Unit 23 (McCall Zone)

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 23 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 Adams, Idaho and Valley counties. It runs to about 743 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 23

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 23 in the McCall Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Salmon River, Little Salmon River and French Creek-Burgdorf-Summit Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 23 in Adams, Idaho and Valley counties on a line that runs along Salmon River, Little Salmon River, French Creek-Burgdorf-Summit Creek and French Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: She Devil, Tower of Babel and Devils Throne

Named high points inside the unit include She Devil at 9,337 feet, Tower of Babel at 9,249 feet, Devils Throne at 9,235 feet, The Ogre at 9,212 feet and Monument Peak at 8,938 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: Cold Springs Saddle, Hartly Meadows and Cloochman Saddle

Below them sit Cold Springs Saddle at 7,167 feet, Hartly Meadows at 6,990 feet, Cloochman Saddle at 6,954 feet, Hard Creek Basin at 6,869 feet and Elk Meadows at 6,694 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Rattlesnake Spring, Hot Springs and Cottonwood Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 284 mapped stream reaches, 28 lakes, 51 stock tanks and 20 springs. Named sources include Rattlesnake Spring, Hot Springs, Cottonwood Spring, Smoky Spring, Alder Spring and Cannon Ball Spring. 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 23 runs from 2,271 feet to 9,337 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 23 at 18% across all manners of take. A number that low means most hunters here go home empty, and the ones who don't put the days in first. 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 23

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for elk on unit 23 under its own number.

• Hunt 2004 — antlered elk, 10 tags, Oct 1–Oct 14

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 23 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 Jackley Mountain, Bear Pete Mountain and Bruin Mountain

Take a position on one of Jackley Mountain (8,743 ft), Bear Pete Mountain (8,736 ft), Bruin Mountain (8,716 ft) and Pyramid Mountain (8,662 ft) and be on it before light. Work the morning with the air falling away from you, then accept that by mid-morning the wind has reversed and the plan has to change with it. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. 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 284 mapped stream reaches and 51 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

Season normals here run Sep 76/39°F, Oct 60/31°F and Nov 45/24°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, 1.6 in. in Oct and 2 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: FS 246 and NF 451

US 95 is the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FS 246 and National Forest Development Road 21 need clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. 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.