Idaho Moose Mule Deer

Unit 8A (Palouse Zone)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Moose, Mule Deer

Unit 8A lies in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties and covers about 729 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 2,186 to 5,340 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put Shiras moose success here as high as 100%. Federal land covers about 27% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

🏔️

27%

Public Land

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2,183–4,282 ft

Sampled elevation

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit 8A

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit 8A 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.

Moose guide Mule Deer guide

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Moose Hunting in Unit 8A

Where to Find Shiras Moose in Unit 8A

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for unit 8A is a boundary, not a Shiras moose map. 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 Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties. It runs to about 729 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up Shiras moose hunting in unit 8A

Idaho Fish and Game hunts Shiras moose here only by controlled hunt, and describes its moose hunt area 8A as all of Unit 8A.

The lines of the unit: Hangman Creek, Palouse River and Hemlock Butte

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 8A in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties on a line that runs along County Road P-1, State Highway 3, State Highway 9 and State Highway 6, and past Hangman Creek, Palouse River, Hemlock Butte and Elk Creek, 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: Hoodoo Mountains, Bald Mountain and Beals Butte

Named high points inside the unit include Hoodoo Mountains at 5,340 feet, Bald Mountain at 5,340 feet, Beals Butte at 5,036 feet, Sand Mountain at 4,967 feet and Mica Mountain at 4,889 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: Excavation Gulch, White Pine Gulch and Bloom Meadows

Below them sit Excavation Gulch at 3,120 feet, White Pine Gulch at 3,098 feet, Bloom Meadows at 3,075 feet, Mason Meadows at 3,024 feet and California Gulch at 3,021 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 39 mapped stream reaches, 4 lakes and 8 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 8A runs from 2,186 feet to 5,340 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit 8A terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,183–4,282 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,215 ft ; peaks can run higher.
729.3 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

8 tanks
39 stream segments
4 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: Hoodoo Mountains (5,340 ft), Sand Mountain (4,967 ft), West Dennis (4,796 ft), Baby Grand Mountain (4,736 ft)

Holding ground: Upper Basin (3,515 ft), Mountain Gulch (3,370 ft), Excavation Gulch (3,120 ft)

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 Shiras Moose in Unit 8A

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 8A at 100% across all manners of take. A number like that comes from few tags and a short season, not from easy hunting. The plan: walk the willow bottoms slowly at first and last light and look for fresh browse before you look for the animal.

The 2025 and 2026 controlled hunts in unit 8A

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for Shiras moose on unit 8A under its own number.

Hunt 3029 — 8 tags, Aug 30–Nov 23

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 8A 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 moose may not apply for a moose tag again for two years except for leftovers, and IDFG allows one antlered and one antlerless moose 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 Jackson Mountain, East Gold Hill and Gold Hill

Take a position on one of Jackson Mountain (4,678 ft), East Gold Hill (4,655 ft), Gold Hill (4,651 ft) and East Dennis (4,626 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 September bulls answer a cow call near water.

Water against feed

There are 39 mapped stream reaches and 8 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 74/42°F, Oct 58/35°F and Nov 43/29°F. Warm afternoons compress the hunting into the first and last hour, and make meat care the day's real problem rather than the shot. Precipitation runs about 1.2 in. in Sep, 2.8 in. in Oct and 4 in. in Nov, and the graded gravel in this unit turns greasy wet.

Getting past the roads: ID 3 and Dent Bridge Road

ID 3 and ID 9 are the paved frame, which is also where everyone else starts. National Forest Development Road 377 and National Forest Development Road 1433 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.

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 8A

Named routes and what they need

ID 3 — 15.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Dent Bridge Road — 9.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
National Forest Development Road 377 — 9.4 mi · High-clearance
Freeman Creek Road — 7.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
ID 9 — 7.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
National Forest Development Road 1433 — 6.3 mi · High-clearance

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

Deary — 3.9 mi · fuel, groceries
Bovill — 4.9 mi · no services listed
Elk River — 14.3 mi · lodging
Troy — 14.9 mi · fuel, groceries
Kendrick — 16.1 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Camp Grizzly Boy Scout Camp
Laird Park Campground
Little Boulder Campground · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan36° / 24° · 4.1" precip
Aug84° / 49° · 0.8" precip
Sep74° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Oct58° / 35° · 2.8" precip
Nov43° / 29° · 4" precip
Dec35° / 24° · 4.4" 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.

Moose: where to put the shot

Broadside, behind the shoulder and a third up. Moose look slow to react — the first shot has to count.

Shots to refuse

Where it falls decides your next two days. Avoid shots that drop a moose in water or a bog.
A .30-06 class cartridge minimum, with a bullet built for heavy bone.

Plan the carry: roughly 350– 500 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — four or more large coolers, or a processor. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Moose Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 8A at 100% — 8 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	237	3.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	7	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 Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 first drawing for Shiras moose in unit 8A, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 3029 — residents 237 applicants for 8 tags, 3% drawn; nonresidents 7 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.

Mule Deer Hunting in Unit 8A

Unit 8A lies in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties and covers about 729 square miles. Named ground inside it runs from 2,186 to 5,340 feet. Idaho Fish and Game's harvest estimates put deer success here as high as 37%. Federal land covers about 27% of it. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

Where to Find Mule Deer in Unit 8A

Idaho Fish and Game draws an exact line around unit 8A and says nothing about where the mule deer stand inside it. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's. The unit lies in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties. It runs to about 729 square miles.

