How this works
Success colours each hunting unit by its 5-year average hunter success (Idaho Fish and Game general-season survey). Darker green = more hunters filled a tag. Tap a unit to open its numbers. Crowds shades units by hunters per square mile (general season, 5-year average); darker orange = more hunters.
Hunt day (open a unit): legal shooting light for your date by Idaho's rule (½ hour before sunrise to ½ hour after sunset, at the unit's centre), moon, hunters per square mile, share of the unit burned 3–15 years ago (regrowth that deer and elk feed on), and the weather: the National Weather Service forecast with wind at first and last light and snowfall within 7 days, (no longer-range outlooks: they are rarely right that far ahead). Burns by age maps every fire since 2005: gold = 3–15 years old. The legend on the map explains whatever is turned on, and Print map prints the current view with it.
What the records show compares your date's week with an average week of the season across decades of Fish and Game roadkill records (when deer and elk move near roads, mostly migration). It is history, not a prediction, and not your odds of filling a tag.
Patterns in the data lists every factor we checked against Fish and Game hunter success (snow, green-up, fire, predators, hunting pressure and more): which way it went, how strongly, over how many seasons, and whether it holds up or could be chance. Correlation, not cause: use it as evidence to weigh, not a promise.
Season markers on a unit's chart (🔥 ❄ ⛄ ☀ 🌾) show what happened that year. Of these markers, only a hard winter (⛄) has gone with lower success across Idaho, for both deer and elk, and it could still be chance. Wildfire, early snow, hot summers, forage and cheatgrass showed no clear link. See Patterns in the data for every factor checked. Treat these as context, not causes.
Pick a unit zooms to one hunting unit and links to its seasons. You can share the page link to open the same unit.
Topo and Water come from the U.S. Geological Survey. Solid blue is year-round water; dashed or dotted blue is seasonal (streams and ponds that dry up).
Migration shading and deer rest areas show places migrating deer stopped for days at a time, mapped from GPS collars (2003–2023). For elk, rest spots exist only for three southwest Idaho desert herds (Bruneau-Diamond, Inside Desert, YP Desert; USGS). Deer hit by vehicles shades where collisions with deer have been reported to Idaho Fish and Game since 1967.
Elk uses Idaho Fish and Game road-collision (roadkill) records and public sightings. Idaho's elk migration maps are not public, so elk has no migration shading.
Access: public land comes from the Bureau of Land Management's national land map (blank areas are private or unmapped). Forest roads and their open dates come from the Forest Service Motor Vehicle Use Maps. Access Yes! properties and closed areas come from Idaho Fish and Game. "Road leaves public land" marks every spot where a Forest Service road crosses from public land onto land that is not public on the BLM map; expect a gate, sign or closure there, but it is computed, not observed. Gates are ones volunteers have mapped in OpenStreetMap; many gates are not mapped, so always check on the ground and get permission for private land.
My pins: press Drop a pin, move the map under the cross and press Pin here (or tap the map, or press and hold anywhere). Pins are saved on this phone or computer only; nobody else sees them. When you ask for a trail route or directions, the points are sent through our server to OpenRouteService to work out the route, and are not stored. Address search sends the text you type the same way; recent searches and their results are kept for up to 30 days only to answer the same search faster, with nothing that identifies you. "Save pins for a GPS app" downloads a GPX file that onX, Gaia GPS, HuntStand and Garmin can import.
This is a planning guide from past patterns, not live deer locations. Always check Idaho Fish and Game seasons and rules.
Credits
- Paved roads, gates and help places: © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL)
- Trail routing, directions and address search: openrouteservice.org by HeiGIT, using OpenStreetMap data
- Predator records: GBIF.org occurrence data and Idaho Fish and Game
- Topo, imagery, water and elevation: U.S. Geological Survey (The National Map; Ungulate Migrations); AWS Terrain Tiles (Mapzen)
- Public land: Bureau of Land Management. Forest roads and trails: U.S. Forest Service
- Hunting units, harvest, seasons, Access Yes!, closures, roadkill and migration records: Idaho Fish and Game; migration stopovers via Idaho Transportation Department
- Weather: National Weather Service
- Phones had data here: Speedtest® by Ookla® Global Fixed and Mobile Network Performance Maps, accessed from AWS; based on Rut & Route's analysis (all carriers combined). Ookla trademarks used under license and reprinted with permission. Our Idaho layer is shared under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
- Open sky estimate: our model from AWS Terrain Tiles (USGS 3DEP) and tree canopy from Hansen/UMD/Google/USGS/NASA Global Forest Change 2000–2024 (Hansen et al. 2013, Science 342: 850–853; CC BY 4.0)
- Wildfire perimeters: National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC)