Idaho Mule Deer Elk California Bighorn Sheep

Unit 42 (Owyhee Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Mule Deer, Elk, California Bighorn Sheep

Unit 42 lies in Owyhee County and covers about 1,341 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,258 to 6,808 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 14%. Federal land covers about 100% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

🏔️

100%

Public Land

⛰️

4,612–6,087 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 42

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 42 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.

Mule Deer guide Elk guide California Bighorn Sheep guide

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.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 42

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 42 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer live. 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 Owyhee County. It runs to about 1,341 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 42, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.

The lines of the unit: Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 42 in Owyhee County on a line that runs along Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Juniper Mountain, Twin Springs Ridge and Bedstead Ridge

Named high points inside the unit include Juniper Mountain at 6,808 feet, Twin Springs Ridge at 6,739 feet, Bedstead Ridge at 6,551 feet, Big Ridge at 6,303 feet and Crab Spring Butte at 6,300 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Bull Basin, D Bar Basin and Sunshine Valley

Below them sit Bull Basin at 5,650 feet, D Bar Basin at 5,632 feet, Sunshine Valley at 5,615 feet, Horse Flat at 5,592 feet and Frying Pan Basin at 5,589 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. 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 30 mapped stream reaches, 8 lakes, 72 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 Private / Other 85% and BLM 15%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. Named ground inside unit 42 runs from 4,258 feet to 6,808 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit 42 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,612–6,087 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,316 ft ; peaks can run higher.
1,341 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

72 tanks
1 springs
30 stream segments
8 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: Juniper Mountain (6,808 ft), Bedstead Ridge (6,551 ft), Big Ridge (6,303 ft), Crab Spring Butte (6,300 ft)

Holding ground: Stauffer Flat (6,760 ft), Manada Flat (6,093 ft), Grassy Flat (6,089 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 42

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 42 at 14% 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 42

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 2 controlled hunts for mule deer on unit 42 under its own number.

Hunt 1033 — antlered deer, 50 tags, Nov 1–Nov 24
Hunt 1170 — outfitter allocation deer, antlered deer only, 1 tag, Nov 1–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 42 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 Bald Mountain, Bear Creek Point and Herds V

Take a position on one of Bald Mountain (6,125 ft), Bear Creek Point (5,968 ft), Herds V (5,962 ft) and The Buttes (5,872 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. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 30 mapped stream reaches and 72 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 81/43°F, Oct 66/33°F and Nov 50/25°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 0.3 in. in Sep, 0.7 in. in Oct and 0.8 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: 45 Ranch Road and Brace Ranch 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 42

Named routes and what they need

45 Ranch Road — 22.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Brace Ranch Road — 16.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Juniper Mountain Road — 11.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Tent Creek Road — 9.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Mud Flat Road — 8.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bedstead Ridge Road — 4.1 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

Owyhee — 39.8 mi · no services listed
Jordan Valley — 48.4 mi · fuel
Grand View — 54.1 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 1" precip
Aug91° / 51° · 0.2" precip
Sep81° / 43° · 0.3" precip
Oct66° / 33° · 0.7" precip
Nov50° / 25° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 20° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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 42 at 14% — 33 animals taken by 242 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)	45	583	8.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	5	160	3.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	2	215	1.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	1	41	2.0%	—

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 mule deer in unit 42, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 1033 — residents 583 applicants for 45 tags, 8% drawn; nonresidents 160 applicants for 5 tags, 3% 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.

Elk Hunting in Unit 42

Unit 42 lies in Owyhee County and covers about 1,341 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,258 to 6,808 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit elk success figure we can verify for this unit. Federal land covers about 100% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 42 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Owyhee County. It runs to about 1,341 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 42 in the Owyhee Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 42 in Owyhee County on a line that runs along Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek, 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: Rough Mountain, Big Tree and Big Springs Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Rough Mountain at 6,293 feet, Big Tree at 6,150 feet, Big Springs Butte at 6,134 feet, Bald Mountain at 6,125 feet and Bear Creek Point at 5,968 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Dukes Hole, Bullhead Basin and Wilson Pasture

