unit 24

deerslayer1 · Aug 8, 2011

Anyone have any luck in 24? From what i understand there used to be alot of decent deer in there. I still see a few nice ones every year but the hunting pressure is getting rediculous. Happen to stumble onto a skull that was 28" wide and 28" tall, perfect 5x5 a year ago and seen 2 monters but with so many people, its getting more dangerous to hunt the area; bullets flyin' everywhere. Can anyone recommend some areas that are not too much farther from boise that would be good for someone to go to get a wall hanger that ins't afraid of putting in hard work, back packing in on foot?

deepforks · Aug 8, 2011

hate to break it to you, but you are not going to get closer to boise AND get less hunting pressure. it's going to be the complete opposite. the one exception would be certain parts of 39. but, to get away from the crowds, you will need to hike back in aways. there are still big bucks roaming those hills!!

bchap05 · Aug 8, 2011

LAST EDITED ON Aug-08-11 AT 07:22PM (MST)[p]We have a family cabin in the lower portion and used to do most all of our hunting out of the cabin in 24 usually near the 33/24/25 border. We hunted this area through the late 90's until now. However the last few years it is mainly just a back up plan if we didn't get anything in the other units we hunt.

It seems to me the number of hunters has dropped of a lot but the stats don't really show that. Last year there were around 1700 hunters and in 2002 about 2000 so it hasn't changed much. I can remember going in the late 90's early 2000's and we would see quite a few hunters camped, and also out on the mountains. The last few years its surprising if we run into more than one or two other camps. So apparently the crowds are in a different section of 24 than where were at.

It's also surprising if we run into a deer or much sign of them anymore though. I spend a lot of time riding my dirt bike through the unit not really scouting but in the last 3 years I've probably seen 3 deer total and they were all does. Last year we only hunted 2 days in the unit and didn't see a single deer. We did see one set of pretty fresh buck tracks. We hike quite a ways off of the roads as well.

deerslayer1 · Aug 8, 2011

Thanks, I love the area and have had pretty good success over the years there. But like i said, definately getting tougher to find the good bucks though ( i know thats like alot of places). Any word on where the wolves have been roaming there?? I know there have been some on west mountain near tamarack area,as well as near the lookout, does anyone know if they are still in that area or possibly moved on??? and how do you suppose that effects the bears in that area. I know there are some large bears , or at least were some that roamed those hills. fyi- every year there are some guys that get a few cow elk way down low, but don't seem to see many bulls there. Any info on the elk in the area??

bchap05 · Aug 9, 2011

LAST EDITED ON Aug-09-11 AT 12:41PM (MST)[p]We haven't hunted the west mountain side much except going over the top to 32a, but on east mountain there are still some wolves. Someone we know found a really big track just last week down low pretty close to the cabins. There is a moose and her baby that come down to the reservoir in the mornings and evenings so maybe it was following them down.

When the wolves started coming in we didn't see much coyote tracks or sign and this spring when turkey hunting we came across tons of coyote tracks everywhere we went. We also didn't see any wolf tracks whereas the previous few years we had in the spring. So I think some have moved on.

Bears don't know I've only seen one up there ever and he was tiny and down really low near the cabins. I know of a good hard to find spot that looks really really good for bucks but have yet to see a deer in it. There is a decent amount of bear sign around there usually.

Elk see a few decent bulls off of highway 55 driving back and forth to Cascade but have never seen a bull up on the mountains at all.

deepforks · Aug 12, 2011

bchaps, are you talking about anywhere near the clear creek area? just curious, as my family has a place near herrick. ive never seen wolves on east mountain, but ive come on tracks in the skunk creek area. ive seen them on west mountain though.

bchap05 · Aug 17, 2011

LAST EDITED ON Aug-17-11 AT 07:25PM (MST)[p]Yeah our place is off of clear creek about a mile from Herrick. My dad actually heard one howl early one morning on east mountain. Our old lab was still alive so this was probably a few years back, but he said she heard it too tucked her tail and immediately went into the cabin. Like I said we didn't see any tracks this spring but two springs ago we saw lots of tracks while turkey hunting on the East mountain side.