Idaho 2018 !!??

[john2]

Good luck with your first experience in Idaho. I'm a southern coaster and have been going to the same area in Idaho since 2006. We use to buy tags over the counter after we arrived to our hunt area. Then it got to were we (me and brother) would watch the tag count on the website and buy in July/August time frame. Did that for a number of years. This year I went to check the tag count in May and they were sold out for the area we hunt, I couldn't believe it, even called the game and fish department to see if it was true. Anyway I was ready on Dec 1st and got my tag for 2018 but didn't have time to get one for my son, they sold out in about 30 minutes which tells me I better get ready to learn a new area as it will be even harder to get the tag I like next year.
Good luck and hope y'all get a good one.

Update: There are still tags available at this time but if you have never hunted Idaho before you have to have a Bowhunter education number or a Archery affidavit on file with IDF&G before the archery tags will show up in your tag selection for purchase.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

I have not been to the Pioneer Zone, but I do have experience in the Lolo zone. I think you would have a hard time figuring the area out if you only do it during the season. Its big, remote in areas, steep, and the game is a challenge to locate. It really blows your mind how much land is there to hunt and its overwhelming. It can take all day to hunt one ridge. I know it well and have taken game there, but its huge gamble. This year I didn't see a single deer or elk there during my multiple trips there. In fact its been a few years since I filled any tag there and I spend a lot of time scouting. Snow can come early during rifle season so don't step foot in the area without chains for all 4 tires.

Its a beautiful area though and the pressure is lower than other places. There is no cell service and it take a long time to travel around the area. in my opinion it is not an area to hunt alone either. If you get one down, you will have your work cut out for you. My partner and I are in great shape and capable of packing elk out on our own, but we do not go hunt Lolo alone ever.

 

[pbcarch]

just thought i would share with all the following quote from Lewis about his "adventure" through the Lolo trail ;


". . . the pleasure I now felt in having tryumphed over the rockey Mountains and decending once more to a level and fertile country where there was every rational hope of finding a comfortable subsistence for myself and party can be more readily conceived than expressed, nor was the flattering prospect of the final success of the expedition less pleasing . . . (Moulton 1988, 5: "

 

[pbcarch]

Thanks DA,
Lolo definitely sounds like a great challenge for the experience elk hunter.....and thats not me!
From the looks of the land there I would simply love to be back packing thru it. Perhaps one summer I will fly out to simply fish and back pack. From the description of it today it appears to match what Lewis & Clark saw back in the 1800's. Has anyone seen Sacajawea lately


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[Joe Schmo]

Pick the one that you think will be physically the easiest...if you find it too easy just hunt harder and higher.

 

[DAOutfitters208]

You wouldn't have a lot of company on a backpacking trip. I am surprised more people dont enjoy the lakes you can hike into there. Its a long drive from anywhere, but I would think more people would go.

 

[Gobbler36]

I would cut off 4 hrs of your trip and look at the palisades or one of the other zones in Eastern Idaho.

 

[David Gough]

I'd go to Pioneer, although I know nothing about the Lolo zone. I hunt across the highway from there and killed a bull on day twelve of the hunt this year, but my local friends who helped out other friends there had a ton of encounters. There can be A LOT of people there, especially around weekends, just so you know.

 

[pbcarch]

Thanks David
Yes i have been forewarned that weekends get busy but we will be out there for 7-10 days so will only hit one weekend. BTW everyone out west says "busy" or "many people" , what does that mean for you guys/gals out west, in a quantifiable means?

 

[gabenzeke]

What about the beaverhead zone? How's that unit for pressure and for someone from back east?

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[BullElk]

Thanks David
Yes i have been forewarned that weekends get busy but we will be out there for 7-10 days so will only hit one weekend. BTW everyone out west says "busy" or "many people" , what does that mean for you guys/gals out west, in a quantifiable means?

considering the avg for the last 5 years or so has been around 400 and it was 2000 this year ill let you decide. I'm not sure how you came upon this being the easier terrain over lolo but ill let you experience it for yourself. you're in for a real treat!!! also, you didn't bite on the over objectives post I made so you'll get some first hand info on that as well.

my .02 take advice from those who have hunted it and not those who have never hunted it. theres been a few posts from those with first hand knowledge.

if it weren't for the B&C state record and P&Y world record being taken all in one season in montana last year Idaho would not have been the way it was this year.

 

[BullElk]

What about the beaverhead zone? How's that unit for pressure and for someone from back east?

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do you have any experience hunting along side the big bears?

 

[gabenzeke]

do you have any experience hunting along side the big bears?

Not yet, but I've got a couple years wilderness area experience (only black bears present...no big deal) and have been reading about grizzly attacks and behavior to prepare. I figure I've got to take the plunge at some point. Sick of CO. wanting to try another area to get an elk. Any elk actually.

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[BullElk]

in the pioneer I think you would have a hard time figuring the area out if you only do it during the season. Its big, remote in areas, steep, and the game is a challenge to locate. It really blows your mind how much land is there to hunt and its overwhelming. It can take all day to hunt one ridge. I know it well and have taken game there, but its huge gamble. This year I didn't see a single deer or elk there during my multiple trips there. In fact its been a few years since I filled any tag there and I spend a lot of time scouting. Snow WILL come as early as AUG 30th during archery season so don't step foot in the area without chains for all 4 tires.

