Unit 8 (Palouse Zone)
Idaho Hunting Guide — Moose
Unit 8 lies in Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties and covers about 764 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 783 to 4,977 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 88%. No federal land falls inside it, so every acre is a permission question. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
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Moose Hunting in Unit 8
Unit 8 lies in Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties and covers about 764 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 783 to 4,977 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 88%. No federal land falls inside it, so every acre is a permission question. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.
Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 8
Idaho Fish and Game's material on unit 8 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its Shiras moose live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties. It runs to about 764 square miles.
How Idaho Fish and Game sets up Shiras moose hunting in unit 8
Idaho Fish and Game hunts Shiras moose here only by controlled hunt, and describes its moose hunt area 8 as all of Unit 8.
The lines of the unit: Hangman Creek, Palouse River and Clearwater River
Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 8 in Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties on a line that runs along U.S. 95, State Highway 6, State Highway 9 and State Highway 3, and past Hangman Creek, Palouse River and Clearwater River, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. Read it as a frame, not as a hint about animals. 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: Moscow Mountain, Palouse Range and East Moscow Mountain
Named high points inside the unit include Moscow Mountain at 4,977 feet, Palouse Range at 4,977 feet, East Moscow Mountain at 4,703 feet, Granite Point at 4,512 feet and West Twin at 4,496 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Moose want willow, water and shade, and they rarely leave the drainage that has all three.
Holding ground: Haskins Flat, Missouri Flat and Missouri Flat
Below them sit Haskins Flat at 2,620 feet, Missouri Flat at 2,616 feet, Missouri Flat at 2,607 feet, Paradise Valley at 2,600 feet and Plowman Gulch at 2,539 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this unit has, and they are what you glass into from above. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.
Water in this unit
The water inside the unit line comes to 88 mapped stream reaches, 13 lakes and 56 stock tanks. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.
Reading the land status
Our ownership read for this unit is approximate — it comes out as National Forest 60%, Private / Other 17%, BLM 15% and State Trust 8%, so treat it as a starting point and check a current land-status layer before you plan a route. Named ground inside unit 8 runs from 783 feet to 4,977 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.
Unit 8 terrain and land status
Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up
The lay of it
- 1,602–3,055 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 2,635 ft ; peaks can run higher.
- 763.8 sq mi inside the boundary.
Who owns the ground
- National Forest — 60%
- BLM — 15%
- State Trust — 8%
- Private / Other — 17%
Roughly 83% is public. Carry a land-status layer anyway — these are area percentages, not a map of where the boundaries fall.
Water on the ground
- 56 tanks
- 88 stream segments
- 13 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: East Moscow Mountain (4,703 ft), Mission Mountain (4,332 ft), Mineral Mountain (4,133 ft), Rocky Point (3,740 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 Shiras Moose in Unit 8
Moose Success Rates
Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 8 at 88% — 7 animals taken by 8 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.
Moose Draw Odds
| Season | Tags | Applicants | Draw % | Pts (n/p) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident) | 8 | 123 | 7.0% | — |
| Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident) | 0 | 6 | 0.0% | — |
Data from 2026 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 EngineIdaho Fish and Game's 2026 first drawing for Shiras moose in unit 8, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:
- Hunt 3028 — residents 123 applicants for 8 tags, 7% drawn; nonresidents 6 applicants for 0 tags, 0% 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
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Idaho unit 8?
What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 8?
Where do you stay and resupply for a unit 8 hunt?
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Upgrade to Pro — $49/yrSources & Verification
Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.
- Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Game management unit boundary description, Counties the unit lies in, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · 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
- IDFG Hunt Planner — 2025 general hunt harvest statistics — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Harvest, hunters and percent success for Shiras moose in unit 8 · 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