Unit 105, 106, 109 (Spruce Mountain, the Goshute Mountains and Valley Mountain)

Spruce Mountain and the South Pequop WSA

NDOW's elk sheet spans several units, and for this tag its notes on Units 105, 106 and 109 apply. Unit 105 has high elk densities and produces most of the harvest. Elk use every part of Spruce Mountain and the whole South Pequop Wilderness Study Area. Since 2013 the BLM and NDOW have worked on about 10,000 acres of habitat enhancement projects on Spruce Mountain, and the sheet marks those as areas to focus on in the coming years.

Valley Mountain in Unit 109

Unit 109 seasonally holds high numbers of elk, most of all in winter, and animals regularly move back and forth between Units 105 and 109. NDOW's main focus area there is Valley Mountain and its canyons.

Pockets in the Goshutes and the Dolly Varden Mountains

Unit 106 is the thin one, with low elk densities and very little harvest. Look for the small pockets of good habitat in the Goshute Mountains, the Dolly Varden Mountains and the Antelope Range.

Across the group the country is arid. Natural water is scarce, wildlife water developments are numerous, and early-season hunters should key on water and the habitat next to it. Wild horses have overused much of the range, so seek out ground that still carries decent vegetation.

The ground NDOW draws for this tag

A elk tag for this group is good in units 105, 106 and 109, about 2,378 square miles measured on NDOW's own boundary, in Elko County and White Pine County. The named ranges inside the line are Little White Horse Hills, Goshute Mountains, Currie Hills, Ferber Hills, Kinsley Mountains and Boone Spring Hills. The highest named points are Spruce Mountain (10,247 ft), Goshute Peak (9,594 ft) and Mount Pisgah (8,958 ft), and the lowest named ground sits near 4,696 feet. We don't print a land-status split for Nevada groups, because the figures we held didn't come from BLM's surface-management data; check BLM's current map for private parcels before you cross a fence or a cattle guard. GNIS names 59 springs inside it, Choke Cherry Spring, Austin Spring, Spring Gulch Spring and Spruce Spring among them.

Excellent access across all three units

Access is the easy part of this tag. NDOW describes Units 105, 106 and 109 as having excellent access, with extensive road networks and very little private land. That sets them apart from the mine closures and checkerboard ownership in the other units on the same sheet. US 93 is the main highway, and named back roads include BLM 1087, BLM 1093 and Butte Valley Road.

Hunting water in a dry unit group

Because the country is so dry, the sheet's early-season advice is to key on water sources and the habitat around them, and this group has plenty of wildlife water developments to check. Put that together with NDOW's warning about wild horses: check the water, and give the most time to water that sits near ground still carrying decent vegetation.

Elko, Ely, Wells and Wendover have groceries, fuel, lodging and RV parks, with varying availability and services. Dispersed camping is easy to find on the federal land throughout the group. NDOW also flies helicopter surveys after the season, and the sheet notes they can overlap the late any-legal-weapon bull hunt and the late antlerless hunt, so don't be surprised by a low-flying helicopter late in the year.

The 2025 season in NDOW's own numbers

NDOW's 2025 Big Game Hunt Data is the hunter survey behind these figures: who drew, who went, who filled a tag. Success there is NDOW's own figure, successful hunters over hunters afield.

• Antlerless, any legal weapon, Sep 21 - Oct 04: 6 resident and 1 nonresident tags. 6 hunters went afield and 0 filled their tag (0%). Hunters reported 8.6 days afield on average.
• Spike, any legal weapon, Sep 21 - Oct 04: 1 resident tag. 1 hunter went afield and 0 filled the tag (0%). Hunters reported 6.0 days afield on average.

Roads in and the nearest towns

The longest named roads through the group are US 93, BLM 1087, BLM 1093 and I 80;US 93 ALT. Our road inventory counts roughly 50 miles of pavement, 89 of gravel and 258 of high-clearance or four-wheel-drive track. The nearest towns are West Wendover (25 mi), Wendover (26 mi) and Lamoille (28 mi), measured from the centre of the closest unit in the group.