Thanks
You'll have plenty of company. There's elk sure enough, but most of what I have seen in preseason scouting is on private land where nobody but me will be hunting.
My tips: 1. leave your calls at home - after opening weekend is done, they will only bring in other hunters. 2. Get away from the roads and concentrate on areas where you don't see other hunters going. 3. After the first week of the season, look for the elk to be either very low - on or near private ground where you can't hunt, or very high - in the roughest country the unit has to offer.
Good Luck
How is the Mule deer and bear hunting in the area?
The mule deer population is OK and I generally see quite a few deer (does and smaller bucks). You are going to have to do some work to find a big buck though, so you have to decide if your priority is to kill an elk or a big buck.
I haven't hunted that area, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more hunting pressure.
This weekend, I was very upset when we had guys on ATVs riding all over the mountain where we hunt (usually it is pretty rare to see other hunters, let alone ATVs). The land is BLM, but all access is private, so they had to tresspass to get there.
In all my years of bowhunting, I have never seen more hunting pressure than what I have seen this year so far. And elk numbers are way down.
You probably want to wait until you get out here before you make up your mind on that. You never know what your experience will be like. I don't know where you are planning on hunting or what techniques you plan to use, but you could manage to be in the right place at the right time and have more luck than you would ever had expected - or it could be a bust. I have met non-residents who have hunted for 10 days to 2 weeks and not seen a single elk and also know guys who killed a 350-inch bull their second or third day of hunting (in the same general area).
Concerning elk populations: If you talk to the Idaho Fish and Game, you get different answers as far as elk population goes. I was told by one guy that they want the numbers down to improve mule deer populations. Another guy told me that the elk are overpopulated based on the available winter forage at a feeding area hundreds of miles from here (most of our elk winter locally and don't migrate long distances). If you talk to anyone that hunts, they will tell you that the elk population is down and harvest records show that as well (total harvest numbers and sucess rates have steadily fallen for the past several years).
The weather has been pleasantly cool lately with highs in the 60s and lows in the 30s.
My first Idaho Elk trip was great, besides the hot weather, a lot of hunters, and the low number of elk! We only had one great day of elk hunting. I do love Idaho country.
