Idaho Elk advice

[tim629]

brother in law moved to Idaho and got invited to go elk & mule deer hunting in the Salmon Zone I believe they had their camp in unit 21 on the ID/MT border

he invited me out and I'd love to go so now just doing my research, he said not a lot of elk were seen but mule deer weren't hard to come by although their group only shot two mule deer and one elk.

he said most days they drive to the end of a road then hike in max of about 4 miles because within that distance you usually come to a ravine that you don't want to pack an elk back across. so on one hand I can understand that but on the other hand early on in the hunt is it logical to jump that first ravine in hopes of finding an elk then using the rest of the trip to curse myself packing it out?

-how many miles do you guys expect to hunt in a day?

-if you find an area that looks promising 3 miles from the trail head, with "ok" land inbetween do you try to be 3 miles in at daybreak, or do you quickly glass the "ok" areas on the way to the area that looks promising the next morning

-how is the walking in the creek bottoms? my question there is at what point do you decide if you are going to carry an elk an extra mile out the bottom going down in elevation vs the shorter route up to a road/jeep trail


-is there a different unit you guys would suggest for someone that may only get 5-6 days of idaho hunting every couple of years? this area has the advantage that my brother-in-law has the friends that took him there so I just need to worry about me and my gear (and helping them at camp and helping others pack stuff out) but if there is another area that may require a 5 mile hike with a more reasonable expectation of connecting and a more reasonable pack out i'm not opposed to that route (or a whole different state, but if I change locations probably need to look at a drop camp which is still fine by me)

 

[LandDiver]

I'm new to hunting myself, and with the help of another member here I hiked 1.7 miles in and gained over 2000 feet in elevation in that time. Steep country with lots of canyons and ridges. Everything I read and hear is, "go where nobody else wants to go, that's where you'll find the big bulls." On Randy's last Ig picture he was packing out a nice bull from a deep within a steep canyon. So I thought my 1.7 miles in was good enough, and with what I had to hike past was more then enough to keep anybody else far away from me. NOPE! Heard 3 gun shots in the next canyon over during any weapon antlered elk season a week ago. So that made me want to hike in deeper, up over the big main ridge. After chatting with the member about it he informed me of a packing trail on the other side of that. After measuring it out I think I will put in 2-3 miles tomorrow, and be about 3 miles from that packing trail still. Late archery season for deer and elk opened on the 10th but my wife had to work. Going tomorrow in hopes of learning a lot.

So with that said I think you wanting to go where everybody else doesn't want to just might be the honey hole your after.

 

[tim629]

the going in a bit farther than everyone else wants to go is why I'm in a toss up with my bil's groups way of hunting. I know if no one wants to go to the next ridge that is where I should be but wasn't sure if there were some places that even the veterans leave the bulls be. unit 21 looks to have some steep grades, but also some spots that look like 2-3 miles packing down a stream bed to a road thinking the bil's group would probably skip it as it's too far from the truck but may be closer if you have someone else bring the truck down to you

when you go to your farther spot, are you still hunting your way in or just trying to get there in a reasonable time so you can start the serious hunt once you are in the spot you are interested in?