Idaho Pronghorn Elk

Unit 46 (South Hills Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Pronghorn, Elk

Unit 46 lies in Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties and covers about 2,858 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 2,462 to 6,006 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put pronghorn success here as high as 52%. Federal land covers about 80% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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80%

Public Land

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2,931–5,701 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 46

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 46 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.

Pronghorn guide Elk guide

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Pronghorn Hunting in Unit 46

Where to Find Pronghorn in Unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 46 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its pronghorn live. 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 Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties. It runs to about 2,858 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up pronghorn hunting in unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game hunts pronghorn here only by controlled hunt, and describes its pronghorn hunt area 46 as all of Unit 46.

The lines of the unit: Snake River, Rogerson-Three Creek and Bruneau River

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 46 in Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties on a line that runs along State Highway 51, U.S. 30 and U.S. 93, and past Snake River, Rogerson-Three Creek and Bruneau River, 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: Black Rock, Signal Butte and Grassy Hills

Named high points inside the unit include Black Rock at 6,006 feet, Signal Butte at 5,916 feet, Grassy Hills at 5,876 feet, Little Grassy Hill at 5,854 feet and Cedar Butte at 5,778 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Pronghorn live in the open and trust their eyes, which is the whole problem.

Holding ground: Mud Flat Draw, Joiner Flat and John Boyd Flat

Below them sit Mud Flat Draw at 5,500 feet, Joiner Flat at 5,368 feet, John Boyd Flat at 5,324 feet, Diamond A Desert at 5,293 feet and Hole in the Ground at 5,269 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: Rings Springs, Tuana Spring and Reynolds Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 123 mapped stream reaches, 38 lakes, 151 stock tanks and 3 springs. Named sources include Rings Springs, Tuana Spring, Reynolds Springs, Hot Sulphur Springs and Berger Well. On ground with that many tanks, knowing which two or three hold water in your season is the most useful thing a scouting trip can tell you.

Reading the land status

Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as Private / Other 77%, 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 46 runs from 2,462 feet to 6,006 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit 46 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,931–5,701 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,302 ft ; peaks can run higher.
2,857.6 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 77%

Roughly 23% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

151 tanks
3 springs
123 stream segments
38 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: Black Rock (6,006 ft), Signal Butte (5,916 ft), Grassy Hills (5,876 ft), Little Grassy Hill (5,854 ft)

Holding ground: Bud Lewis Hill (5,759 ft), Big Flat (5,689 ft), Dishpan (5,521 ft), Rings Springs, Tuana Spring

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 Pronghorn in Unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 46 at 52% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: spot from a vehicle or a rise at distance, then plan a stalk that uses the only cover there is — the curve of the ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for pronghorn on unit 46 under its own number.

Hunt 4012 — either sex pronghorn, 60 tags, Sep 25–Oct 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 46 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. Anyone drawn for a limited pronghorn hunt in the first period must sit out the next year's first period for limited pronghorn hunts. 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 Mosquito Lake Butte, Arch Table and Marshall Butte

Take a position on one of Mosquito Lake Butte (5,563 ft), Arch Table (5,549 ft), Marshall Butte (5,511 ft) and Juniper Butte (5,481 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, early-season bucks hold does and can be decoyed where the law allows it.

Water against feed

There are 123 mapped stream reaches and 151 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 77/45°F, Oct 63/36°F and Nov 47/27°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 0.5 in. in Sep, 0.8 in. in Oct and 1 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: Three Creek Road and Clover Three Creek Road

I 84 / US 26 / US 30 and US 30 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. There are roughly 48.4 miles of genuine four-wheel-drive road in the unit, and the country past the end of them is the part worth your legs.

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 46

Named routes and what they need

Three Creek Road — 29.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Clover Three Creek Road — 13.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
East 4000 North — 12.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
I 84;US 26;US 30 — 12.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
East 3100 North — 11.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 30 — 10.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Castleford — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Buhl — 24.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Hagerman — 27.5 mi · no services listed
Filer — 31.6 mi · groceries
Glenns Ferry — 32.2 mi · fuel, lodging

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Oasis Stop and Go
Balanced Rock Park Campground
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 21° · 1.2" precip
Aug87° / 54° · 0.3" precip
Sep77° / 45° · 0.5" precip
Oct63° / 36° · 0.8" precip
Nov47° / 27° · 1" precip
Dec36° / 21° · 1.3" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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.

Pronghorn: where to put the shot

Broadside, straight up the front leg, a third of the way into the body. Pronghorn are shallow-chested and the lungs sit forward.

Shots to refuse

Range it, then range it again. Open country makes 400 yards look like 250.
Wait for the buck to stop. Nobody kills a running pronghorn cleanly on purpose.
Mind the backdrop. A miss carries a long way across a flat.

Plan the carry: roughly 30– 45 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — one large cooler with ice already in it. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Pronghorn Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 46 at 52% — 127 animals taken by 245 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.

