Idaho California Bighorn Sheep

Unit C41 (Bighorn Sheep Hunt Area 41)

Idaho Hunting Guide — California Bighorn Sheep

Hunt Area 41 is drawn from unit 41, in Owyhee County. Named ground inside it runs from 2,457 to 6,717 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit California bighorn sheep success figure we can verify for this hunt area. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

Build your own PDF hunt guide for Unit C41

Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit C41 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.

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.

California Bighorn Sheep Hunting in Unit C41

Where to Find California Bighorn Sheep in Hunt Area 41

Idaho Fish and Game's material on hunt area 41 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its California bighorn sheep live. Every place named below sits inside the hunt-area line. Which of them holds animals in your season is for you to find out.

What hunt area 41 is

Idaho Fish and Game describes California bighorn sheep hunt area 41 as that portion of Unit 41 west of State Highway 51. That makes it a piece of ground drawn for this hunt, not a unit, and the outline on this page is IDFG's own polygon for it rather than a unit outline. The units it is drawn from lie in Owyhee County. Idaho Fish and Game also uses the code 41 for deer and elk hunts, and in its own words "hunt areas are different for each species" — those are other pieces of ground, and this page is the California bighorn sheep area.

High ground inside the line: Bald Mountain, Little Blue Table and Wild Horse Table

Named high points inside the hunt area include Bald Mountain at 6,717 feet, Little Blue Table at 6,228 feet, Wild Horse Table at 6,142 feet, Turner Butte at 6,132 feet and Turner Table at 6,069 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: Sagebrush Basin, Summit Flat and Little Jacks Creek Basin

Below them sit Sagebrush Basin at 5,699 feet, Summit Flat at 5,681 feet, Little Jacks Creek Basin at 5,626 feet, Nichol Flat at 5,580 feet and Buck Gulch at 5,520 feet. Those are the basins, parks and bottoms this hunt area has, and they are what you glass into from above. Work out which of them you can see from one position before you pick a camp.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 41 runs from 2,457 feet to 6,717 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit C41 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Bald Mountain (6,717 ft), Little Blue Table (6,228 ft), Turner Butte (6,132 ft), Turner Table (6,069 ft)

Holding ground: Buncel Basin (5,931 ft), Crab Creek Basin (5,893 ft), Rattlesnake Basin (5,827 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 Hunt Area 41

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no California bighorn sheep success figure we can tie to hunt area 41 alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. 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

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for California bighorn sheep in hunt area 41.

Hunt 7002 — 0 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 hunt area 41

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 The Hat, Poison Butte and Big Hill

Take a position on one of The Hat (5,691 ft), Poison Butte (5,522 ft), Big Hill (4,993 ft) and Chalk Hills (3,284 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. 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Bald Mountain, Little Blue Table, Turner Butte and Turner Table as places to see from, and Buncel Basin, Crab Creek Basin and Rattlesnake Basin as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the hunt-area 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

With 4,260 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

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. We have no California bighorn sheep success figure for this hunt area that survives checking against Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.

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.

Pro Members Only

Unlock California Bighorn Sheep tactics for Unit 41

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

California Bighorn Sheep Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 41 is a controlled-hunt area, not a unit, so there is no figure here we can tie to it. A unit's general-season number would describe different hunters on different ground. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, which is the figure to check before you apply.

California Bighorn Sheep 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 2025 first drawing for California bighorn sheep in hunt area 41, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 7002 — residents 54 applicants for 1 tag, 2% drawn; nonresidents 30 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 2025. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

💧

Water

No named spring or water source falls inside the hunt area in our water layer, so plan on carrying water or finding it on a scouting trip.

🛣️

Road Conditions

Idaho Fish and Game's boundary for the hunt area follows State Highway 51. That is the edge, not a promise of access inside — check a current motor-vehicle-use map before you drive in.

🥾

Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 2,457 to 6,717 ft. More than 4,000 feet between them alone, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

📋

Permit Notes

Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt 7002 (2025 and 2026 rules). Moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications run April 1 to 30. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho hunt area 41?

Hunt Area 41 is drawn from unit 41, in Owyhee County. Idaho Fish and Game describes California bighorn sheep hunt area 41 as that portion of Unit 41 west of State Highway 51.

What is the California bighorn sheep success rate in hunt area 41?

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics cover general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 41 is a controlled-hunt area, so there is no figure we can tie to it. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, and that is the number to check before you apply.

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

Plan Your Hunt with ProHunt Pro

Unlock advanced tactics, the Tag-to-Trail Planner, AI hunt strategy assistant, and personalized camp and trip execution plans.

Upgrade to Pro — $49/yr

Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.

Moose, Bighorn Sheep & Mountain Goat 2025 & 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Controlled hunt area description for California bighorn sheep hunt area 41, The game management units the area is drawn from, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · accessed 2026-10-24
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