My son in law has drawn this hunt for this season,and was looking for info.of anyone that has drawn it recently. He lives in Boise,and we will start scouting it in the next couple of weeks.Since it is only a two week season, we thought the last week might be the best to get the best rutting activity. He also drew a unit 48-bull that happens to open the same day as 45, so he will be trying to fill the elk,and then start hunting the deer. Looks like there is a lot of private, but also BLM as well. Any help will be appreciated.
Idaho unit 45 Muley Info.
- Thread starter brdhuntr
- Start date
IDELKFVR
Active Member
I know there is a lot of private land. I have some good friends that own a lot of that land. I drew this tag back in like 05 I want to say before they changed the hunting dates. When we had the tag we hunted on his land. He usually only lets people hunt that he knows and in the past he as let the hunt of a life time kids hunt. There is some good BlM land to the west of the lookout that we were on last year. My buddy's daughter drew a cow tag in there after the buck hunt and there were quite a few deer running around in there. It should be a good hunt for your son in law. She drew the cow tag again this year. Beginners luck I would say. You might want to check out the east side of the unit also I have heard good things from over on that side to. I would be interested on knowing how he does. good luck.
mntnguide
Very Active Member
Thats almost to much...45 deer and 48 elk...If I was in those shoes, I would be focusing entirely on 45 for a buck of a lifetime. 48 bull is a decent tag and I grew up in the unit. He is most likely not shooting a bull of a lifetime in there especially without a lot of knowledge of the unit, whereas he could shoot a giant buck with proper effort put in. I would be putting all effort into the deer first and foremost. But thats just my thoughts; he can draw 48 elk a hell of a lot more times than he will ever draw 45 deer again..he should put forth the effort into scouting his life away in 45, and find a giant before the opener..thats what I would be trying to do. I have a friend who has drawn 45 as well, and drew it years ago and harvested a 200" buck. He is a muley nut, and will be down there every chance he can from now until the opener, unfortunately he will not be helping anyone else as he is very secretive about his spots haha. But he has said..45 is not what it used to be, but with extensive time put into the scouting aspect, you definitely can still find some amazing bucks in there on the public
Agreed, the unit is not a fraction of what it use to be. Too many tags sold, muzzle loader season, doe seasons, cow and bull elk seasons. It is now shorter too and in some years, the big migratory deer show up the last few day of the season. It used to be a trophy deer area, now it is full of 22 to 26 inch 4 points with a very few bucks mixed in that might go 28 or better. I spent 10 days in there last season scouting and glassing everywhere for a friend that had 4 tags in their party. They hunted the entire season and only killed cookie cutter 4 points. The girls with him that shot deer were thrilled with their hunts and shot the biggest deer of their young hunting careers. So to them it was awesome. I saw many deer and many bucks and only spotted 1 deer that I would have shot. It was in the 30 inch class. Fish and game in Idaho has managed to over use and over harvest this resource, and all for the mighty dollar. I don't want to put out your fire, but just be ready to work your tail off to find a good buck. Here is the picture of the buck I spotted for my friend, but he could not come shoot it because he was on the other side of the unit with his grand niece stalking a 24 inch 4 point. She shot the deer and was super happy. Good luck!
Thanks for all the feed back, we look forward to start scouting in July. A buddy has drawn 45 last year and we will be going with him. He said the same thing, about lots of smaller bucks, but did shoot a 185 heavy deer. My grandson has a cow tag that opens Oct. 1st. So that should be fun as well. Ill keep you posted..