Below them sit Dukes Hole at 5,552 feet, Bullhead Basin at 5,546 feet, Wilson Pasture at 5,540 feet, Rock Flat at 5,507 feet and Willow Meadows at 5,504 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 30 mapped stream reaches, 8 lakes, 72 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 42 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,612–6,087 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,316 ft ; peaks can run higher.
1,341 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

72 tanks
1 springs
30 stream segments
8 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: Juniper Mountain (6,808 ft), Bedstead Ridge (6,551 ft), Big Ridge (6,303 ft), Crab Spring Butte (6,300 ft)

Holding ground: Stauffer Flat (6,760 ft), Manada Flat (6,093 ft), Grassy Flat (6,089 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 42

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no elk success figure for unit 42 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 42

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 2 controlled hunts for elk on unit 42 under its own number.

Hunt 2018 — antlered elk, 15 tags, Oct 15–Nov 24
Hunt 2191 — outfitter allocation elk, 1 tag, Oct 15–Nov 24. Antlered 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 42 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 Slack Mountain, Dollar Butte and Boni Table

Take a position on one of Slack Mountain (5,853 ft), Dollar Butte (5,800 ft), Boni Table (5,775 ft) and Avery Table (5,749 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. Work the glass in strips and go back over ground you already covered — animals appear in country you looked at ten minutes ago. 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 30 mapped stream reaches and 72 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

Getting past the roads: 45 Ranch Road and Brace Ranch 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 a day here costs you

1,341 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Owyhee, about 40 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

Getting in and staying out: unit 42

Named routes and what they need

45 Ranch Road — 22.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Brace Ranch Road — 16.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Juniper Mountain Road — 11.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Tent Creek Road — 9.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Mud Flat Road — 8.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bedstead Ridge Road — 4.1 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

Owyhee — 39.8 mi · no services listed
Jordan Valley — 48.4 mi · fuel
Grand View — 54.1 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 1" precip
Aug91° / 51° · 0.2" precip
Sep81° / 43° · 0.3" precip
Oct66° / 33° · 0.7" precip
Nov50° / 25° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 20° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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

Rifle73%

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 general-hunt harvest statistics carry no elk success figure for unit 42 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)	14	634	2.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	1	142	1.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	2	300	1.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	39	0.0%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for elk in unit 42, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2018 — residents 634 applicants for 14 tags, 2% drawn; nonresidents 142 applicants for 1 tag, 1% drawn

California Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit 42

Unit 42 lies in Owyhee County and covers about 1,341 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,258 to 6,808 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put California bighorn sheep success here as high as 53%. Federal land covers about 100% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find California Bighorn Sheep in Unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game draws an exact line around unit 42 and says nothing about where the California bighorn sheep stand inside it. 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 Owyhee County. It runs to about 1,341 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up California bighorn sheep hunting in unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game hunts California bighorn sheep here only by controlled hunt, and describes its California bighorn sheep hunt area 42 as all of Unit 42.

The lines of the unit: Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 42 in Owyhee County on a line that runs along Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It tells you the shape of the unit and nothing about its inhabitants. 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: Herds V, The Buttes and Slack Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Herds V at 5,962 feet, The Buttes at 5,872 feet, Slack Mountain at 5,853 feet, Dollar Butte at 5,800 feet and Boni Table at 5,775 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Sheep on lower country still need rock, and on a desert unit the rock is the whole hunt.

Holding ground: Lost Valley, Wagon Box Basin and Hidden Valley

Below them sit Lost Valley at 5,493 feet, Wagon Box Basin at 5,455 feet, Hidden Valley at 5,429 feet, Box Canyon at 5,417 feet and Dutch Oven at 5,414 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 30 mapped stream reaches, 8 lakes, 72 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 42 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

4,612–6,087 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 5,316 ft ; peaks can run higher.
1,341 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
Private / Other — 85%

Roughly 15% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

72 tanks
1 springs
30 stream segments
8 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: Juniper Mountain (6,808 ft), Bedstead Ridge (6,551 ft), Big Ridge (6,303 ft), Crab Spring Butte (6,300 ft)

Holding ground: Stauffer Flat (6,760 ft), Manada Flat (6,093 ft), Grassy Flat (6,089 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 California Bighorn Sheep in Unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put California bighorn sheep success in unit 42 at 53% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: pick a glassing position across from the escape terrain and stay on it for hours, not minutes.

