Unit 43
Elk
Resident licenses
Smoky-Bennett Zone Elk Tag
Availability: General Season
✅ Includes bull elk
A Tag: Archery only — any elk, Units 43 and 48 only: Aug 30-Sep 30.
B Tag: Any weapon — antlerless only, Units 44, 45, and 52 only.
Source: IDFG regulations (2026)
Nonresident licenses
Nonresident Elk Zone Tag
Availability: Draw — see notes
✅ Includes bull elk
Smoky-Bennett Zone general elk tag (units 43, 44, 45, 48, 52).
Nonresident general-season elk tags are not sold over the counter: beginning with the 2026 season IDFG issues them by random draw — first application period Dec 5-15, 2025, second application period Feb 5-15, 2026 — against a statewide nonresident general-season quota of 12,815 elk tags.
Smoky-Bennett Zone nonresident limits — A Tag: 180 nonresident tags (uncapped zone; 26 additional tags allocated to outfitters), archery-only season.
B Tag: 5 nonresident tags (capped zone — 600 total capped tags, of which 593 are resident tags and 2 are allocated to outfitters).
Price: $651.75 nonresident elk tag plus $185.00 nonresident hunting license (Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons & Rules, Nonresident License, Tag and Permit Fees, prices as of December 1, 2024).
Source: 2026 Nonresident General Tags and Tags Allocated to Outfitters, "Nonresident Elk Tags by Zone" and "Elk Tag Limits for Nonresidents and Outfitters by Zone".
Source: IDFG regulations (2026)
6+ point bulls: 22 of 48 total bulls harvested (2025)
Success rate history
| Year | Hunters | All | Spike | Bull | 6+ pt | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest | Rate | Harvest | Rate | Harvest | Rate | Harvest | Rate | ||
| 2025 | 920 | 64 | 7% | 6 | 0.7% | 42 | 4.6% | 22 | 2.4% |
| 2024 | 946 | 88 | 9.3% | 19 | 2% | 46 | 4.9% | 21 | 2.2% |
| 2023 | 945 | 118 | 12.5% | 13 | 1.4% | 83 | 8.8% | 39 | 4.1% |
| 2022 | 866 | 116 | 13.4% | 20 | 2.3% | 62 | 7.2% | 28 | 3.2% |
| 2021 | 813 | 69 | 8.5% | 9 | 1.1% | 47 | 5.8% | 28 | 3.4% |
| 2020 | 990 | 130 | 13.1% | 5 | 0.5% | 90 | 9.1% | 48 | 4.8% |
| 2019 | 904 | 95 | 10.5% | 7 | 0.8% | 71 | 7.9% | 45 | 5% |
| 2018 | 844 | 131 | 15.5% | 17 | 2% | 91 | 10.8% | 51 | 6% |
| 2017 | 770 | 102 | 13.2% | 10 | 1.3% | 85 | 11% | 45 | 5.8% |
| 2016 | 1055 | 92 | 8.7% | 21 | 2% | 59 | 5.6% | 38 | 3.6% |
| 2015 | 857 | 175 | 20.4% | 49 | 5.7% | 110 | 12.8% | 55 | 6.4% |
| 2014 | 404 | 83 | 20.5% | 23 | 5.7% | 54 | 13.4% | 31 | 7.7% |
| 2013 | 286 | 48 | 16.8% | 15 | 5.2% | 29 | 10.1% | 11 | 3.8% |
| 2012 | 294 | 46 | 15.6% | 13 | 4.4% | 31 | 10.5% | 17 | 5.8% |
| 2011 | 405 | 45 | 11.1% | 6 | 1.5% | 33 | 8.1% | 9 | 2.2% |
| 2010 | 421 | 38 | 9% | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2009 | 416 | 44 | 10.6% | 16 | 3.8% | 26 | 6.3% | 19 | 4.6% |
| 2008 | 401 | 19 | 4.7% | 4 | 1% | 14 | 3.5% | 7 | 1.7% |
| 2007 | 332 | 30 | 9% | 2 | 0.6% | 27 | 8.1% | 16 | 4.8% |
IDFG doesn't publish harvest by residency.
