Idaho Elk Mule Deer

Unit 13 (Hells Canyon Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer

Unit 13 lies in Idaho County and covers about 344 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 997 to 6,051 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 17% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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17%

Public Land

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1,121–4,900 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 13

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 13 guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Elk guide Mule Deer guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 13

Where to Find Elk in Unit 13

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 13 is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Idaho County. It runs to about 344 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 13 in the Hells Canyon Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Snake River and Salmon River

Idaho Fish and Game describes unit 13 as that portion of Idaho County bounded by the Snake River on the west, the Salmon River on the east and north and the White Bird-Pittsburg Landing Road on the south. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. Its value is practical — those are the features you will navigate by, and the ridges that separate one day's country from another's.

High ground inside the line: Camp Howard Ridge, Coyote Ridge and Wild Horse Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Camp Howard Ridge at 6,051 feet, Coyote Ridge at 5,844 feet, Wild Horse Butte at 5,405 feet, Wild Horse Ridge at 5,405 feet and Highrange Ridge at 5,038 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk want timber to bed in and open ground to feed on, within a short walk of each other.

Holding ground: Twogood Flat, Reed Point and Pittsburg Saddle

Below them sit Twogood Flat at 4,351 feet, Reed Point at 4,300 feet, Pittsburg Saddle at 4,292 feet, Doumecq Plains at 4,254 feet and Shillam Flat at 4,136 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Reaching the edge of one before light beats reaching its middle at noon.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 96 mapped stream reaches, 4 lakes, 1 stock tanks and 1 springs. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. Named ground inside unit 13 runs from 997 feet to 6,051 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit 13 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

The lay of it

1,121–4,900 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,375 ft ; peaks can run higher.
343.7 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

1 tanks
1 springs
96 stream segments
4 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Camp Howard Ridge (6,051 ft), Wild Horse Butte (5,405 ft), Center Ridge (4,895 ft), Bingman Ridge (4,270 ft)

Holding ground: Big Canyon Saddle (4,905 ft), Pittsburg Saddle (4,292 ft), Christmas Tree Gulch (4,097 ft)

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Elk in Unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no elk success figure for unit 13 that we can tie to this unit alone, so we won't quote one. The plan: find the feed, find the timber it backs onto, then watch the seam between them at the edges of the day.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 4 controlled hunts for elk on unit 13 under its own number.

Hunt 2054 — antlerless elk, 250 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3. Very limited access because of few roads and private property
Hunt 2110 — either sex elk, 335 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3. Very limited access because of few roads and private property
Hunt 2177 — outfitter allocation elk, 15 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3. Either sex
Hunt 2178 — outfitter allocation elk, 9 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3. Antlerless only

Dates and tag numbers are IDFG's as printed for that season, and IDFG changes hunt areas between years, so check the current booklet before you apply.

Applying for a unit 13 tag

Idaho Fish and Game's first application period for deer, elk and pronghorn runs May 1 to June 5, with results in early July, and a second period runs August 5 to 15 for what is left. A hunter drawn for a limited antlered-only elk hunt sits out the next year's first period for that kind of hunt; unlimited and extra hunts are exempt. Two to four hunters may apply together for the same hunt. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Joe Point, Mollie Point and Sugarloaf Butte

Take a position on one of Joe Point (4,624 ft), Mollie Point (4,462 ft), Sugarloaf Butte (4,437 ft) and Abercombie Ridge (4,412 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

Water against feed

There are 96 mapped stream reaches and 1 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. A tank with no tracks is a tank with no reason to sit on it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 72/47°F, Oct 57/37°F and Nov 44/29°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.1 in. in Sep, 1.8 in. in Oct and 2.1 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: CR 493 and Eagle Creek Road

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

Getting in and staying out: unit 13

Named routes and what they need

CR 493 — 11.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Eagle Creek Road — 2.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Deer Creek Road — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Cottonwood — 16.6 mi · fuel
Grangeville — 20.3 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Ferdinand / palx̂óockin — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Craigmont — 27.8 mi · no services listed
Nezperce — 30.4 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Schwartz Bar Campsite
Sandpiper Campsite
Lower Coffee Grinder Campsite
Coffee Grinder Campsite
Big Rock Campsite

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 24° · 1.6" precip
Aug81° / 54° · 0.8" precip
Sep72° / 47° · 1.1" precip
Oct57° / 37° · 1.8" precip
Nov44° / 29° · 2.1" precip
Dec36° / 23° · 1.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Elk: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body. That is lungs, and on a quartering-away angle it picks up the far shoulder.

