Anyone hunted Idaho?

What did you think?

I went spring bear hunting there many years ago out of Lochsa a few miles west of Missoula MT. Beautiful country, brook trout in the small streams, lots of bears. Saw several moose and deer. Had a great time. Never been there in the fall.

We have a place east of Missoula. Lochsa is some beautiful country. I’m a fisherman up there (summers only) though so not an expert on the best hunting areas.
It’s beautiful hunting country though.

PM Blank on this forum. Nice guy and heck of a hunter. Lives in Idaho.

I have up around Sand Point in the northern part of the state. Beautiful country. But its been at least 25 years since I've been there.

Yes. Sept elk and Mulies. Probably going back this year depending on my draws.
I’m big fan of Idaho and it’s people. Long drive though. Only thing I didn’t see was a grizzly and cat. Saw mtn Goats, Blk Bear, moose, full curl rams, elk, mule deer, pronghorn and wolves. Fun trip but we where a deep 8 Miles from trail head. Oh and ton of grouse...

How far from Boise would be some decent Grouse hunting? My wifes childhood best friend moved up there about 10 years ago and she has been wanting to go up there and visit, I could drop her off and go spend a few days chasing grouse.

I was 4 hours... northeast

I've hunted the selkirk mountains twice and hiked it another. Absolutely love it and have a goal of owning a place there. Idaho is a lot like TX, in that most of the people I've met are great, it has a lot of great hunting and huge terrain changes.

Never have. Always meant to. I have some inside info from a guy that lives there on some better elk hunting spots. One of these days I’ll put it to use. I’ve heard a lot of bad things about the wolves up there in recent years. Don’t know how much is true or just the sky falling.

I've hunted the Lemhi Mountains as well as the Bitterroots. Seems like there are only two directions to those mountains - straight up and straight down. Hunted the primitive area before the wolves. Beautiful country, good people. Pretty good hunting there as well.

I hunted it from for 10' days this past Oct got throughly screwed by Castle creek outfitters never even looked thru the scope and had 5 tags in my pocket same for my buddy that went with me Beautiful country but I paid way to much for a ten day horse back ride with no game

Sorry to hear that. We really like for you to be successful if possible. On your hunt with Castle Creek, did you guys do it all from one back country camp. Shane Scott generally does a pretty good hunt both from the local ranch there at Baker and also the surrounding National Forest areas. I am from Idaho Falls, but always hunt up in the Salmon/Leadore areas for whitetails with my short range shotgun or muzzleloader. This year I saw a lot of elk and mule deer in late Oct.

No animals in Idaho. It’s a horrible state. I wouldn’t go there! I actually graduated from High School in Idaho and trust me you won’t like it. I only go back every year.

Idaho got hammered and hammered hard, they had a virgin elk and mule deer population, current populations are wolf savoy and rebounding. Hunter Success rates are back on the rise.

I've hunted several areas of Idaho and finally gave up on the state. Opening day one year was probably the worse experience I've ever encountered there. Four of us paid to hunt a couple thousand acres of private land next to public land, but the locals didn't care and started showing up about midnight. The day before, there we where the only ones on that ranch and off in the valley, there where half a dozen camps. The noise of people showing up was non stop. Reminded me of the circus setting up at the mall, people running around everywhere making as much noise as possible. We where all up and sitting on the ridges a couple hours before daylight and about an hour before daylight, the ATV's took over. They cut fences and just drove right past us, one after another. We ended up getting our money back, but it was a wasted week.

Another area we hired an outfitter to drop us off about ten miles into the Forest, and across the live for the Wilderness Area. All the way in, it was like a highway with four wheelers and motorcycles with giant fat tires. They didn't make it to the Wilderness Area, but in one week, we only saw a few elk and mule deer. There where just too many people with tags there.

In yet another area, we hired an outfitter to take us 20 miles in, and that was finally far enough to not have to deal with anybody. I shot a 6x5 bull, and my buddies saw animals every day, but didn't want to put in the effort to get to them. That was long the Washington border.

A friend just moved there last year and both he and his wife got elk and deer tags. They both shot fair whitetail deer, and never saw an elk. When I asked about mule deer, they said that there are none there. That's close to the Oregon line.

Blank, what units would you recommend for wolf? My brother and I are going in June.

This is undoubtably the hardest trophy of all to kill now in Idaho. I have only seen a couple over the last 5 years, and not when I had a rifle handy. I find tracks all around my bear hunting area outside Idaho Falls, but have yet to see one there.

Unit 61 up in Island Park area probably has the most, especially since it borders Yellowstone Natl Park. Beautiful area and the fishing is good up there! My friends have killed 5 in the past few years during the Sept. archery elk season around Sawtelle Mt. One of my security guards out at work actually killed TWO with his bow in that same unit. The other areas to consider would be down around Salmon and the river corridor (30/28/21/21A), or up towards Challis in Units 36/36A/37/37A. I don't have any experiences to offer for any of the areas further North.

Are you coming out bear hunting? Remember that a deer tag in the Fall may be swapped/used for a bear, lion, or wolf. Good luck.

Yes sir. We're gonna spend the better part of a week hunting bear then about the same amount of time further north for wolf. Have a cousin there who's going to try and establish a bait before we get there.

Pablo

Hunted Idaho Bear. Mountains are a lot steeper than Colorado........

Have a good buddy that has land north of Sand Point and said hunting up there is really good if you know where to go to get away from the locals.