Idaho Rifle Hunting: Wilderness Fly/Pack In For Elk, Mule Deer, Wolf & Bear

Since it takes 2 days to ride our stock to our base camp in the wilderness, we fly our customers to one of our backcountry airstrips to save you a sore rear end. Once you fly in, we meet you at the airstrip and take you to one of our tent camps. All tent camps are permitted on the Payette National Forest in the Krassel District. Some camps are large with multiple tents such as a cook tent, hunters sleep tents and guide sleep tents. Other spike camps consist of only one tent that the guide and hunters sleep and eat in.

Each morning we wake up early, build a fire if it is cold outside, wrangle the horses and mules and saddle up while you are eating breakfast. We typically ride out of camp in the dark and start glassing by early light. We either bugle or glass until we find something. The day is spent either riding your horse or walking so please be in the best shape possible. My moto for elk and deer hunting is “get out early and get back early”. I have worked for outfitters who sleep in and it drives me nuts. We make every effort to be where we need to be at daylight. If you are looking for a hunt that allows you to sleep late, eat caviar, drink $1000 bottle of wine, get tickled with a feather up your butt and a mint on your pillow at night, go to a high fence game farm operation. We work hard and expect our hunters to give it their best. This means get in shape and shoot your weapon often before the hunt. The wilderness area has a very long rifle season and has not changed much since my grandfathers’ early days. It opens September 15 and closes November 18. This allows us to hunt elk in the rut with a rifle in September and early October and to hunt mule deer in the rut in late October and November. Black bear, wolf and mountain lion seasons are all open during elk and deer season. You can have just an elk tag or all 5 species of tags if you choose. Since this is a combination hunt, the only price difference is the cost of the tags. The elevation in the wilderness is between 4200’ and 8500’. Elk, deer, bear, lion and wolf tags are guaranteed.