Nevada Unit 106 Elk Hunting Guide

Nevada Unit 106 sits within one of the state's most sprawling elk landscapes, offering nonresident and resident hunters a shot at a genuinely wild, low-pressure hunt across nearly a million acres of public ground. For hunters researching Nevada Unit 106 elk hunting opportunities, this unit combines high public land access, meaningful elevation relief, and a documented history of quality bulls coming from the surrounding region — making it a unit worth a serious look during application season.

Covering 924,268 total acres with elevations ranging from 4,216 feet up to 9,560 feet, Unit 106 offers the kind of vertical relief that creates diverse elk habitat — from low sagebrush basins to high timbered ridgelines. With 96% of the unit classified as public land and 0% wilderness designation, this is genuinely open country for DIY hunters willing to put in scouting time and get away from the easy access points.

HuntPilot Analysis: Is Unit 106 Worth Applying For?

Unit 106 checks several boxes that matter to serious elk hunters. The public land figure of 96% is about as good as it gets anywhere in the West — there's essentially no private-land bottleneck limiting where hunters can go. Combined with 0% wilderness, that also means nonresidents can hunt this unit without needing to hire a guide, since Nevada doesn't carry Wyoming-style wilderness guide mandates in the first place. This is legitimately open, DIY-accessible country.

The trophy picture adds real weight to the case for applying. The counties overlapping Unit 106 carry a strong history of producing trophy-class elk, which lines up with forum chatter referencing "monster elk" sighted in and around the 105/106 elk tag areas. That's a meaningful data point — Nevada as a whole is known for lower hunter density and less pressured herds compared to more heavily hunted Rocky Mountain states, and a unit sitting inside counties with strong trophy pedigree suggests genuine upside for a patient hunter willing to scout hard.

Harvest numbers, however, tell a more complicated story and deserve a close look before hunters get too excited.

Harvest Success Rates

The two most recent years of harvest data for Unit 106 show a significant swing:

• 2024: 36 hunters, 22 harvested, 61% success (unit total)
• 2025: 151 hunters, 51 harvested, 34% success (unit total)

That's a steep drop in success rate even as hunter numbers roughly quadrupled. This kind of shift is common when tag quotas increase and more hunters — including those in lower-demand hunt categories like antlerless tags — enter the field, diluting the overall success percentage. It doesn't necessarily mean elk got harder to find; it more likely reflects a much larger and more diverse pool of hunters spread across different hunt types (antlered, antlerless, and spike categories) within the unit.

Hunters should treat the 2024 figure of 61% as a smaller sample size that may not represent a typical outcome, while the 2025 figure of 34% with 151 hunters is a broader, more statistically meaningful look at what to expect. Either way, a unit-wide success rate in the 34-61% range over these two years is respectable for elk hunting, particularly in a state where overall elk tag numbers remain tightly controlled.

Tag Quota Trends

• ALW-Elk Antlered Early: 19 tags (2024) → 20 tags (2025), a 5% increase
• ALW-Elk Antlered Late: 20 tags (2024) → 20 tags (2025), stable
• ALW-Elk Antlerless: 30 tags (2024) → 35 tags (2025), a 17% increase
• ALW-Elk Spike: 8 tags (2024) → 8 tags (2025), stable
• AR-Elk Antlered: 10 tags (2024) → 10 tags (2025), stable
• AR-Elk Antlerless: 14 tags (2024) → 15 tags (2025), a 7% increase
• M-Elk Antlered: 9 tags (2024) → 10 tags (2025), an 11% increase
• M-Elk Antlerless: 25 tags (2024) → 25 tags (2025), stable

The overall trend is modest growth, not contraction — nearly every hunt category either held steady or ticked upward from 2024 to 2025. Nevada wildlife managers evidently see room to add tags rather than cut them, which is a positive signal for herd health, though it's important to note that spike tags are management-oriented hunts aimed at younger bulls rather than trophy opportunities. Hunters chasing mature bulls should focus their attention on the antlered categories rather than the spike or antlerless allocations.

Trophy Quality

Trophy data for the counties overlapping Unit 106 points to a strong history of record-book production. That doesn't guarantee any individual hunter tags a giant bull, but it does mean the surrounding region has consistently produced trophy-class elk over time — a meaningfully different signal than a unit with no trophy history at all. Forum discussion among Nevada hunters echoes this, with multiple posters referencing large bulls seen in and around the 105/106 elk tag areas, and general consensus among Nevada elk hunters that bulls in the 350-inch class are achievable across many units in the state given enough time in the field and willingness to get off the beaten path.

