Idaho’s Best OTC Deer Hunting Units (Rifle and Archery)

There is a lot of opportunity for “over-the-counter” deer hunting in Idaho, though you will have to plan ahead if you are a non-resident because deer hunting tags and licenses (for non-residents) go on sale December 1 and are available on a first-come, first-served basis. They general sell out quickly. Between the general any weapon season and the general archery season you can have the option to hunt almost any unit in Idaho for either Whitetail Deer or Mule Deer.

Before purchasing a deer hunting tag, be sure to read about the differences between the General Deer tag and its seasons and the Whitetail Deer tag and its seasons. The best tag for you will depending on the species, unit(s), and season(s) you want to hunt.

In the article I’ve analyzed data for all deer hunting zones in Idaho over the last five years. Results are presented as five year averages so you can evaluate what deer hunting in a unit may be like based on recent trends instead of getting results that have been skewed by a really good year or really bad year. I also present multiple success metrics so you can decide which unit(s) will be best for you to hunt. Results are presented for both the general (any weapon) season and the archery season.

Based on a comprehensive score that includes harvest success, buck deer harvest success, and the average number of days to harvest a deer the best general sesaon (any weapon) over-the-counter deer hunting units in Idaho are 21, 15, 63A, 29, and 28. Based on the same comprehensive score, the best over-the-counter units for archery hunting deer in Idaho are 21, 15, 63A, 29, and 28.

My results include data from 2017-2021. Hunter reporting data from the 2022 season won’t be available until the spring of 2023. So the data here are the most accurate numbers available when planning for your 2022 in-state (resident) hunts, or 2023 out-of-state (nonresident) hunts.

Note: If you’re interested in elk hunting in Idaho you can check out my analysis of the best elk hunting units for archery and general season hunters.

Overall Success¶

The overall success rate is the total number of deer harvested divided by the number of hunters. This metric reports the percentage of hunters that harvest deer each year. Success rates are averaged over all Game Management Units (GMUs) for the last five years. The overall success rate includes both does and bucks.

The average success rate for over-the-counter deer hunters in Idaho during the general season ranged from 9.0 to 52.0% over the last five years. During archery season success rates ranged from 6.7 to 31.4%. Units 11A, 16, 15, 1, and 10A had the highest over-the-counter success rates during the general season. Units 63A, 21, 15, 40, and 29 had the highest over-the-counter success rates during the archery season.

I’ve displayed the units with the highest success rates for the general seasona and the archery season in the tables below. Units with an average harvest of fewer than 20 deer per year are not included.

General (any weapon) Season¶

Archery Season¶

Average Days to Harvest a Deer¶

Idaho collects the number of days each hunter spends afield in hunter reports. Combined with the number of deer harvested we can calculate the average number of days it took hunters to harvest a deer (this metric includes both doe and buck harvests).

Average days to harvest a deer is useful to identify areas where the unsuccessful hunters may have only spent a day or two hunting. If a low success rate is due to few days afield, this metric will account for that

The tables below show the Idaho units where it took the fewest days to harvest a deer (lower is better). These numbers are reported for both the general and archery seasons.

General Season¶

Archery Season¶

Comprehensive Deer Harvest Success Rank¶

To determine the best overall Idaho units for over-the-counter deer hunters I create a metric that combined harvest success, harvest success for bucks, and average days to harvest. I ranked each unit individually based on these three metrics, then added all the ranks together. The units with the lowest scores represent the best units. I’ve compiled tables of the 10 best units based on this comprehensive score for both the general and archery seasons.

General Season¶

Archery Season¶

Whitetail Deer vs Mule Deer¶

When considering these results it’s important to remember that some units in Idaho contain mostly Whitetail Deer while others contain mostly Mule Deer, and some contain about equal mixes of each. Be sure to pick a unit based not only on the ranking I present here, but also on the species you want to pursue. For more information about the distributions of Whitetail and Mule Deer in Idaho check the information on the Idaho Fish and Game website.

Other Factors to Consider when Choosing a Hunting Unit¶

Numbers and statistics can be very useful to identify units where hunters regularly have success. However, there are other things to consider.

Perhaps you may value solitude and remoteness. In that case, you may want to choose a unit with a lower success rate but fewer hunters.

In another instance, success may be low because there are large tracts of private land in the unit. If you are able to gain access to that private land your success rate could be much higher than the unit average. Or maybe the public land is not easily accessible but holds large numbers of animals that don’t get a lot of hunting pressure.

Additionally, a unit may have a lot of hunters but if it is a large unit hunter density and hunting pressure could still be lower than average.

These are all important things to consider, in addition to harvest statistics, when planning your hunt.