I am a first year hunter and live in Idaho. None of my family hunts nor any of my friends so my learning has been primarily podcasts and online research.
I was able to pick up a leftover tag in Wyoming and harvest a buck. I am very grateful for that. My general deer and elk in Idaho did not go as planned... In a poor move, I had scouted one general area very thoroughly and had a full plan there, but did not have a backup plan.. When a nasty lightning storm and blizzard blew up that plan first night back there, taking out my tipi, forcing a reset, and the water and mud became too deep to get within any reasonable distance to hike back in, I spent the rest of the week scrambling, finding fresh elk sign from a single bull in three different areas but always being just a step behind. Only ever got eyes on cows, and never saw a single deer..
General deer isn't quite dead yet... I will probably run up north to see if I can track down a whitetail.
When examining tags still out there for Elk, I see there are some tags left for Units 38 and 53. There are no prior harvest statistics for Elk in 38, GoHunt doesn't even mention elk on their unit profile, and there is very little writing out there about this at all. Is this a newly added unit/hunt for elk? The Big Game booklet says most elk are on private land, and most of this area outside of metropolitan Boise is BLM, so there must be a pretty confined area any amount of elk in the area would be.
There are also some options for short range weapons in unit 53. Pretty poor success rates there.
With the cost of a second elk tag being so high, it seems like it would be a poor decision to spend the money to pick up either of these tags. But if there is a possibility to get some elk meat in the freezer I would consider it. Being close to both of these areas, is there anyone that would say there is any hope to go for it?
I was able to pick up a leftover tag in Wyoming and harvest a buck. I am very grateful for that. My general deer and elk in Idaho did not go as planned... In a poor move, I had scouted one general area very thoroughly and had a full plan there, but did not have a backup plan.. When a nasty lightning storm and blizzard blew up that plan first night back there, taking out my tipi, forcing a reset, and the water and mud became too deep to get within any reasonable distance to hike back in, I spent the rest of the week scrambling, finding fresh elk sign from a single bull in three different areas but always being just a step behind. Only ever got eyes on cows, and never saw a single deer..
General deer isn't quite dead yet... I will probably run up north to see if I can track down a whitetail.
When examining tags still out there for Elk, I see there are some tags left for Units 38 and 53. There are no prior harvest statistics for Elk in 38, GoHunt doesn't even mention elk on their unit profile, and there is very little writing out there about this at all. Is this a newly added unit/hunt for elk? The Big Game booklet says most elk are on private land, and most of this area outside of metropolitan Boise is BLM, so there must be a pretty confined area any amount of elk in the area would be.
There are also some options for short range weapons in unit 53. Pretty poor success rates there.
With the cost of a second elk tag being so high, it seems like it would be a poor decision to spend the money to pick up either of these tags. But if there is a possibility to get some elk meat in the freezer I would consider it. Being close to both of these areas, is there anyone that would say there is any hope to go for it?
