Idaho Mule Deer

Unit D63AX (Deer Hunt Area 63AX)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Mule Deer

Hunt Area 63AX is drawn from unit 63A, in Bonneville, Jefferson and Madison counties. Named ground inside it runs from 4,784 to 5,610 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit mule deer 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

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit D63AX 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.

Mule Deer guide

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Mule Deer Hunting in Unit D63AX

Where to Find Mule Deer in Hunt Area 63AX

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for hunt area 63AX is a boundary, not a mule deer map. 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 63AX is

Idaho Fish and Game describes deer hunt area 63AX as all of Unit 63A. Chronic Wasting Disease Testing Required, See Page 96. That is whole units, so the outline on this page follows unit lines all the way round. The units it is drawn from lie in Bonneville, Jefferson and Madison counties.

High ground inside the line: Menan Buttes, Little Buttes and Lewisville Knolls

Named high points inside the hunt area include Menan Buttes at 5,610 feet, Little Buttes at 4,963 feet and Lewisville Knolls at 4,917 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Mule deer on open country use every fold and draw there is, and almost none of the flat.

Holding ground: Tie Bend and Deer Parks

Below them sit Tie Bend at 4,994 feet and Deer Parks at 4,784 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.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 63AX runs from 4,784 feet to 5,610 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit D63AX terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Menan Buttes (5,610 ft), Lewisville Knolls (4,917 ft)

Holding ground: Deer Parks (4,784 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 Hunt Area 63AX

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no mule deer success figure we can tie to hunt area 63AX alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. The plan: glass the broken edges at first light, then sit still and keep glassing the same ground.

The 2026 controlled hunts

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mule deer in hunt area 63AX.

Hunt 1145 — extra antlerless deer, 200 tags, Aug 30–Sep 30 and Oct 10–Oct 20 and Nov 1–Dec 19

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 63AX

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 Menan Buttes, Little Buttes and Lewisville Knolls

Take a position on one of Menan Buttes (5,610 ft), Little Buttes (4,963 ft) and Lewisville Knolls (4,917 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.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Menan Buttes and Lewisville Knolls as places to see from, and Deer Parks 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

Decide the night before where you will be at first light, and go there in the dark.

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 mule deer 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.

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 per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 63AX 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.

Mule Deer Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	200	585	34.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	0	0.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	13	200	7.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	1	3	33.0%	—

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 mule deer in hunt area 63AX, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 1145 — residents 585 applicants for 200 tags, 34% 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

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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.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 4,784 to 5,610 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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Permit Notes

Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt 1145 (2026 rules). The first application period runs May 1 to June 5 and the second August 5 to 15. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho hunt area 63AX?

Hunt Area 63AX is drawn from unit 63A, in Bonneville, Jefferson and Madison counties. Idaho Fish and Game describes deer hunt area 63AX as all of Unit 63A. Chronic Wasting Disease Testing Required, See Page 96.

What is the mule deer success rate in hunt area 63AX?

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics cover general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 63AX 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.

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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: Controlled hunt area description for deer hunt area 63AX, 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