Source: IDFG harvest statistics, 2025.
Deer
Resident licenses
Regular Deer Tag
Availability: General Season
✅ Includes antlered deer opportunity (all deer)
Antlered: Oct 10 - Oct 31.
Antlerless: Oct 10 - Oct 31 (Youth hunt only).
Source: IDFG regulations (2026)
Nonresident licenses
Nonresident Regular Deer Tag
Availability: Draw — see notes
✅ Includes antlered deer opportunity (all deer)
Unit 43 Regular Deer, nonresident hunt code RD43.
Nonresident general-season deer tags are not sold over the counter: beginning with the 2026 season IDFG issues them by random draw — first application period Dec 5-15, 2025, second application period Feb 5-15, 2026 — against a statewide nonresident general-season quota of 15,500 deer tags.
Unit 43 nonresident limit: 575 tags, plus 12 tags allocated to outfitters.
Price: $351.75 nonresident deer tag plus $185.00 nonresident hunting license (Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons & Rules, Nonresident License, Tag and Permit Fees, prices as of December 1, 2024).
Source: 2026 Nonresident General Tags and Tags Allocated to Outfitters, "Nonresident Regular Deer Tags by Unit" and "Regular Deer Tag Limits for Nonresidents and Outfitters by Unit".
Source: IDFG regulations (2026)
Idaho's Regular Deer Tag harvest and success-rate figures below combine the mule and white-tailed deer populations into one number — IDFG doesn't publish a single-species breakdown at the unit level.
4+ point deer (all deer): 229 of 881 antlered deer harvested (2025)
Success rate history
| Year | Hunters | All deer | Antlered | 4+ pt | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Harvest | Rate | Harvest | Rate | Harvest | Rate | ||
| 2025 | 3687 | 1056 | 28.6% | 881 | 23.9% | 229 | 6.2% |
| 2024 | 4064 | 1046 | 25.7% | 879 | 21.6% | 316 | 7.8% |
| 2023 | 3975 | 1031 | 25.9% | 840 | 21.1% | 269 | 6.8% |
| 2022 | 3872 | 1227 | 31.7% | 955 | 24.7% | 287 | 7.4% |
| 2021 | 3945 | 1026 | 26% | 817 | 20.7% | 229 | 5.8% |
| 2020 | 4580 | 1028 | 22.4% | 795 | 17.4% | 254 | 5.5% |
| 2019 | 4244 | 989 | 23.3% | 780 | 18.4% | 273 | 6.4% |
| 2018 | 4283 | 1296 | 30.3% | 1056 | 24.7% | 380 | 8.9% |
| 2017 | 4548 | 1093 | 24% | 846 | 18.6% | 372 | 8.2% |
| 2016 | 4363 | 1440 | 33% | 1225 | 28.1% | 515 | 11.8% |
| 2015 | 4686 | 1766 | 37.7% | 1495 | 31.9% | 704 | 15% |
| 2014 | 3850 | 1540 | 40% | 1285 | 33.4% | 555 | 14.4% |
| 2013 | 2783 | 791 | 28.4% | 677 | 24.3% | 277 | 10% |
| 2012 | 2254 | 772 | 34.3% | 665 | 29.5% | 319 | 14.2% |
| 2011 | 2692 | 755 | 28% | 657 | 24.4% | 247 | 9.2% |
| 2010 | 2617 | 730 | 27.9% | 654 | 25% | 255 | 9.7% |
| 2009 | 2334 | 647 | 27.7% | 570 | 24.4% | 209 | 9% |
| 2008 | 2293 | 703 | 30.7% | 598 | 26.1% | 219 | 9.6% |
| 2007 | 2196 | 570 | 26% | 476 | 21.7% | 173 | 7.9% |
IDFG doesn't publish harvest by residency.
Source: IDFG harvest statistics, 2025.