Idaho unit 40

Linehand1987

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Just curious if anyone had any info they were willing to share on this unit. I've been spending a lot of time between silver city and Reynolds haven't really seen a buck that was going to be worth shooting for the quality of bucks this game unit produces. It would be nice to see 6 inches of snow. Loooooots of does though. It seems to be a 100 to 5 ratio for doe to buck. Also there is a lot of private land in the middle of all that BLM land. Is there any private land owners who are cool enough to let you on there property? Any feed back would be helpful. Thanks
 
Hi, I got the controlled hunt for unit 40 from November 1st to November 24th. Im with you, this will be my first time hunting this unit and im really excited. Everyone says it produces monster bucks. Any info would help
 
I don't know anything about unit 40 but many of the late hunts are about timing. The big bucks will find the does when the rut starts. I have observed the rutting action quite a few times here in northern Utah, and usually I see bucks starting to move around the first week of November. By the 10th they are usually chasing does and it continues for a week or so. Right now would be a good time to catch something moving toward does if unit 40 has the same timing as we do.
 
LAST EDITED ON Nov-05-16 AT 10:27PM (MST)[p]I've never seen any good bucks around Reynolds. Would head West from Silver City to State line. I've seen some studs around that area.

The landowners usually won't let you hunt if it's posted. Make a lot of money off their landowner tags. But...there is private land that you can hunt on. Alls they ask it that you close the gates.

Man you guys have a heck of a good tag. Good luck!
 
Hey, thanks for all the info guys. I packed up my camp in Reynolds and came home for a couple days. Going to move down south further and give it a try. We need some weather. 70 degrees in November just isn't working for me lol.
 
I had that tag a few years ago. Think I drew it the first or second time I put in for it. Spent 6 days hunting before I tied into an exceptional buck. If it was me, I'd be working the east and south sides of South Mtn. Saw a few nice bucks around Toy Mtn. Ran into a ranch kid one day driving between areas and he said he'd seen some nice bucks around Black Butte. Ended up getting a really heavy 5x6 on the 6th day not far from there. He was fighting another buck when I spotted them. He ran off the other buck and hobbled back to his doe. After I dropped him, I was looking at his hobbled leg and noticed he had one hoof torn off.
 
Hunted 18 out of the 24 days and never saw a quality buck. Pretty disappointing. It seemed to be 1 buck to every 100 does. I think that forkin horn had not has to all me a toll on this unit. And we never got any weather. Won't be the last tag I draw though. ?
 
This is one of the toughest tags to draw in Idaho, but it's really a tough hunt to find a good buck. Like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
 
I hunted it a few times before it became a controlled hunt. I'd seen a few 36-43" wide bucks that came from there, but I never could find one. lol

I left Jordon Valley headed east one morning and got turned around on the roads, so I stopped at a ranch to get directions. I told the rancher I had an Idaho tag and was trying to get there. He told me to just go down behind his house along the river bottom and kill a nice one, and he was serious. He said I could even camp there. He wasn't big on game laws or wardens.

Who did I look like? Claude Dallas? lol
 
Really!? That's sounds to good to be true lol. I talked to a good amount of land owners and everyone said this use to be such a good unit until fish and game got greedy and saw what kind of revenue they could collect with the forkin horn hunt. And that seemed to be true. Must have been off flint creek?
 
I does NOT take a Rocket Scientist to figure out why another Good unit is now a Fair unit !! Take a look at the number of forkies killed over say the last 5 years !! & that is ONLY the ones they counted thru the check stations . You can NOT kill a thousand plus forkies every year & expect the # of big bucks to still be Good ???
 
I agree, it makes no sense to shoot the young bucks. What does that accomplish?

I haven't been there since the late 80's, but if you drove around the outskirts of Jordon Valley at that time, you could see deer antlers nailed to garages and out buildings that would cause your jaw to drop, even back then.
 
A few years back, after much internet research, I decided to apply for unit 40 and low and behold my son and I drew out of state unit 40 tags, imagine that odds on that. On the second morning of our hunt we were hunting our way towards a canyon and I noticed a nice finger draw that I told my son we should check out first. As we turned and walked about 10 steps I noticed motion in my peripheral vision and turned to see the buck of a lifetime bouncing down the hill. If we had just stayed on the coarse we were walking we would have had an easy 50 yard shot at the biggest buck I've ever seen in the woods. Yeah, that happens all the time but this was a dream buck.
 

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