Unit 24 (McCall Zone)
Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk
Unit 24 lies in Valley County and covers about 876 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,712 to 9,027 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 10%. Federal land covers about 43% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 24
Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 24 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.
Free accounts get one report a year with the top spot unlocked. ProHunt Pro includes unlimited reports, all three spots, the full camp plan, and GPX/KML downloads for onX and Google Earth. Prefer to see one first? Open the builder and pick any unit.
Elk Hunting in Unit 24
Unit 24 lies in Valley County and covers about 876 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,712 to 9,027 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 10%. Federal land covers about 43% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Elk in Unit 24
Idaho Fish and Game draws an exact line around unit 24 and says nothing about where the elk stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Valley County. It runs to about 876 square miles.
How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 24
Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 24 in the McCall Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.
What bounds unit 24
Idaho Fish and Game describes unit 24 as that portion of Valley County within the drainage of the North Fork of the Payette River, except that portion south of Smiths Ferry Bridge-Packer John Road (Forest Service Road 689) up to Murray Saddle, and on the east side of the river and south of Smith Ferry-High Valley Road on the west side of the river. 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: Nick Peak, Storm Peak and Sawtooth Peak
Named high points inside the unit include Nick Peak at 9,027 feet, Storm Peak at 9,007 feet, Sawtooth Peak at 8,828 feet, Beaverdam Peak at 8,607 feet and Snowslide Peak at 8,460 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: Cougar Saddle, North Fitsum Summit and Fisher Creek Saddle
Below them sit Cougar Saddle at 7,644 feet, North Fitsum Summit at 7,535 feet, Fisher Creek Saddle at 7,451 feet, Fall Creek Saddle at 7,392 feet and Gold Fork Meadow at 7,149 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. 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 144 mapped stream reaches, 53 lakes, 92 stock tanks and 3 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 24 runs from 4,712 feet to 9,027 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.
Unit 24 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 4,777–7,316 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,660 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 876.2 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.
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
- 92 tanks
- 3 springs
- 144 stream segments
- 53 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: Nick Peak (9,027 ft), Storm Peak (9,007 ft), Sawtooth Peak (8,828 ft), Beaverdam Peak (8,607 ft)
Holding ground: Snowslide Summit (8,071 ft), Needles Summit (7,916 ft), Kennally Creek Summit (7,899 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 24
Elk Success Rates
Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 24 at 10% — 116 animals taken by 1,136 hunters. That is a lot of hunters in one unit, and the percentage is what it looks like after all of them have been through 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 24. 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 24?
What is the elk success rate in unit 24?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 24 hunt?
Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro
Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.
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 McCall 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 24 · 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