It's worth remembering that trophy records are logged by county, not by exact hunt unit boundary, so the strong trophy pedigree associated with Unit 106's overlapping counties is shared with neighboring units in that same county footprint. Still, for a unit boasting 96% public land and this level of trophy history, the combination is compelling for hunters willing to scout hard and hunt away from easy access.

Access & Terrain

With 924,268 acres and an elevation range spanning from 4,216 feet to 9,560 feet, Unit 106 offers substantial vertical diversity. Lower elevations likely hold sagebrush flats and basin terrain typical of Nevada's high desert country, while the upper elevation bands near 9,000+ feet almost certainly include timbered ridges and higher-relief mountain terrain that elk use for summer range and cover.

At 96% public land, access is about as unrestricted as it gets in the West. There's no meaningful private-land checkerboard problem limiting where a hunter can go, and with 0% wilderness designation, motorized access into much of the unit should be more available than in wilderness-heavy units elsewhere in the region. That said, "accessible" doesn't mean "easy" — the forum consensus among Nevada hunters is consistent: elk and mature deer alike get pushed away from roads and popular access points quickly once hunting pressure arrives. Hunters who put in scouting time to find the unit's lesser-traveled pockets — its more remote drainages and higher basins away from easy vehicle access — are the ones most likely to find better bulls and higher-quality encounters.

Given the wide elevation band, hunters should plan to scout multiple zones rather than committing to a single elevation strategy, since elk movement between lower and higher terrain can shift meaningfully depending on weather and forage conditions through the season. HuntPilot's map tools, including public land overlays, can help hunters identify which sections of this large unit sit farthest from road access — often the most productive places to start narrowing down a scouting plan.

How to Apply

Nevada's draw system runs on a calendar that nonresident and resident hunters need to track carefully.

Fee structure differs significantly by residency:

Note that both resident and nonresident applicants must hold a qualifying Nevada hunting license before they can even submit an elk application — this license fee is separate from and in addition to the application fee and eventual tag fee if drawn.

Nevada's draw system does not use a true preference-point guarantee structure the way some states do — as several forum posters note, a hunter with a single point can occasionally draw over an applicant with many more points, since a portion of tags are always allocated through pooled random chances alongside point-based pools. For current draw odds by point level and hunt category, hunters should check HuntPilot's Nevada state page at /states/nv or the unit-specific page for Unit 106.

Application dates and fees change every draw cycle. For the current deadlines, fees, and draw odds, see HuntPilot's Nevada page at /states/nv.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the terrain like in Nevada Unit 106? Unit 106 spans a wide elevation range from 4,216 feet to 9,560 feet across 924,268 acres, suggesting a mix of lower sagebrush basin country and higher-elevation timbered mountain terrain typical of Nevada's Great Basin ranges. With 96% public land and 0% wilderness, most of the unit is accessible without the guide requirements that apply in wilderness areas in other states, though hunters should expect that the most productive terrain lies away from the easiest access points.

What is harvest success like in Unit 106 for elk? Recent harvest data shows a wide range: 61% success in 2024 (36 hunters, 22 harvested) versus 34% success in 2025 (151 hunters, 51 harvested). The lower 2025 rate likely reflects a much larger and more diverse hunter pool across multiple hunt categories rather than a decline in elk numbers, since Nevada's tag quotas for Unit 106 generally held steady or increased slightly across nearly every hunt category from 2024 to 2025.

How big are the elk in Unit 106? Trophy records from the counties overlapping Unit 106 show a strong history of producing trophy-class bulls, and hunter forums discussing the broader 105/106 elk tag areas reference sightings of notably large bulls. While individual results vary, the region's trophy pedigree combined with low hunting pressure and high public-land access gives patient, hard-scouting hunters a real chance at a quality bull.

Is Unit 106 worth applying for? Based on the available data, yes — particularly for hunters who value public land access and are willing to scout extensively. The unit's 96% public land figure removes most access barriers, tag quotas have trended upward rather than down, and the surrounding counties carry a strong trophy history. The tradeoff is a documented drop in unit-wide success rate as hunter numbers grew in 2025, so hunters should enter with realistic expectations and a scouting plan that gets them away from easy road access.

Do nonresidents need a guide to hunt Unit 106? No. Nevada does not impose Wyoming-style wilderness guide requirements, and Unit 106 carries 0% wilderness designation in its structured data, so nonresident hunters are free to hunt this unit DIY without hiring an outfitter, provided they meet Nevada's standard licensing requirements.