Unit 16A (Selway Zone)
Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer, Whitetail
Unit 16A lies in Idaho County and covers about 279 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,913 to 7,796 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 12%. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 16A
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 16A 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.
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Elk Hunting in Unit 16A
Unit 16A lies in Idaho County and covers about 279 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,913 to 7,796 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 12%. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 16A
What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 16A is a boundary, not a elk map. Every place named below sits inside the unit line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out. The unit lies in Idaho County. It runs to about 279 square miles.
How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 16A
Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 16A in the Selway Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.
The lines of the unit: Meadow Creek, Selway River and Mink Creek
Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 16A in Idaho County on a line that runs along Forest Service Road 443, and past Meadow Creek, Selway River, Mink Creek and Wolf Point, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. What it does give you is the way in: the rivers and highways you cross, and the divides that decide which drainage you end up in.
High ground inside the line: Elk Mountain, Indian Peak and Bilk Mountain
Named high points inside the unit include Elk Mountain at 7,796 feet, Indian Peak at 7,699 feet, Bilk Mountain at 7,622 feet, Rocky Peak at 7,619 feet and Vermilion Peak at 7,521 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: Grave Meadow, Mountain Meadows and Buck Meadows
Below them sit Grave Meadow at 7,024 feet, Mountain Meadows at 6,328 feet, Buck Meadows at 5,612 feet, Tamarack Saddle at 5,250 feet and Marten Meadows at 5,044 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. 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 87 mapped stream reaches, 2 lakes and 6 stock tanks. 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 32% 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 16A runs from 4,913 feet to 7,796 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.
Unit 16A terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 2,948–7,175 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,315 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
- 278.7 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 32%
Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 6 tanks
- 87 stream segments
- 2 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: Elk Mountain (7,796 ft), Indian Peak (7,699 ft), Bilk Mountain (7,622 ft), Vermilion Peak (7,521 ft)
Holding ground: Grave Meadow (7,024 ft), Mountain Meadows (6,328 ft), Buck Meadows (5,612 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 16A
Elk Success Rates
Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 16A at 12% — 24 animals taken by 207 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.
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.
Elk Draw Odds
Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.
Search Idaho Draw OddsIdaho Fish and Game's draw results for 2022 to 2026 carry no first-drawing elk hunt we can tie to unit 16A. Rather than estimate, we leave it blank: Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner lists drawing odds hunt by hunt.
Unit Logistics & Expectations
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Idaho unit 16A?
What is the elk success rate in unit 16A?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 16A hunt?
What is the mule deer success rate in unit 16A?
What is the white-tailed deer success rate in unit 16A?
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & 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 · accessed 2026-10-24
- IDFG Selway Zone elk tag limits — 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 elk in unit 16A · accessed 2026-10-19
- 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 16A — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24
- IDFG white-tailed deer season page for unit 16A — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24