Its a beautiful area though and the pressure is HIGHER than other places. There is no cell service and it take a long time to travel around the area. in my opinion it is not an area to hunt alone either. If you get one down, you will have your work cut out for you. My partner and I are in great shape and capable of packing elk out on our own, but we do not go hunt pioneer alone ever.

I fixed your post.

 

[Gobbler36]

Thanks David
Yes i have been forewarned that weekends get busy but we will be out there for 7-10 days so will only hit one weekend. BTW everyone out west says "busy" or "many people" , what does that mean for you guys/gals out west, in a quantifiable means?

A camp in every drainage and 3/4 rigs at a trailhead with dirt bikes buzzing up trails or outfitters having several camps in all the good areas, which is what most of the pioneer zone is like, Either hunt next to Bubba in his truck or walk 6 miles to be next to an outfitter with Bubba in his wall tent.

 

[BullElk]

Not yet, but I've got a couple years wilderness area experience (only black bears present...no big deal) and have been reading about grizzly attacks and behavior to prepare. I figure I've got to take the plunge at some point. Sick of CO. wanting to try another area to get an elk. Any elk actually.

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GO FOR IT!!!! a lot of folks tend to shy away from those things so it actually makes the hunting better. a guy got attacked there(or the zone over cant recall) in 2015 just so you know. you can find his story on the news. he was out a few weeks later(after the attack) and dropped a bull too.

 

[gabenzeke]

GO FOR IT!!!! a lot of folks tend to shy away from those things so it actually makes the hunting better. a guy got attacked there(or the zone over cant recall) in 2015 just so you know. you can find his story on the news. he was out a few weeks later(after the attack) and dropped a bull too.

Do you mind if I PM you tomorrow sometime to run a plan by You? Sounds like you have experience there, and I'm just wondering if what I've got so far would give me decent odds at some encounters. Would also be curious to know what the availability of water in the area I've got picked out is like.

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[pbcarch]

guys i appreciate all your comments both positive and negative, because thats what your going to get on any internet forum. For a group going out west for the first time there is no wrong or right choice just options. I can view the info , historically, objective counts, wolf data, bear data, fire burns, vegetation coverage, tag counts, pressure , etc... and come up with a different decision each time. Then someone else can look at the same data and based upon their experience, objectives or knowledge come up with a different answer.

My point in this post was not to be a unit specific question. It was meant to be to get info from the experienced group of the best means of beginning the learning. I guess its naive for me to think that I will not see other hunters so that will be part of our experience of how to deal with that.
There are so many phases for us to hunt out west; picking a state, planning where to go in that state, getting a tag, how to get there, what to bring...... and the list goes on and on and we have not even set foot on a western state yet! So please excuse the basic questions i have as its all very daunting to take in then adding 2500 miles in between. Heck over here i wake 90 min before sunrise, shower to de-scent, eat quick snack and drive 4 miles to my property and walk .25 miles to my stand... AND i get to pick and choose the deer i want to take, granted not all p&Y ;-), as my freezer is full already and was 2 weeks into early bow. I am now donating meat to the shelters.

So if possible guys please keep the info coming so that i may have background info to start with to form my own knowledge base once we are there and on the ground. Heck if your info cuts a few years off my learning curve its well worth it.

Paul

 

[sneaky]

What about the beaverhead zone? How's that unit for pressure and for someone from back east?

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Some big country, but it has everything. Elk, deer, black bears, grizz, wolves. It's the total package. If you've hunted CO you've got experience at elevation so that's a plus. I drive through there for work quite often, and if I don't decide to draw a general tag in Wyoming with my points I'll most likely be in Beaverhead myself. Been hunting Diamond Creek for the past few years, but it's insane how quick those tags have been selling. They might already be gone. Eastman must have done another article on that unit again.

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[gabenzeke]

guys i appreciate all your comments both positive and negative, because thats what your going to get on any internet forum. For a group going out west for the first time there is no wrong or right choice just options. I can view the info , historically, objective counts, wolf data, bear data, fire burns, vegetation coverage, tag counts, pressure , etc... and come up with a different decision each time. Then someone else can look at the same data and based upon their experience, objectives or knowledge come up with a different answer.

My point in this post was not to be a unit specific question. It was meant to be to get info from the experienced group of the best means of beginning the learning. I guess its naive for me to think that I will not see other hunters so that will be part of our experience of how to deal with that.
There are so many phases for us to hunt out west; picking a state, planning where to go in that state, getting a tag, how to get there, what to bring...... and the list goes on and on and we have not even set foot on a western state yet! So please excuse the basic questions i have as its all very daunting to take in then adding 2500 miles in between. Heck over here i wake 90 min before sunrise, shower to de-scent, eat quick snack and drive 4 miles to my property and walk .25 miles to my stand... AND i get to pick and choose the deer i want to take, granted not all p&Y ;-), as my freezer is full already and was 2 weeks into early bow. I am now donating meat to the shelters.

So if possible guys please keep the info coming so that i may have background info to start with to form my own knowledge base once we are there and on the ground. Heck if your info cuts a few years off my learning curve its well worth it.

Paul

I'll say this...and it's only based on my experiences in Colorado. You don't necessarily have to put a ton of miles on to get away from people. Find something tough to climb over that puts a ridge or something between you and the trails, and you just might have a spot all to yourself and never see another hunter. I got into elk last year 2 miles from the truck. Everyone hikes right by on the other side of the mountains. Meanwhile, I had a couple nights I hardly slept because of all the bugles. About half the guys I talked to that went in way deeper said they hadn't heard an elk.

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