefits from fair road access with approximately 4,200 miles of roads creating a workable network across the vast area. Towns like Scobey, Peerless, Flaxville, and Glentana provide staging points and services. Most public access concentrates near these towns and along major drainages, leaving substantial acreage between developed corridors.

The low terrain complexity and straightforward navigation mean pressure can be managed by simply moving away from road-accessible areas. Hunting pressure is likely moderate near roaded corridors but drops significantly in the expansive open country between towns.

Unit 640 encompasses vast high-plains country across Daniels, Sheridan, Roosevelt, and Valley Counties in northeastern Montana. The northern boundary follows the Canadian border from the North Dakota line west to State Route 24, then south along that route to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. From there, the eastern boundary traces Big Muddy Creek southward to the Missouri River, then follows the river eastward to the North Dakota border.

This placement puts the unit squarely in Montana's northern prairie region, a transitional zone between Canadian grasslands and the Missouri River breaks.

Water is moderately distributed across the unit through a combination of reservoirs, lakes, and creeks. Medicine Lake and Johnson Lake are dependable destinations. Secondary reservoirs including Shotgun, Whitetail, Harmon, and Picard provide backup water sources throughout the country.

Year-round creeks like Hell Creek, Beaver Creek, and Spring Creek flow through major drainages. Stock ponds and sloughs are numerous. This water distribution is significant in plains hunting—reliable water eliminates the need for long dry spells between camps and supports the wildlife populations that use this grassland.

Unit 640 supports elk, mule deer, white-tailed deer, and mountain lion across this plains and breaks country. Elk in this unit favor the riparian vegetation along the Missouri River and major creeks, particularly Hell Creek, Beaver Creek, and the drainages along the Fort Peck Reservoir boundary. Mule deer and white-tailed deer use the sagebrush grassland and coulee systems throughout.

Early season hunting focuses on water-dependent corridors in the heat; by fall, animals spread across the grassland. The open terrain rewards hunters who glass extensively from butte vantage points and are prepared for long stalks across exposed country. Success depends on patience, good optics, and willingness to cover distance to avoid concentrated pressure near roads.