Trophy Mule Deer (Draw hunt — 269 permits)
Unit 40 & 42 Southwestern Idaho
30" Plus Mule Deer
A lot of you probably know, Southwest Idaho (Owyhee County) has some of the best mule deer hunting in the United States. This area has been closed for hunting big bucks in a general season for upwards of ten seasons now with the exception of the 269 tags on this late hunt. Pressure at this time is fairly non-existent.
The season starts Nov. 10th and ends on Nov. 24th. Never have we had a hunt this late in the year. With bucks coming in rut around the end of October, they are usually running around all day long by opening. The other plus is that we normally have a foot of snow in those 7000' to 8000' elevations so glassing and tracking is made much easier.
My goal is to take bucks not less than 30" and getting close to a few 32"-36" bucks should be realistic. Over the last few years we have seen five different bucks that would be in the 36" class, and all were book bucks, probably within the top twenty-five in the Boone & Crockett records. This area also has record non-typical's running around. I have seen two recently that were sporting 36" to 40" spreads. This area has the potential of producing some of the West's new record book bucks and it is currently rated as one of the top record-producing areas in the country.
Application period for this hunt runs from May 1st to June 5th. The IDFG and IOGLB request that all non-resident hunters who are hunting with an outfitter have their license and tags bought through the outfitter. This way, the non-resident tags are taken from the outfitters set-aside pool first before being pulled from the general non-resident pool. So please send me all your pertinent license information and the following fees. The non-resident license is $141.50, deer tags run $266.25 (includes $7.75 controlled hunt permit fee) and there is a $6.25 non-refundable application fee. You will be notified by the beginning of July if you draw. Without trying to confuse people, I do have two outfitter allocated tags (guaranteed tags) in Unit 40. and one allocated tag in Unit 42. Call for more details.
The hunt will be on horseback or quads with a lot of glassing. The hunt will be a 7-day hunt with a day in and a day out for a total of nine days. The hunt is November 10th - 24th (1 on 1) and the cost is $3500.00. I will finalize the actual 7 days of the hunt by mid-summer depending on how many hunters have drawn.
