Well, I do know that the middlefork area is the area where we're gonna be heading to. After that, I believe there's 3 areas stacked north to south that we were looking at. Forgive me for not knowing more, but I'm (this hunt anyway) the tag along hunter. My deer hunting partner and his father in law are the ones setting everything up. I do know that they already purchased their elk tags and hopefully (if work allows) I'll be purchasing mine soon. Why Oct.? That's all I could get for vacation time. Is that a bad time of year for elk or for Idaho? Hopefully you guys can fill me in on a little more. Technique this time of year? Hope to get some more info for you Jason you were the one I figured would respond to this.

Well to start- in the middle of october the elk are harder to get some idea of pattern. Though elk don't pattern like whitetail and turkies they are some normal paths that they will take between feeding and bedding times. After the rifle hunters get to pushing them around they can stray from these normal patterns. The beginning week of the season.(last couple days of august we set up on bedding grounds and catch the bulls coming in and out. As the season progresses the bulls get a little more active and a little more vocal. As september rolls on into the third week the bulls are in the peak of the rut. This will continue for a couple of weeks and then the rut starts to die down. You may still be hearing undesturbed bulls into the rifle season in October but the peak has already passed by then. If I where going to spend alot of money to hunt out of state I would try to plan it when the hunting is the best. There are some good late rifle hunters that kill bulls consistantly. But the early season bowhunters around here are some of the most successful that I know. The rut is great and also the first week of the season can prove fatal also. I have killed my elk in the first week for the past five years. They don't talk a whole lot then but can be very responsive to the right calls.

Fieldmouse, take you wife out for her birthday and head out after, Your timing will be perfect.

I'm seriously considering this hunt. Next year won't work for me and my connection I think (or I know) wants to gun hunt. I want to bow hunt. I don't care to drop one with a gun even if he would be the next world record. I believe I have one friend who will jump at the chance and another I'll have to do heavy lobbying. Thanks for the info. Now I need to loose my beer gut.

elkcrazy8 is correct, and I will add that bulls sometimes if pressured become nocturnal during Oct. They still have to and do eat a lot to make up for a loss of energy used in the rut. And to put on a few extra pounds of fat for the soon to be comming winter. In my expereience elk in Oct stay away from the big parks/meadows. Look for places that have lots of thick timber dotted with tiny meadows throughout the landscape. They love it when they can feed close to safety. They will stay out longer in the morning and come out earlier in the afternoon if safety is close. Plan on long days you better be in place where you want to hunt before sunlight and stay out until you can't see. This means of course you will be traveling in unknown territory (to you) in the dark from and back to camp. Some it doesn't bother at all and for some it does. I myself with bow in Sept. never see camp in daylight, and if I get 5 hours of sleep per day, I am doing good. As far as location well like I said before the wolves have caused a lot of problems in that area. I am not saying that there are no elk there but its nothing like it was 5 or even 10 years ago. Elk were everywhere in central Idaho. Depending on where you were it was very common to see 200 plus elk a day. But thats no more, and thats the reason why there are so many out of state elk tags in Idaho. Idaho has always had a limited number of out of state tags on a first come first serve basis. Back before the mid 90's if you wanted to hunt Idaho, you bettter have bought your tag within the first week that they became availiable. But now there are so many left over out of state tags that we as residents can buy the extra tag. Paying out of state fees of course. I am not trying to scare you off, I am just telling you the honest truth. Now with that said there are still a lot of elk to be found hunted and shot in Idaho. But IMHO from the reports that I have heard about the middle fork zone it doesn't look good. And hunting in Oct, will only lessin your chances. If you knew the area like like the back of your hand. I would say go for it because you would know about the honey holes where you can still find elk come heck or high water so to speak. Have your friends hunted there before, if so that will help greatly? I myself have never hunted any units in the middle fork zone. I have hunted unit 28 in Salmon Zone still which is still part of central middle Idaho and borders unit 27 thats part of the middle fork zone. I do know a outfitter who used to guide in the middle fork, but doesn't anymore. If you want I could call him, and if he is willing I could give his # to you and he will have a lot of info about the area. Also I assume you planing on a drop camp? Just to let you know I realy realy like most of the out of staters. Why you might ask? For the most part they are well prepared and take their hunt very serious. From my experience they willing to talk and work with me. Meaning that when I have bumped into them on a mountain I will say what area do you plan on hunting the most and when? Also I will tell them "well I plan on hunting this area over here or overthere and I plan on hunting this time" from there we seem to work out a plan that keeps us both out of each others hair. They respect my area and I respect theirs as well. That makes it easy for me and them to both have a good chance for punching an elk tag, instead of fighting over an area and the elk. Do you plan on trying any elk calls? Yes some elk calls/sounds will still work great in Oct. I and others here can let you know more about that in another post. That a whole subject by itself. Hope this helps let me know what I can do thanks Jason.

Well it's quite aparent that you and some others know exactly what you're talking about. I personally have never hunted Idaho. My friends father used to hunt quite a bit out there. So I'm guessing he's just going off of what the old man has told him. I guess now I'm kinda having second thoughts. I really don't want to invest that kind of time and money if I might stand the chance of not even seeing an elk. Show me a few and I'll be happy. Gimme a shot at one even happier. Wow, I guess for now I need to talk to my hunting partner and see if we can maybe get the out of state tags (areas) that are already purchased changed or something. I don't know. Little leary right now. I really want to harvest an elk (love the meat) whether it be a bull or a cow. Can I do that shoot a bull or a cow? Just another question I just thought of. Also, we're thinking about grabbing some mule deer tags while we're there. How's that hunting? My dad hunted them when we lived in southern AZ. Didn't seem to be to bad of a hunt. Once again probably a totally different hunt.

