I've been up here in Oregon for over 12 years and I knew that Idaho had both muleys and whitetail BUT, I had no clue that the whitetails they produce could be of such good quality animals.
Gonna try for a couple specific tags on DEC01.
Really hoping for a specific elk tag but, deer on the list too

I’m pondering a public land hunt there next year and will likely target mulies. Still undecided since it will take me away from my family for 2 weeks and that is also a busy time of year for getting ready to kill our critters here at home.

I went with 'daylate' that's on here and hunted the Bitterroot wilderness area. Some nice deer in that area. Saw a lot of elk and we were after whitetails. I went in 2009 and 2010.

NICE

FYI, they offer 2 different tags. Ones either muley or WT, the other is whitetail only.

Worked with a guy back in the 90's. Hunted Idaho every year. Said it was one of the best kept secrets in the country. Killed some fine bucks too. He invited me to tag along several years, but never took him up on it.

I know that feeling. I've been so busy here every year between my hunting and dealing with the damage elk tags Oct-Mar15 I wasn't paying attention to the neighbor state. I have better hunt options there than what I have in Eastern Oregon. The DAV Idaho tags come up Dec01, hoping to get lucky but they have a cap on them.

My old office mate is from there and kills nice whitetails each year. Though he lives in Wasjington state now.

I remember watching Buckamsters back in the 1990's and he would be hunting ID. Seems like Realtree went out there too.

The 90s were the "glory days" of Idaho whitetail hunting. Bucks scoring over 150 were very common and hunting pressure was very light. Since then, the introduction of Canadian wolves, Deforestation, EHD, Explosion of licensed whitetail outfitters, Multiple severe winter kills, and heavy hunting pressure have taken their toll. I never got to go during those really good years but went every year from 2007 to 2010. Though by then the deer weren't what they once were, it was still a very enjoyable adventure in some really beautiful wild remote country with crazy weather swings that could make it scary in a hurry. Wolf and mountain lion encounters just added to the adventure. I had two trophy 6 pt bull elk fighting right under my 15 ft high lock-on treestand one afternoon and that experience alone was worth all of it. They still kill some hammer whitetails up there and there is a Facebook page for Idaho Whitetail Hunters that is chock full of photos of very impressive bucks from this season. It could be that things are getting good again.

The 2 trips we made up to Booners Ferry was amazing. We were hunting right outside the Kootnie NWR (spelling). We would go ride during the day and look at all the huge whitetail bucks. We saw some great bucks where we were hunting but we only had elk tags. And then they took me to a little town called Hope. OMG at the deer in that town. Some absolute giants.

Yea, good stuff. I joined the FB page yesterday. A lot of guys here hunt the Frank Church area

I'll check it out

My son and i spent 10 days camping in Idaho this past June. Flew in to Spokane, Wa and explored Hells Canyon up to Bonners Ferry. Gorgeous land and LOTS of wildlife.

Ive been invited to go, but I'd rather not hunt whitetails. If Im going to Idaho it will be for elk, muleys, or turkey.

I can't imagine turning down any hunting opportunity up there

Turkeys up this way are stupid lol. None in our area but east side has them. Even a lot of non-turkey hunters, get their limit over there. I’ll jump on the WT hunt, they got biggins. They have one tag available that’s good for mule, deer and whitetails

I work with a buddy who went in the late 90s on a mule deer hunt. He said you better eat your wheaties and bring your A game.

Frank Church is some of the steepest country in the lower 48 and full of wolves, at least it was in the mid 2000’s. I went on mt lion hunts in there, and it was beautiful country but by that time the wolves were really wreaking havoc and causing all of the game to change from how it lived in the past. It’s a shame what those wolf packs have done to some of the most prolific elk herds in the country.

I saw some big whitetails, but most of them were on the river fields near Salmon. Seemed like killing one with a rifle wouldn’t be too much of a thing. Access and do some scouting and either pay or ask for permission and one should be able to have a good hunt. This was nearly 20 years ago though when I was going up there.

Wolves clean out some animals...