Pronghorn Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	55	2,442	2.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	5	205	2.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	1	312	0.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	21	0.0%	—

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 pronghorn in unit 46, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 4012 — residents 2,442 applicants for 55 tags, 2% drawn; nonresidents 205 applicants for 5 tags, 2% 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 46

Unit 46 lies in Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties and covers about 2,858 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 2,462 to 6,006 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 20%. Federal land covers about 80% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Elk in Unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 46 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its elk live. 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 Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties. It runs to about 2,858 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 46

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 46 in the South Hills Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Snake River, Rogerson-Three Creek and Bruneau River

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 46 in Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties on a line that runs along State Highway 51, U.S. 30 and U.S. 93, and past Snake River, Rogerson-Three Creek and Bruneau River, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. 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: Pence Butte, Poison Butte and Middle Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Pence Butte at 5,699 feet, Poison Butte at 5,656 feet, Middle Butte at 5,586 feet, Mosquito Lake Butte at 5,563 feet and Arch Table at 5,549 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: Black Rock Pocket, Seventy-One Draw and Aikers Field

Below them sit Black Rock Pocket at 5,260 feet, Seventy-One Draw at 5,148 feet, Aikers Field at 5,134 feet, Worley Draw at 5,088 feet and Buck Flat at 5,035 feet. That is the low country of the unit — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

Water: Rings Springs, Tuana Spring and Reynolds Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 46 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,931–5,701 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 4,302 ft ; peaks can run higher.
2,857.6 sq mi inside the boundary. Big enough that picking one drainage beats driving three.

Who owns the ground

BLM — 15%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 77%

Roughly 23% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

151 tanks
3 springs
123 stream segments
38 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: Black Rock (6,006 ft), Signal Butte (5,916 ft), Grassy Hills (5,876 ft), Little Grassy Hill (5,854 ft)

Holding ground: Bud Lewis Hill (5,759 ft), Big Flat (5,689 ft), Dishpan (5,521 ft), Rings Springs, Tuana Spring

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 46

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 46 at 20% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. 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 46

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 2 controlled hunts for elk on unit 46 under its own number.

Hunt 2025 — antlered elk, 40 tags, Dec 1–Dec 31
Hunt 2086 — antlerless elk, 75 tags, Nov 15–Dec 31

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 46 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 Black Butte, Burnt Butte and Coonskin Butte

Take a position on one of Black Butte (5,389 ft), Burnt Butte (5,344 ft), Coonskin Butte (5,336 ft) and Pigtail Butte (5,270 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. 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

Timing the season: Sep, Oct, Nov

Getting past the roads: Three Creek Road and Clover Three Creek Road

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 46

Named routes and what they need

Three Creek Road — 29.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
Clover Three Creek Road — 13.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
East 4000 North — 12.8 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
I 84;US 26;US 30 — 12.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
East 3100 North — 11.1 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
US 30 — 10.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)

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

Castleford — 17.8 mi · no services listed
Buhl — 24.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Hagerman — 27.5 mi · no services listed
Filer — 31.6 mi · groceries
Glenns Ferry — 32.2 mi · fuel, lodging

Developed camps

Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site
Oasis Stop and Go
Balanced Rock Park Campground
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan37° / 21° · 1.2" precip
Aug87° / 54° · 0.3" precip
Sep77° / 45° · 0.5" precip
Oct63° / 36° · 0.8" precip
Nov47° / 27° · 1" precip
Dec36° / 21° · 1.3" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 26% 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

Rifle20%

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 46 at 20% — 1 animals taken by 5 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside it.

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	36	442	8.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	4	121	3.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	1	146	1.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	30	0.0%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for elk in unit 46, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2025 — residents 442 applicants for 36 tags, 8% drawn; nonresidents 121 applicants for 4 tags, 3% drawn
Hunt 2086 — residents 184 applicants for 73 tags, 40% drawn; nonresidents 12 applicants for 2 tags, 17% drawn

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

9 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Oasis Stop and Go, Balanced Rock Park Campground and Rogerson RV Park.

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Road Conditions

Three Creek Road, Clover Three Creek Road and East 4000 North are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 77 mi paved, 107 mi gravel and 48 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 2,462 to 6,006 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 77/45°F, 0.5 in.; Oct 63/36°F, 0.8 in.; Nov 47/27°F, 1 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 26%, AT&T 17%, T-Mobile 9% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Castleford (18 mi), Buhl (25 mi), Hagerman (28 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 46?

Unit 46 lies in Elmore, Owyhee and Twin Falls counties. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 46 on a line that runs along State Highway 51, U.S. 30 and U.S. 93, and past Snake River, Rogerson-Three Creek and Bruneau River, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 2,858 square miles.

What is the pronghorn success rate in unit 46?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put pronghorn success in unit 46 at 52% 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 46 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 46 are at Castleford, about 18 miles from the unit's centre, with Buhl at about 25 miles. There are also 9 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the elk success rate in unit 46?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 46 at 20% across all manners of take. Those are the agency's own figures for this unit, not a statewide average.

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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 Hunt Planner — 2025 general hunt harvest statistics — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Harvest, hunters and percent success for pronghorn in unit 46 · 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 South Hills Zone elk tag limits — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24