Idaho Elk Mule Deer

Unit 48 (Smoky - Bennett Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk, Mule Deer

Unit 48 lies in Blaine County and covers about 607 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,848 to 11,644 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put elk success here as high as 0%. Federal land covers about 82% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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82%

Public Land

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5,101–9,105 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 48

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 48 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.

Elk guide Mule Deer guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit 48

Where to Find Elk in Unit 48

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 48 is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Blaine County. It runs to about 607 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up elk hunting in unit 48

Idaho Fish and Game runs its general elk seasons by elk management zone rather than unit by unit, and puts unit 48 in the Smoky - Bennett Zone, so the zone's tag rules are the ones that apply here.

The lines of the unit: Camp Creek, Croy Creek and Kelly Gulch Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 48 in Blaine County on a line that runs along State Highway 75 and U.S. 20, and past Camp Creek, Croy Creek, Kelly Gulch Creek and Big Wood River-Camas Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. That is a legal description, not a habitat map. 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: Kent Peak, Easley Peak and Silver Peak

Named high points inside the unit include Kent Peak at 11,644 feet, Easley Peak at 11,107 feet, Silver Peak at 11,092 feet, Galena Peak at 11,079 feet and Boulder Peak at 10,948 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: Miner Canyon, Cold Canyon and Lost Shirt Gulch

Below them sit Miner Canyon at 7,740 feet, Cold Canyon at 7,704 feet, Lost Shirt Gulch at 7,642 feet, Brodie Gulch at 7,445 feet and Westernhome Gulch at 7,400 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: Hailey Hot Springs and Guyer Hot Springs

The water inside the unit line comes to 50 mapped stream reaches, 10 lakes, 93 stock tanks and 10 springs. Named sources include Hailey Hot Springs and Guyer Hot 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 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 48 runs from 4,848 feet to 11,644 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,101–9,105 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,350 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
607.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

93 tanks
10 springs
50 stream segments
10 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: Kent Peak (11,644 ft), Easley Peak (11,107 ft), Silver Peak (11,092 ft), Galena Peak (11,079 ft)

Holding ground: Boulder Basin (9,328 ft), Slide Rock Canyon (8,425 ft), Packer Gulch (7,921 ft), Hailey Hot Springs, Guyer Hot Springs

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 48

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at 0% 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 48

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 3 controlled hunts for elk on unit 48 under its own number.

Hunt 2026 — antlered elk, 20 tags, Oct 1–Oct 14
Hunt 2027 — antlered elk, 150 tags, Oct 15–Nov 10
Hunt 2137 — muzzleloader only elk, 75 tags, Nov 15–Nov 30. Either sex

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 48 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 Crown Point, Bear Peak and Bald Mountain

Take a position on one of Crown Point (9,613 ft), Bear Peak (9,507 ft), Bald Mountain (9,144 ft) and Fox Peak (9,138 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. 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 50 mapped stream reaches and 93 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 70/37°F, Oct 57/29°F and Nov 42/18°F. By Nov the lows are around 18°F, and the first hard storm after that moves animals off the high ground — a late tag is a bet on that storm arriving. Precipitation runs about 1 in. in Sep, 1.4 in. in Oct and 1.3 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: ID 75 and FS 227

ID 75, US 20 and ID 75 Spur are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. FS 227 and FR 408 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.

Getting in and staying out: unit 48

Named routes and what they need

ID 75 — 25.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FS 227 — 13.1 mi · High-clearance
US 20 — 5.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Camp Creek Road — 3.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 408 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
ID 75 Spur — 2.1 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

Ketchum — 5.7 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Sun Valley — 6.6 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Hailey — 11.7 mi · fuel
Bellevue — 16.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Carey — 35.3 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Riverside RV Park-Campground
Boulder View Campground · reservable
Prairie Campground
Easley Campground
North Fork Campground · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 9° · 2.2" precip
Aug80° / 45° · 0.5" precip
Sep70° / 37° · 1" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.4" precip
Nov42° / 18° · 1.3" precip
Dec31° / 10° · 2.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% 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

Rifle0%

Archery11%

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at 0% — 0 animals taken by 9 hunters. On a sample that small the percentage moves several points with one animal, so read the hunter count beside 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

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	18	227	8.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	2	74	3.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	7	266	3.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	58	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 elk in unit 48, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2027 — residents 570 applicants for 134 tags, 24% drawn; nonresidents 127 applicants for 16 tags, 13% drawn
Hunt 2026 — residents 227 applicants for 18 tags, 8% drawn; nonresidents 74 applicants for 2 tags, 3% drawn
Hunt 2137 — residents 30 applicants for 30 tags, 100% drawn; nonresidents 20 applicants for 7 tags, 35% 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.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 48

Unit 48 lies in Blaine County and covers about 607 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 4,848 to 11,644 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 31%. Federal land covers about 82% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 48

Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 48 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mule deer 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 Blaine County. It runs to about 607 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 48

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 48, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.