The 2025 and 2026 controlled hunts in unit 42

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for California bighorn sheep on unit 42 under its own number.

Hunt 7003 — 3 tags, Aug 30–Oct 8

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 42 tag

Idaho Fish and Game takes moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications together, and anyone who applies for one of the three may not apply for another big game controlled hunt in the same year's first drawing, apart from the unlimited, extra, black bear and depredation hunts IDFG names. A hunter drawn for either bighorn may not apply for a bighorn tag for two years, and IDFG allows one Rocky Mountain and one California bighorn per hunter in a lifetime. Two hunters may apply together on one application. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Lambert Table, Spring Butte and Cavieta Hill

Take a position on one of Lambert Table (5,624 ft), Spring Butte (5,569 ft), Cavieta Hill (5,545 ft) and Pole Creek Breaks (5,498 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, late hunts put rams with ewe groups on the same rock.

Water against feed

There are 30 mapped stream reaches and 72 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

Getting past the roads: 45 Ranch Road and Brace Ranch 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 a day here costs you

1,341 square miles is more country than a week will cover, so pick one drainage and learn it rather than driving the unit. The nearest services are at Owyhee, about 40 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

Getting in and staying out: unit 42

Named routes and what they need

45 Ranch Road — 22.3 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Brace Ranch Road — 16.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Juniper Mountain Road — 11.9 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Tent Creek Road — 9.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Mud Flat Road — 8.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Bedstead Ridge Road — 4.1 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

Owyhee — 39.8 mi · no services listed
Jordan Valley — 48.4 mi · fuel
Grand View — 54.1 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan40° / 20° · 1" precip
Aug91° / 51° · 0.2" precip
Sep81° / 43° · 0.3" precip
Oct66° / 33° · 0.7" precip
Nov50° / 25° · 0.8" precip
Dec39° / 20° · 1.1" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 21% 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.

California Bighorn Sheep: 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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California Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put California bighorn sheep success in unit 42 at 53% — 30 animals taken by 57 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.

California Bighorn Sheep Draw Odds

Draw odds data not available for this specific unit/species combination in our database.

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Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 first drawing for California bighorn sheep in unit 42, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 7003 — residents 111 applicants for 2 tags, 2% drawn; nonresidents 116 applicants for 1 tag, 1% 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 2026. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

22 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Owyhee North Fork Campground.

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Road Conditions

45 Ranch Road, Brace Ranch Road and Juniper Mountain Road are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 0 mi paved, 38 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 4,258 to 6,808 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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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 81/43°F, 0.3 in.; Oct 66/33°F, 0.7 in.; Nov 50/25°F, 0.8 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 21%, AT&T 14%, T-Mobile 7% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Owyhee (40 mi), Jordan Valley (48 mi), Grand View (54 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 42?

Unit 42 lies in Owyhee County. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 42 on a line that runs along Owyhee River, Mud Flat-Juniper Mountain and Poison Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 1,341 square miles.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 42?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 42 at 14% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 42 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 42 are at Owyhee, about 40 miles from the unit's centre, with Jordan Valley at about 48 miles. There are also 22 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the elk success rate in unit 42?

Idaho Fish and Game publishes no elk success figure we can tie to unit 42 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.

What is the California bighorn sheep success rate in unit 42?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put California bighorn sheep success in unit 42 at 53% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

Free Hunt Planning Tools

🎰 Idaho Draw Odds Unit-level tag success rates 📅 Application Timeline Deadlines for all 9 states 🦌 Rut Forecast Peak rut timing by species 💰 Hunt Cost Calculator Budget your entire hunt

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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 general deer season page for unit 42 — 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 42 · 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
Moose, Bighorn Sheep & Mountain Goat 2025 & 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Controlled hunt application periods and eligibility rules · accessed 2026-10-24