How Idaho Fish and Game sets up mule deer hunting in unit 8A

Idaho Fish and Game keeps a general deer season page for unit 8A, and that page is where this year's dates and weapon rules live.

The lines of the unit: Hangman Creek, Palouse River and Hemlock Butte

Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 8A in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties on a line that runs along County Road P-1, State Highway 3, State Highway 9 and State Highway 6, and past Hangman Creek, Palouse River, Hemlock Butte and Elk 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: Little Bald Mountain, West Dennis and Baby Grand Mountain

Named high points inside the unit include Little Bald Mountain at 4,856 feet, West Dennis at 4,796 feet, Baby Grand Mountain at 4,736 feet, Jackson Mountain at 4,678 feet and East Gold Hill at 4,655 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: Beagle Gulch, Shea Meadows and Cleveland Gulch

Below them sit Beagle Gulch at 2,985 feet, Shea Meadows at 2,978 feet, Cleveland Gulch at 2,960 feet, Wet Meadows at 2,958 feet and Cougar Meadows at 2,950 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water in this unit

The water inside the unit line comes to 39 mapped stream reaches, 4 lakes and 8 stock tanks. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

Reading the land status

Unit 8A terrain and land status

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

The lay of it

2,183–4,282 ft on a terrain sample , averaging 3,215 ft ; peaks can run higher.
729.3 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

8 tanks
39 stream segments
4 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: Hoodoo Mountains (5,340 ft), Sand Mountain (4,967 ft), West Dennis (4,796 ft), Baby Grand Mountain (4,736 ft)

Holding ground: Upper Basin (3,515 ft), Mountain Gulch (3,370 ft), Excavation Gulch (3,120 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 8A

Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest estimates put deer success in unit 8A at 37% 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.

Glassing from Shattuck Butte, McGary Butte and Tamarack Ridge

Take a position on one of Shattuck Butte (4,535 ft), McGary Butte (4,453 ft), Tamarack Ridge (4,296 ft) and Abes Knob (4,164 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. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, late-season hunts put bucks with doe groups and moving in daylight.

Water against feed

There are 39 mapped stream reaches and 8 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 3 and Dent Bridge Road

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Hoodoo Mountains, Sand Mountain, West Dennis and Baby Grand Mountain as places to see from, and Upper Basin, Mountain Gulch, Excavation Gulch and US 95 @ unit boundary as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the unit line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What a day here costs you

729 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 Deary, about 4 miles out, which is an hour of your morning each way if you sleep there. With 3,154 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

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 8A

Named routes and what they need

ID 3 — 15.6 mi · Paved (all rigs)
Dent Bridge Road — 9.4 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
National Forest Development Road 377 — 9.4 mi · High-clearance
Freeman Creek Road — 7.5 mi · Graded gravel (2WD / small trailer)
ID 9 — 7.3 mi · Paved (all rigs)
National Forest Development Road 1433 — 6.3 mi · High-clearance

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

Deary — 3.9 mi · fuel, groceries
Bovill — 4.9 mi · no services listed
Elk River — 14.3 mi · lodging
Troy — 14.9 mi · fuel, groceries
Kendrick — 16.1 mi · no services listed

Developed camps

Camp Grizzly Boy Scout Camp
Laird Park Campground
Little Boulder Campground · Fee
Unnamed camp site
Unnamed camp site

Season weather and signal

Jan36° / 24° · 4.1" precip
Aug84° / 49° · 0.8" precip
Sep74° / 42° · 1.2" precip
Oct58° / 35° · 2.8" precip
Nov43° / 29° · 4" precip
Dec35° / 24° · 4.4" 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.

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 8A at 37% — 1,482 animals taken by 3,972 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

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

Search Idaho Draw Odds

Idaho Fish and Game's 2024 first drawing for mule deer in unit 8A, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 1065 — residents 24 applicants for 24 tags, 100% drawn; nonresidents 1 applicants for 1 tag, 100% 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 2024. 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

42 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit, including Camp Grizzly Boy Scout Camp, Laird Park Campground and Little Boulder Campground.

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Road Conditions

ID 3, Dent Bridge Road and National Forest Development Road 377 are the named routes in the unit. Roughly 51 mi paved, 93 mi gravel and 0 mi four-wheel-drive.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features from 2,186 to 5,340 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 74/42°F, 1.2 in.; Oct 58/35°F, 2.8 in.; Nov 43/29°F, 4 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

Deary (4 mi), Bovill (5 mi), Elk River (14 mi)

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho unit 8A?

Unit 8A lies in Benewah, Clearwater, Latah and Nez Perce counties. Idaho Fish and Game draws unit 8A on a line that runs along County Road P-1, State Highway 3, State Highway 9 and State Highway 6, and past Hangman Creek, Palouse River, Hemlock Butte and Elk Creek, written out corner by corner in its unit boundary descriptions. It covers about 729 square miles.

What is the Shiras moose success rate in unit 8A?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put Shiras moose success in unit 8A at 100% 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 8A hunt?

The nearest services our logistics pipeline finds for unit 8A are at Deary, about 4 miles from the unit's centre, with Bovill at about 5 miles. There are also 42 developed campgrounds in or beside the unit.

What is the mule deer success rate in unit 8A?

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 harvest estimates put deer success in unit 8A at 37% 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
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 8A · 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 8A — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Season structure for the unit · accessed 2026-10-24