Stone,
as an Idaho archery education instructor I do know that yes you can still change your tag to any area that you want in Idaho. You can change it up until the first day of an open general hunt. That's not until Aug, so you have some time. Your question can I shoot a cow, that depends on when and where you hunt. In the middle fork you can shoot any elk with any weapon. I don't know that I would back out but, I would instead look at other areas around the middle fork zone. I know this sound crazy but the closer you get to people the more the wolves stay away, and the more elk you'll see. The middle fork zone is all wilderness and overrun with those stupid dogs. If you can't tell by now I really, really hate them. And before people jump all over me for this, think what if your favorite area that was loaded with game and very had few hunters, was ruined by a preditior. I am sure it would make you mad. Now I am not saying that we need to wipe them off the face of the earth, or even of the face of Idaho but we do need to be allowed to control them. Talking to a F&G officer/biologist he told me this last fall. He said that Idaho has roughly 400 wolves roaming from north central Idaho to south Idaho, and that on average they each kill 1.5 elk per week. Well for 400 wolves thats comes to 600 elk per week. 2400 elk per month, and 28,000 elk per year. Ouch!! That hurts, and puts a damper in the elk population. Again I am not saying to kill off all the wolves but we do need to control/manage them. As far as deer go, I honesly don't know. I saw a lot more deer than usual on my wifes elk hunt in unit 51 last Oct. And I shot an ok 4 point (western count) mulie buck. But I saw fewer elk than ever before. I have hunted either the Lemhi Zone or the Salmon zone my entire life. I alway bowhunt too. But this past year I went elk rifle hunting for the first time in a long time in an eastern Idaho unit. In the past this unit has sucks compared to central Idaho but I saw a lot more elk here, than on my wife hunt. And I shot a 5 point bull with a rifle on opening day in Oct. Needles to say, I can't wait for opening day of archery to hunt this unit with my bow, and its a lot closer to my home town to boot.

The wolves have not moved into my area YET thank god and the elk heards are still very strong. Unfortunatly it is in an unknown unit and an unkown location. There are some good areas around the 10 and 10a units still. The mule deer hunting is ok in areas and you will stand a decent chance at getting a buck. The big boys are usually nocturnal til the beggining of nov. but they are still there and can be found. Good luck in your search and keep us posted on your decision.

My hunting partner talked to the Idaho Fish and game and they said the wolves are on the rapid decline. I sure hope so I would really like to take an elk when we go. Jason you said that call's would be a whole new post. I think I'm gonna start it for you to teach me. LOL!!

Stone316_74, I sure hope and pray the IDF&G is right, I do believe that is what they said to your friend, but I don't know if they are correct. I just hope that the rapid decline is because someone is shooting them, and not that they are just spreading out over a bigger area. Which therefore would appear to be less wolves. I know that in unit 51 this last year we had a wolf pack in the area. In years before we have seen a wolf here and there just passing through, but never just hanging around. But the good news is that the ranchers can now shoot them and in the near furtue we might be able to hunt them. That would be cool! Anyway enough about wolves, and on to bigger and better things like ELK!!!!! First off do you hunt turkey? I could be wrong because I don't (I want to) but I have been told that if you can call in a turkey you can call in an elk. And visa a versa. If you do call in turkeys can you use a diaphram mouth call. The only reason I ask is if you can then you can make any elk call you want to. Don't worry if you can't yet because their is plenty of time to buy one an learn to make simple elk sounds. Now you don't need to be able to bugle for a October hunt, it would help but not required. But you do need to make a lot of different cow calls. Such as a lost cow, or a calming social cow call saying hey its just me and everything is o.k., also a more excited cow call plus a few more. I don't know if you have seen elk nuts web site but let me tell you he knows his elk calls and elk. After you master a few cow calls. You can try to learn to do a young bull squeal, and a location bugle. You don't need to be perfect, because for october thats all you'll need. I have in my experience, found that with bull elk, before and after the rut they don't always sound the best or what I'll call the hollywood type bugle that everyone wants to hear. Last year in Oct, I called my bull into me out of very thick timeber, using both cow calls and light bugles, he sounded like a wimp bull but for the area he was almost a herd bull. Primos and Carlton both make some very good instructional videos that take you step by step with different types of calls. I would recomend this becase that way you can practice with them as you watch. Also there are some push me cow calls that they both make which are good. These can come in handy if a elk is moveing and you want to freeze it in its tracks. And if you use them over the top of another call then it sounds like more than one elk. This advice is just the tip of the iceburg so to speak with elk calling but it gives you a place to start. Ofcoures you also need to know when is the proper time to use them but I'll leave that for later. Let me know if and what calls you can use to make elk sounds then will go from there.

Elkcrazy8 at this point what else do you recomend for him, that needs to be said that I have forgot?

I can sum up all you will need to know in 2 words................elknut's video's........This network would overload if we put all of the information from Paul's videos on here. Just find one of elknut1's post and click on the link to find out more. This man has a wealth of information that he is more than willing to share. Just don't make fun of his bow, it kills them just as dead as any.