Best place to hunt Mule Deer in Idaho
- Thread starter BlakeBow8
- Start date
Nevada, Eastern Montana, many of the Colorado areas, one guy here kills an AZ buck every year. I guess the answer is that there are many great spots for what you are thinking.
rosco
Member
I like Colorado myself.
WBouldin
Well-known member
Only go Nevada if you have a few years to put in. Most decent units are taking NRs 4-5 years
mthunter
New member
Eastern Montana has plenty of land to roam.
the nikster
Well-known member
Extreme eastern Idaho. About 400 miles east of Lewiston. The area is called eastern Montana.
For 'best place' in ID, I'd have to say somewhere around the Bennet Hills in southern ID. There are some brutes that come out of there every year. Getting a tag for there is a whole 'nuther story...
One place I think would be fun to hunt, especially if you're coming into ID from the West would be Hells Canyon. Crazy big/steep country that looks like it should hold a few deer. I've seen some while turkey hunting near there, but I wasn't as high up as I would be if I were hunting mule deer.
One place I think would be fun to hunt, especially if you're coming into ID from the West would be Hells Canyon. Crazy big/steep country that looks like it should hold a few deer. I've seen some while turkey hunting near there, but I wasn't as high up as I would be if I were hunting mule deer.
I live in Unit 52 and have seen some of the biggest deer ever walking within a mile of my house. There was one I watched for two years that was huge by any standards. I talked to a couple guides that had seen him and tried to get him on video but never could he was always about 300 yards from a bachelor group that held 2 or 3 other big 4 pointers. He was much bigger I'm not good at calculating antler size but one of the local guides said he would be better than a state record. I didn't see him last year and there was rumor that he may have been poached. I hop not. That being said there were 50 tags for 52-1 the only hunt open in the unit in 2010 and over 1000 people put in for the first and second choice draw. Unit 45 is just as good or better but the odds are a lot worse 75 tags with over 3600 total first and second choice apps. (First choice apps would have collected all of the tags I'm not sure why anyone would waste a second choice on a draw like this) Unit 44-1 has a little better odds but not much. You can hunt some of the other trophy unit hunts but your odds are pretty bad if you want to draw a controlled tag, the late season unit 50 hunt had 10 tags in 2010 and just over 300 first choice apps. I have seen some very nice deer in that unit late in the season while hunting a late cow tag. The units along the south border have produced some nice deer in the past as well units 54 and 55 have fairly good odds but I have never hunted them personally.
If you just want a general tag there are a lot of options but there is also a lot of pressure. I know if you hunted the salmon zone, units 48,49,50 and 51 there are deer there and there is a lot of country to get away from other hunters. Plus if you didn't get a trophy you would at the very least see the tallest and what I think are the most beautiful mountains in the state.
If you just want a general tag there are a lot of options but there is also a lot of pressure. I know if you hunted the salmon zone, units 48,49,50 and 51 there are deer there and there is a lot of country to get away from other hunters. Plus if you didn't get a trophy you would at the very least see the tallest and what I think are the most beautiful mountains in the state.
Watch the success ratios in the Selway. 28% yes, but a large majority of those are whitetail and antlerless. If you back out the whitetail numbers and the antlerless numbers, your mule deer success ration is pretty low. I talked to the biologist in that area a couple of months ago and the wolves are pretty bad in there I guess and are cutting the numbers down on both elk and deer. Good luck!
T Bone
Well-known member
General season.....
Even though it's at Boise's back porch, 39 consistently produces bombers.
Unit 50 I like also.
59 is worth spending some time in too.
56 has numbers, genetics, and habitat, but it has the scourge of rampant illegal ATV use. I spent 3 days there last year and passed quite a few deer. Found one good buck, but had a really bad streak of luck as I watched it die just 200 yards from me from some monkey's bullet a half mile away. The icing on the cake was the tard didn't even know he hit the deer. It took 2 hours to find the hunter again and get him to back to the deer.
I've spent some time in the Frank, and surprisingly didn't see much for deer.
Anxious to get draw results back so I can plan this season out.
Even though it's at Boise's back porch, 39 consistently produces bombers.
Unit 50 I like also.
59 is worth spending some time in too.
56 has numbers, genetics, and habitat, but it has the scourge of rampant illegal ATV use. I spent 3 days there last year and passed quite a few deer. Found one good buck, but had a really bad streak of luck as I watched it die just 200 yards from me from some monkey's bullet a half mile away. The icing on the cake was the tard didn't even know he hit the deer. It took 2 hours to find the hunter again and get him to back to the deer.
I've spent some time in the Frank, and surprisingly didn't see much for deer.
Anxious to get draw results back so I can plan this season out.
CabinFever
Member
See thread start date