The lines of the unit: Camp Creek, Croy Creek and Kelly Gulch Creek

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 48 in Blaine County on a line that runs along State Highway 75 and U.S. 20, and past Camp Creek, Croy Creek, Kelly Gulch Creek and Big Wood River-Camas 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: Norton Peak, Bromaghin Peak and Shaw Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Norton Peak at 10,300 feet, Bromaghin Peak at 10,192 feet, Shaw Mountain at 9,620 feet, Crown Point at 9,613 feet and Bear Peak at 9,507 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: Alpine Gulch, Emma Gulch and Enid Gulch

Below them sit Alpine Gulch at 7,378 feet, Emma Gulch at 7,376 feet, Enid Gulch at 7,365 feet, Cunard Gulch at 7,357 feet and Quinnlin Gulch at 7,340 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: Hailey Hot Springs and Guyer Hot Springs

Reading the land status

Unit 48 terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

5,101–9,105 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 7,350 ft ; peaks can run higher. That spread means you can hunt two seasons in one day — plan clothing for both ends.
607.4 sq mi inside the boundary.

Who owns the ground

National Forest — 60%
State Trust — 8%
Private / Other — 32%

Roughly 68% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.

Water on the ground

93 tanks
10 springs
50 stream segments
10 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: Kent Peak (11,644 ft), Easley Peak (11,107 ft), Silver Peak (11,092 ft), Galena Peak (11,079 ft)

Holding ground: Boulder Basin (9,328 ft), Slide Rock Canyon (8,425 ft), Packer Gulch (7,921 ft), Hailey Hot Springs, Guyer Hot Springs

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

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How to Hunt Mule Deer in Unit 48

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 48 at 31% across all manners of take. That is an ordinary spread for this country, and it rewards whoever scouted. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts in unit 48

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mule deer on unit 48 under its own number.

Hunt 1038 — antlered deer, 10 tags, Nov 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 48 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 Buttercup Mountain, Boyle Mountain and Kelly Mountain

Take a position on one of Buttercup Mountain (9,058 ft), Boyle Mountain (8,959 ft), Kelly Mountain (8,815 ft) and Griffin Butte (8,381 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 50 mapped stream reaches and 93 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: ID 75 and FS 227

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 48

Named routes and what they need

ID 75 — 25.1 mi · Paved (all rigs)
FS 227 — 13.1 mi · High-clearance
US 20 — 5.7 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Camp Creek Road — 3.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
FR 408 — 2.5 mi · High-clearance
ID 75 Spur — 2.1 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

Ketchum — 5.7 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Sun Valley — 6.6 mi · groceries, lodging, gear
Hailey — 11.7 mi · fuel
Bellevue — 16.5 mi · fuel, groceries, lodging
Carey — 35.3 mi · fuel, groceries

Developed camps

Riverside RV Park-Campground
Boulder View Campground · reservable
Prairie Campground
Easley Campground
North Fork Campground · reservable

Season weather and signal

Jan32° / 9° · 2.2" precip
Aug80° / 45° · 0.5" precip
Sep70° / 37° · 1" precip
Oct57° / 29° · 1.4" precip
Nov42° / 18° · 1.3" precip
Dec31° / 10° · 2.5" precip

Best signal is Verizon at about 15% 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 48 at 31% — 654 animals taken by 2,084 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. The figure is IDFG's result for deer in the unit, not for mule deer alone.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	10	226	4.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	26	0.0%	—

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 first drawing for mule deer in unit 48, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 1038 — residents 226 applicants for 10 tags, 4% drawn; nonresidents 26 applicants for 0 tags, 0% drawn

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Camp Sites

10 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Riverside RV Park-Campground, Boulder View Campground and Prairie Campground.

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Road Conditions

ID 75, FS 227 and US 20 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 51 mi paved, 9 mi gravel and 1 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 4,848 to 11,644 ft. More than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

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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 70/37°F, 1 in.; Oct 57/29°F, 1.4 in.; Nov 42/18°F, 1.3 in..

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Cell Service

Verizon 15%, AT&T 10%, T-Mobile 5% of the unit area — modelled coverage, not measured. Assume no signal off the paved road.

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Nearest Town

Ketchum (6 mi), Sun Valley (7 mi), Hailey (12 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 48?

Unit 48 lies in Blaine County. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 48 on a line that runs along State Highway 75 and U.S. 20, and past Camp Creek, Croy Creek, Kelly Gulch Creek and Big Wood River-Camas Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 607 square miles.

What is the elk success rate in unit 48?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put elk success in unit 48 at 0% 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 48 hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 48 are at Ketchum, about 6 miles from the unit's centre, with Sun Valley at about 7 miles. There are also 10 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 48?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 48 at 31% 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 Smoky - Bennett 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 48 · 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 general deer season page for unit 48 — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24