Guide
How to choose a well driller in Montana
Montana's well-log system quietly answers the question every rural buyer eventually asks. Every well drilled in the state is logged with GWIC, and every log names the company that drilled it. That means who drills in your county — and how much of the local ground they have actually been through — is public record, not something you should have to surrender your phone number to a lead-generation site to learn.
Start with the filing record, not the ad
A driller who has completed hundreds of wells in your county has seen your geology before — they know where the water sat on the neighbouring sections, what the drilling conditions were, and what casing the ground demands. That experience is visible in the public record: our county pages list the companies filing well logs in each Montana county, ranked by how active they have been in the last ten years, with the year of their most recent filing.
Recency matters as much as volume. An outfit with a thousand historic wells and no filings since 2011 is not the same choice as one filing steadily through this year. We show both numbers so you can tell the difference.
Verify the license
Montana licenses water well contractors through the Board of Water Well Contractors. Verifying that a driller holds a current Montana license takes minutes and is worth doing regardless of how you found them — a listing on any website, including ours, is information about the public record, not an endorsement.
Licensed drillers are also the ones who file the well log that becomes your well's official GWIC record — the document every future buyer, lender, and appraiser of your property will look for.
Sanity-check the quote with nearby data
Drilling is priced substantially per foot, so the honest uncertainty in a quote is depth. Before you sign, look at what comparable nearby wells actually required: the median and range of drilled depths around your parcel, and the yields those wells reported. A quote assuming 300 feet in an area where comparable wells run 100 to 160 deserves a question; so does a lowball assuming 80.
That is precisely what a property water report is for: comparable-well depth statistics around your specific parcel, reported as a range with its confidence stated. It will not tell you what your well will do — no one can — but it puts you and the driller on the same factual footing.
Questions worth asking
What did your last few wells within a few miles of this parcel require in depth and casing? Will you quote per-foot rates for drilling and casing separately? Who files the well log and the Notice of Completion? What happens to the price if you hit harder rock or need to go deeper than expected?
And one requirement that is now law: since January 1, 2026, a $400 Notice of Intent (DNRC Form 602I) must be approved before a new exempt well is put to use. A driller who talks about that filing unprompted is a driller who keeps up with the rules.
This guide is general information for property research, not legal, engineering, or hydrogeologic advice. Verify anything that matters to a transaction with Montana DNRC, the Montana Bureau of Mines and Geology, and qualified professionals.