Unit M1-1 (Moose Hunt Area 1-1)

What Idaho Fish and Game publishes for hunt area 1-1 is a boundary, not a Shiras moose 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 1-1 is

Idaho Fish and Game describes moose hunt area 1-1 as that portion of Unit 1 within the Priest River drainage, and within the Pend Oreille River drainage, downstream from Priest River. 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 Bonner and Boundary counties. Idaho Fish and Game also uses the code 1-1 for deer, elk and black bear hunts, and in its own words "hunt areas are different for each species" — those are other pieces of ground, and this page is the moose area.

High ground inside the line: Snowy Top, Mount Roothaan and The Lions Head

Named high points inside the hunt area include Snowy Top at 7,510 feet, Mount Roothaan at 7,293 feet, The Lions Head at 7,220 feet, Kent Peak at 7,215 feet and Abandon Mountain at 7,004 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: McCormack Meadows, Hughes Meadows and Bath Creek Gorge

Below them sit McCormack Meadows at 3,358 feet, Hughes Meadows at 2,927 feet, Bath Creek Gorge at 2,846 feet, Bismark Meadows at 2,623 feet and Hanna Flats at 2,605 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: Benton Spring, Torrelle Falls and Caribou Falls

Named sources include Benton Spring, Torrelle Falls, Caribou Falls and Upper Priest Falls. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 1-1 runs from 2,114 feet to 7,510 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no Shiras moose success figure we can tie to hunt area 1-1 alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. 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

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list 3 controlled hunts for Shiras moose in hunt area 1-1.

• Hunt 3001 — 10 tags, Sep 15–Dec 1
• Hunt 3002 — 3 tags, Oct 1–Oct 14
• Hunt 3003 — 3 tags, Nov 1–Nov 14

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 1-1

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 Little Snowy Top, Temple Mountain and Eddy Peak

Take a position on one of Little Snowy Top (6,816 ft), Temple Mountain (6,780 ft), Eddy Peak (6,710 ft) and Lookout Mountain (6,709 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. Glass the edges first, then the shaded timber, then the edges again as the light goes. On the rut hunts, late September bulls answer a cow call near water.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Snowy Top, The Lions Head and Kent Peak as places to see from, and Boulder Meadows, Beaver Pass, Packer Meadows and Benton Spring 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 5,396 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. We have no Shiras moose 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.