Unit E63X (Elk Hunt Area 63X)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Elk

Hunt Area 63X is drawn from unit 63, in Bingham, Bonneville, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties. Named ground inside it runs from 4,554 to 6,564 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit elk 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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Elk guide

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Elk Hunting in Unit E63X

Where to Find Elk in Hunt Area 63X

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for hunt area 63X is a boundary, not a elk map. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's.

What hunt area 63X is

Idaho Fish and Game describes elk hunt area 63X as all of Unit 63. 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 Bingham, Bonneville, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties.

High ground inside the line: Twin Buttes, East Butte and Middle Butte

Named high points inside the hunt area include Twin Buttes at 6,564 feet, East Butte at 6,478 feet, Middle Butte at 6,388 feet, Kettle Butte at 5,549 feet and Little Butte at 5,515 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Elk on low, open country live on distance and visibility, so they see you first.

Holding ground: Morgans Pasture, Oakland Valley and Lemhi Pass

Below them sit Morgans Pasture at 4,737 feet, Oakland Valley at 4,720 feet, Lemhi Pass at 4,554 feet, Tractor Flat at 5,200 feet and Dutch Flat at 4,925 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.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 63X runs from 4,554 feet to 6,564 feet. Those are the heights of the features GNIS names, which bound the range from inside rather than measure it.

Unit E63X terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Kettle Butte (5,549 ft), Little Butte (5,515 ft), Cedar Butte (5,372 ft), Saint Marys Knoll (5,331 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 Elk in Hunt Area 63X

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no elk success figure we can tie to hunt area 63X alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. 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

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 rules list 2 controlled hunts for elk in hunt area 63X.

Hunt 2169 — extra antlerless elk, 100 tags, Aug 1–Oct 31. Portions of this hunt are located within Idaho National Laboratory lands
Hunt 2170 — extra antlerless elk, 100 tags, Nov 1–Dec 31. Portions of this hunt are located within Idaho National Laboratory lands

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 63X

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 Table Butte, Shattuck Butte and Camas Butte

Take a position on one of Table Butte (5,216 ft), Shattuck Butte (5,162 ft), Camas Butte (5,138 ft) and Twentymile Rock (5,132 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, September bugling works where you can get above a drainage and let the thermals carry sound downhill.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Kettle Butte, Little Butte, Cedar Butte and Saint Marys Knoll as places to see from. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the hunt-area line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

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 elk 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.

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

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

Elk Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	98	223	44.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	2	3	67.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (resident)	10	69	14.0%	—
Controlled — 2nd Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	2	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 hunt area 63X, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 2170 — residents 455 applicants for 100 tags, 22% drawn; nonresidents 2 applicants for 0 tags, 0% drawn
Hunt 2169 — residents 223 applicants for 98 tags, 44% drawn; nonresidents 3 applicants for 2 tags, 67% 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 4,554 to 6,564 ft. Named heights only — the ground between and below them can run lower.

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Permit Notes

Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunts 2169 and 2170 (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 63X?

Hunt Area 63X is drawn from unit 63, in Bingham, Bonneville, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties. Idaho Fish and Game describes elk hunt area 63X as all of Unit 63.

What is the elk success rate in hunt area 63X?

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