Idaho mule deer

[SemperFidelis97]

We are looking at doing a mule deer hunt in unit 43 in the last week of october.  We are going to backpack in a handful of miles to an elevation of 7500'.  I have heard the mule deer migrate out of that unit pretty heavily, and I am curious if we will be showing up to a ghost town that week.  Also I am curious about the likelihood of snow in late october at those elevations.  Thanks in advance for any advice.

[lord grizzly]

Certainly won't be a ghost town. You'll have lots of hunters to keep company. You'll see them a couple miles Into your hike.They'll be the ones going buy you on dirt bikes

[Gun smoke]

lmao , a lot of truth to what grizzly said , there is a dirt bike parked  or a spike camp on every ridge leaving about every trail in the area .! I shot my first "nice " buck in that country in 95 , a lot had changed since then . It's a Washington / California zoo nowadays !

[Gun smoke]

Oh yeah hard to tell on the weather , I've seen over a foot of snow on the ground opening day (10  th ) more than once , seen it so hot butterflies and bees won't leave you alone , umm rain , fog , wind it can get it all just depends on the year.

[lord grizzly]

I think we get another early fall and harder winter over here this year. Should make for some good buck hunting. Yes 43 gets pressure, but if you pull up the numbers on F&G 39 is at least three times more hunters and I took a smoker buck out of there last year 2 miles up a trail and just barley one basin off trail. Scout it and find a hole. Bucks are in there

[SemperFidelis97]

Thank you gentleman.

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[theleo]

I'd plan on snow more than dismiss. No info on that unit as I play further to the east, but around the same elevations. That time of year is extremely unpredictable. I've had it go from jeans and a hoodie weather to full wool and polypropylene not being warm enough in a days time.

[SemperFidelis97]

The snow would actually work if the muleys don't head south right away.  We were going late to hopefully see some early rut behaviour.  It seems hard to get too far off of the trail systems.  The areas I am looking at are about a half mile from the nearest trail which I hope is enough since there aren't many tracts of land with zero defined trails.

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[theleo]

The snow would actually work if the muleys don't head south right away.  We were going late to hopefully see some early rut behaviour.  It seems hard to get too far off of the trail systems.  The areas I am looking at are about a half mile from the nearest trail which I hope is enough since there aren't many tracts of land with zero defined trails.

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I'd want so for that hunt to but central Idaho snow is a funky thing that time of year. It can go from blue skies and 60 degrees one day to 18" inches of snow over night that won't go away till the spring thaw. Last year a saw snow the 3rd week of September over in 49. That didn't stick but snow a month later is very likely to.

Just saying keep your options as open as possible because the weather there is pretty temperamental on a day to day base that time of year.

[Goshawk]

I did some scouting up above the Anderson Ranch Reservoir three weeks ago, and was surprised as to how many developed homes / cabins are in there now.  The roads were packed with campers, all with quads and bikes. 
Last year I was absolutely stunned as to how few people hunt that area without having a quad or dirt bike attached to their butt.  Nothing but motorized equipment on and off trails. 

[Karl Blanchard]

If it snows the deer will vanish literally over night.  Some go south but lots move east.  If I was gonna hunt 43 I wouldn't hunt the last week.   Lots of folks and bikes but they are lazy and just ride the trails for the most part.  Jump the ridges away from the trails and you will have lots of solitude.

[SemperFidelis97]

Thank you gentleman we actually settled on a unit in the Salmon region that had considerably less accessibility to hopefully avoid much of the atv crowd.  I really do appreciate the info it helped us avoid setting up a hunt that would not have been what we were looking for.  Thank you.