Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting 2014 idaho archery elk hunt?

Hello, looking into an archery elk hunt in idaho for 2014. Have never hunted here only colorado, looking at an otc tag but not sure what zones to look into so any help is appreciated. What is hunting pressure like compared to Colorado? Is there still a good elk herd out there or have the wolves done to much damage to even consider coming out? DIY also.
Thanks
Chad

South central ID has a pretty good herd and archery tags are OTC. My partner and I just knocked off 2 cows in unit 48 a week ago. There were close to 50 in the herd. The recent Beaver Creek fire seems to have concentrated them where we were hunting. During archery season, the pressure is very light. Unit 49 is pretty good, too, but there are some large ranches in there that don't allow hunting.

Like Rock Chuck said 49 is good archery tags are OTC and invest in time and the best glass possible we seen a good number of elk this year in 48 and 49 over the last month the fire did seem to have things shaken up a little good luck!

My group, too, is looking at moving south in Idaho. We've hunted unit 12 for about 30 odd years. This year was the worst ever. Not even a bugle!!!Even the wolves have left!Been looking at all of the central areas and all look better than where we've been.

Thanks for the info guys, keep it coming lol. We are looking into idaho vs colorado mainly to see some new scenery and get away from the crowds and idaho looks like that might be the place and still get otc tags. Never archery hunted elk but 1 oth the guys in the group has so it will be a new experiance for most of us. We are going to be camping as well. I will have to do some research on unit 49. Thanks for the info and keep it coming.
Chad

While unit 49 does have some timber, it's largely sagebrush mountains. It helps to get a BLM map that shows land ownership. A huge chunk of it is private. The IDFG has a program called Access Yes where they pay landowners to open their land to hunting. A good chunk of 49 is owned by the Flat Top Sheep Co. They're partially under Access Yes and some of their land has a good number of elk.

However, there's a Catch 22. The IDFG allows landowners to stipulate the rules and a lot of them with AY land, including Flat Top, don't allow overnight camping or motor vehicle access. You have to come and go on foot every day. That can get pretty tedious hiking in a several miles every morning to get away from the road to where the elk are. One of Flat Tops best elk areas is closed to all motor vehicles so not only do you have to hike in 3 miles every day, you also have to have pack stock or backpack the elk out.
I don't have a problem with limiting vehicles, but the no camping thing essentially is paying landowners for nothing. If you can't get there to hunt, why pay them for hunting land?

Any other units that I should look into, how about the northern part of the state?