Deer, Unit 23

[Farmboywannabe]

How is the hunting pressure in Unit 23 during the general rifle hunt? Can a person get away from the crowds if there are crowds? What caliber of bucks can a guy expect?

 

[mdbrown]

i have spent the last month and a half, every weekend scouting and the last week i spent 3 days on a mule pack trip, the last 5 days in my camp trailer in unit 23. i glassed morning ang evening. i saw bucks none over 24 inches. i seen a total of 14 bucks in all of that time. i have been looking in the higher areas of the unit. im disapointed. the pressure in 23 is pretty heavy, im thinking more so this year with unit 22 being 2 point only. not to be discourging, but i hope this helps

 

[Farmboywannabe]

mdbrown,
Thanks for the info. Are you doing your scouting west or east of Highway 95? Have been east of 95 and I thought that I would give that a whirl this year. Have you hunted this unit a lot in the past or are you just starting out? What about the elk?

 

[dr_scirocco]

ive hunted 23 for 7 years in a row now. ive done ok for elk, but only seen two big bucks in that amount of time and both were killed by other people before i could relocate them. the pressure during the first week of rifle season is ridicululous. after opening day the elk get really holed up in the thick and nasty and then people start to lose interest. i don't see too many people hunting just deer up there, because you don't really see good bucks very often, mostly they are hunting elk and blasting any little buck they see on the side. as far as getting away from people, that's impossible. I rode/hiked a 12 mile loop last year looking for a canyon that wasn't getting slammed, there were wall tents every mile.

 

[customweld]

There are lots of areas w/o roads. If your interested in between the hazard lake area and little salmon river there is alot of real estate with no access park a rig at hazard creek bridge on the little river and drive to the top at hard butte or hazard lake and bail off take about 4 days to walk thru

 

[BPKHunter]

My first year after moving to Idaho we started spending some time just north of McCall in 23/24. We saw a ton of deer, both whitey and muley all summer, 8-10 bucks a day. I figured on opening day it would be easy. Well come hunting season I couldn't hardly find deer or bucks, let alone a mature 4 pt. Over the next 2 years I realized that in late Sept there is always a snow storm that hit and all the deer headed for the river. The many elk bow hunters didn't help. I have seen a few nice nice bucks, but the pressure and the migration don't help.

 

[htMakoSica]

2024, curios if this unit is still bad as you guys have made it out to be. any harvest in the past couple of years. ive hunted a couple different units in Idaho for deer and honestly, ever forum I read about something to do with Idaho Deer is just bad news. is Idaho not managing them property? well be hunting this unit in 2024

 

[Weiserbucks]

16 years later? Nothing has improved and everything is worse.

 

[JPickett]

16 years later? Nothing has improved and everything is worse.

yup. i elk hunt up in those units. deer hunting there has never crossed my mind

 

[boise]

Probably a few more Whitetail in area, elk numbers are good. Mule deer probably holding their own? They stop letting kids have either sex mule deer during general hunt if I remember correctly. Lot of Bears in unit do a spring bear hunt to get a feel for it!

 

[Moe]

You can go days in there and not see a muley.

 

[Sparks Shooter]

I had a few good hunts in 23 back about 10 years ago. Hunted it for 5 years in a row and watched it steadily decline. I hiked in 2 miles and climbed 2500'. Only monster buck I ever saw was a whitetail that I ran into in the middle of the trail a few hundred yards from my truck on the hike out. I bet it was a legit 150" whitetail which is a monster for there. Other than that, I killed an assortment of 3-5 year old mule deer with the best being about 160". Saw several really good bulls but never figured out how I'd get one out of there since the deer took all I had.----SS

 

[mdbrown]

I agree with the guys above
Not good news