Unit 25 (McCall Zone)

Idaho Fish and Game draws an exact line around unit 25 and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. 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 Valley County. It runs to about 897 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 25

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 25, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.

The lines of the unit: Salmon River, Hall Creek and Bear Creek

Idaho Fish and Game describes unit 25 as that portion of Valley County within the drainage of the South Fork of the Salmon River south of the Hall Creek drainage on the east side of the river, and south of the Bear Creek drainage on the west side of the river, except that portion of the Secesh River drainage upstream from and including Paradise Creek drainage. 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: Log Mountain, Pyramid Point and Trapper Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Log Mountain at 9,142 feet, Pyramid Point at 8,999 feet, Trapper Mountain at 8,960 feet, Profile Peak at 8,933 feet and Parks Peak at 8,774 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: Round Meadow, South Fork Buckhorn Summit and Warm Lake Summit

Below them sit Round Meadow at 7,437 feet, South Fork Buckhorn Summit at 7,313 feet, Warm Lake Summit at 7,297 feet, Upper Trapper Flat at 7,242 feet and Wardenhoff Meadows at 7,086 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: Barrel Spring and Buckhorn Hot Spring

The water inside the unit line comes to 537 mapped stream reaches, 17 lakes, 67 stock tanks and 1 springs. Named sources include Barrel Spring and Buckhorn Hot 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 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 25 runs from 3,671 feet to 9,142 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 deer success in unit 25 at 19% 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: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 25

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mule deer on unit 25 under its own number.

• Hunt 1016 — antlered deer, 10 tags, Oct 10–Nov 24

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 25 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 Rice Peak, Rainbow Ridge and Thunderbolt Mountain

Take a position on one of Rice Peak (8,670 ft), Rainbow Ridge (8,652 ft), Thunderbolt Mountain (8,642 ft) and Square Top (8,626 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 537 mapped stream reaches and 67 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. Check the ground around it before you commit an evening to it.

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Season normals here run Sep 75/37°F, Oct 59/30°F and Nov 42/22°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 1.3 in. in Sep, 2 in. in Oct and 2.7 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: FS 474 and NF 1290

FS 474 and FS 409 need clearance, and that is usually where the boot tracks thin out. There are roughly 7 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Log Mountain, Pyramid Point and Profile Peak as places to see from, and Chilcoot Pass, Fitsum Summit, Rainbow Saddle and Barrel Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Take the pair you can reach on one road and treat the rest as a second trip.