Shots to refuse

No straight-on and no straight-away shots. An elk's chest is deep and the margin is small.
Nothing standing behind or overlapping the animal you picked. A pass-through kills the elk behind it too.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have put three shots in a paper plate off the sticks you are actually carrying. Not the farthest you have ever hit anything.
Scope on 3–4x. A herd fills a 12x field of view and you lose the animal you picked.

Identification:On an antlerless tag, legal means no antler of any kind through the skin. A spike looks exactly like a cow until it turns its head. If you can't see the head, don't shoot.

Plan the carry: roughly 150– 220 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two to four large coolers, plus bagged ice from town. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Elk Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 general-hunt harvest statistics carry no elk success figure for unit 13 with a hunter count behind it, so we leave the number out rather than print one we cannot read back to this unit. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner is the place to check before you apply.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	36	36	100.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	16	16	100.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	19	19	100.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	11	11	100.0%	—

Data from 2025 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for elk in unit 13, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2110 — residents 415 applicants for 302 tags, 73% drawn; nonresidents 105 applicants for 33 tags, 31% drawn
Hunt 2054 — residents 36 applicants for 36 tags, 100% drawn; nonresidents 16 applicants for 16 tags, 100% drawn

Idaho draws at random with no point system, so these are what that year happened to look like, not a requirement to build toward. Idaho Fish and Game reuses hunt numbers for different areas between years, so the figures are matched on the area each hunt had in 2025. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 13

Unit 13 lies in Idaho County and covers about 344 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 997 to 6,051 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 46%. Federal land covers about 17% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 13

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 13 is a boundary, not a mule deer map. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such. The unit lies in Idaho County. It runs to about 344 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 13, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.

The lines of the unit: Snake River and Salmon River

Idaho Fish and Game describes unit 13 as that portion of Idaho County bounded by the Snake River on the west, the Salmon River on the east and north and the White Bird-Pittsburg Landing Road on the south. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. Those features are what you will check against the map all week, and the divides among them are the ones that matter.

High ground inside the line: Saddle Horse Ridge, Center Ridge and High Breaks

Named high points inside the unit include Saddle Horse Ridge at 5,008 feet, Center Ridge at 4,895 feet, High Breaks at 4,811 feet, Joe Point at 4,624 feet and Mollie Point at 4,462 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer bed on broken ground with a view and feed on the brush below it.

Holding ground: Deadhorse Saddle, Christmas Tree Gulch and Post Pile Saddle

Below them sit Deadhorse Saddle at 4,112 feet, Christmas Tree Gulch at 4,097 feet, Post Pile Saddle at 4,033 feet, Dewey Gulch at 4,032 feet and Deer Gulch at 3,892 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 96 mapped stream reaches, 4 lakes, 1 stock tanks and 1 springs. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Reading the land status

Unit 13 terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

The lay of it

1,121–4,900 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,375 ft ; peaks can run higher.
343.7 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 17%

Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

1 tanks
1 springs
96 stream segments
4 lakes

Counts from mapping data, so this is how many exist, not how many hold water in a dry year. Sitting water only pays where you find fresh tracks.

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Camp Howard Ridge (6,051 ft), Wild Horse Butte (5,405 ft), Center Ridge (4,895 ft), Bingman Ridge (4,270 ft)

Holding ground: Big Canyon Saddle (4,905 ft), Pittsburg Saddle (4,292 ft), Christmas Tree Gulch (4,097 ft)

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 13 at 46% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 13

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 2 controlled hunts for mule deer on unit 13 under its own number.

Hunt 1006 — antlered deer, 125 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3. Very limited access because of few roads and private property
Hunt 1151 — outfitter allocation deer, antlered deer only, 37 tags, Oct 10–Nov 3

Dates and tag numbers are IDFG's as printed for that season, and IDFG changes hunt areas between years, so check the current booklet before you apply.

Applying for a unit 13 tag

Idaho Fish and Game's first application period for deer, elk and pronghorn runs May 1 to June 5, with results in early July, and a second period runs August 5 to 15 for what is left. A hunter drawn for a limited antlered-only deer hunt sits out the next year's first period for that kind of hunt; unlimited and extra hunts are exempt. Two to four hunters may apply together for the same hunt. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Windy Ridge, Rattlesnake Ridge and Price Ridge

Take a position on one of Windy Ridge (4,403 ft), Rattlesnake Ridge (4,399 ft), Price Ridge (4,330 ft) and Sugarloaf Knob (4,309 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. Give a basin forty minutes before you decide it is empty. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 96 mapped stream reaches and 1 tanks inside the unit, so water is rarely the limiting factor. Where water is everywhere, feed is what concentrates animals, so hunt the feed and treat water as a convenience. Sitting water works where you can see fresh tracks going in, and nowhere else.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: CR 493 and Eagle Creek Road

There is little true four-wheel-drive road here, so distance from the gravel is the only thing separating you from the next hunter.

What we can't tell you

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it.

Getting in and staying out: unit 13

Named routes and what they need

CR 493 — 11.7 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Eagle Creek Road — 2.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Deer Creek Road — 1.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)

Ratings come from road data, not from a drive this season. Check current conditions with the managing office before you commit a trailer.

Nearest services

Cottonwood — 16.6 mi · fuel
Grangeville — 20.3 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Ferdinand / palx̂óockin — 22.4 mi · no services listed
Craigmont — 27.8 mi · no services listed
Nezperce — 30.4 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Schwartz Bar Campsite
Sandpiper Campsite
Lower Coffee Grinder Campsite
Coffee Grinder Campsite
Big Rock Campsite

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 24° · 1.6" precip
Aug81° / 54° · 0.8" precip
Sep72° / 47° · 1.1" precip
Oct57° / 37° · 1.8" precip
Nov44° / 29° · 2.1" precip
Dec36° / 23° · 1.9" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% of the unit. Plan on being out of contact and tell someone your route.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Mule Deer: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mule Deer Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 13 at 46% — 208 animals taken by 454 hunters. The hunter count is large enough for the percentage to mean something and small enough that a good or bad year still moves it. The figure is IDFG's result for deer in the unit, not for mule deer alone.

These are the agency's own printed figures for this unit, not a modelled estimate and not a state average. They describe one season, so check Idaho Fish and Game's current harvest estimates before you read a trend into them.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	93	93	100.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	12	49	24.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	10	40	25.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	10	29	34.0%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for mule deer in unit 13, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 1006 — residents 93 applicants for 93 tags, 100% drawn; nonresidents 49 applicants for 12 tags, 24% drawn

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

61 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Schwartz Bar Campsite, Sandpiper Campsite and Lower Coffee Grinder Campsite.

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Road Conditions

CR 493, Eagle Creek Road and Deer Creek Road are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 0 mi paved, 12 mi gravel and 3 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 997 to 6,051 ft. More than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

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Hunting Pressure

Our land-status read for this unit is approximate, so treat any pressure estimate from it with suspicion and check a current ownership layer.

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Weather

Season normals: Sep 72/47°F, 1.1 in.; Oct 57/37°F, 1.8 in.; Nov 44/29°F, 2.1 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 26%, AT&T 17%, T-Mobile 9% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Cottonwood (17 mi), Grangeville (20 mi), Ferdinand / palx̂óockin (22 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 13?

Unit 13 lies in Idaho County. Idaho Fish and Game describes unit 13 as that portion of Idaho County bounded by the Snake River on the west, the Salmon River on the east and north and the White Bird-Pittsburg Landing Road on the south. It covers about 344 square miles.

What is the elk success rate in unit 13?

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no elk success figure we can tie to unit 13 on its own — the 2025 harvest tables either omit the unit or report it in a grouping we could not read back to it reliably. Rather than quote a statewide average as though it were measured here, we say so. Check Idaho Fish and Game's current harvest estimates before you apply.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 13 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 13 are at Cottonwood, about 17 miles from the unit's centre, with Grangeville at about 20 miles. There are also 61 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 13?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 13 at 46% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.

Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Game management unit boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG Hunt Planner — controlled hunt drawing odds — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Applicants, tags and percent drawn by hunt, year and residency · accessed 2026-06-09
IDFG GameManagementUnits and ControlledHunts_All feature services — game management units and every species' controlled-hunt areas — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Mapped extent of the unit or hunt area, Which named ground falls inside its line · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG general deer season page for unit 13 — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG Hunt Planner — 2025 general hunt harvest statistics — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Harvest, hunters and percent success for deer in unit 13 · accessed 2026-10-19