Idaho Mountain Goat

Unit G37A (Mountain Goat Hunt Area 37A)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Mountain Goat

Hunt Area 37A is drawn from units 37A, 29, 58 and 51, in Custer, Lemhi, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties. Named ground inside it runs from 4,575 to 11,313 feet. Idaho Fish and Game publishes no per-unit mountain goat success figure we can verify for this hunt area. Check land status on a current map before you plan a route.

View Draw Odds Idaho Hunting Guide

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Answer a few questions about your tag, your season and your rig, and the Field Intelligence Report builds a print-ready Idaho Unit G37A guide around your hunt: three ranked spots with morning, afternoon and evening plays, a day-by-day plan, topo maps with every pin numbered, a camp and access plan, the legal and retrieval rules for this unit, shot discipline, a meat-care and pack-out plan, and a pre-trip checklist. Every coordinate sits on land recorded as public.

Mountain Goat guide

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Mountain Goat Hunting in Unit G37A

Where to Find Mountain Goat in Hunt Area 37A

Idaho Fish and Game's material on hunt area 37A stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mountain goat live. So the ground below is the unit's own and the read on where to start is ours, labelled as such.

What hunt area 37A is

Idaho Fish and Game draws mountain goat hunt area 37A in Custer, Lemhi, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties on a line that runs along State Highway 28 and Forest Service Road 296, and past Hayden Creek, Spring Mountain and Sawmill Canyon, written out corner by corner in its controlled hunt area descriptions. That is whole units, so the outline on this page follows unit lines all the way round. The units it is drawn from lie in Custer, Lemhi, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties. Idaho Fish and Game also uses the code 37A for elk and Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep hunts, and in its own words "hunt areas are different for each species" — those are other pieces of ground, and this page is the mountain goat area.

High ground inside the line: Big Creek Peak, Flatiron Mountain and Lemhi Range

Named high points inside the hunt area include Big Creek Peak at 11,313 feet, Flatiron Mountain at 11,011 feet, Lemhi Range at 10,998 feet, Lem Peak at 10,959 feet and Yellow Peak at 10,947 feet. Several carry a public-land flag in our data, which makes them the first places to try for a view. Goats live above the trees on cliff and talus and come down only when weather makes them.

Holding ground: Quartzite Canyon, Long Canyon and Lemhi Union Gulch

Below them sit Quartzite Canyon at 8,038 feet, Long Canyon at 7,296 feet, Lemhi Union Gulch at 7,192 feet, Liberty Gulch at 7,174 feet and Federal Gulch at 7,173 feet. These are the folds worth watching, and the ones other hunters walk past on the way to somewhere steeper. Two you can watch from a single knob is worth more than five you have to drive between.

Water: Graves Spring, Cold Spring and Purcell Spring

Named sources include Graves Spring, Cold Spring, Purcell Spring and Nez Perce Spring. Nothing in the data says which of them run in autumn, so a scouting trip earns its fuel.

How high the named ground goes

Named ground inside hunt area 37A runs from 4,575 feet to 11,313 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit G37A terrain and land status

Measured from the unit boundary, not from the agency write-up

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Big Creek Peak (11,313 ft), Lem Peak (10,959 ft), Yellow Peak (10,947 ft), May Mountain (10,924 ft)

Holding ground: Timber Creek Pass (9,327 ft), Firbox Meadows (9,159 ft), Devils Basin (9,024 ft), Graves Spring, Cold Spring

Every one of these was tested against the unit polygon before it went on the map. They are starting points, not agency recommendations.

How to Hunt Mountain Goat in Hunt Area 37A

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, so there is no mountain goat success figure we can tie to hunt area 37A alone, and we won't borrow one from a unit. The plan: glass from across the basin, judge the climb honestly, and decide whether a hit animal could be recovered.

The 2025 and 2026 controlled hunts

Idaho Fish and Game's 2025 and 2026 rules list one controlled hunt for mountain goat in hunt area 37A.

Hunt 6014 — 1 tag, Aug 30–Nov 12

Dates and tag numbers are IDFG's as printed for that season, and IDFG changes hunt areas between years, so check the current booklet before you apply.

Applying for hunt area 37A

Idaho Fish and Game takes moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications together, and anyone who applies for one of the three may not apply for another big game controlled hunt in the same year's first drawing, apart from the unlimited, extra, black bear and depredation hunts IDFG names. Anyone who has taken a mountain goat in Idaho since 1977 may not apply for a goat tag at all. Two hunters may apply together on one application. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points to build.

Glassing from Portland Mountain, Mill Mountain and Bear Mountain

Take a position on one of Portland Mountain (10,780 ft), Mill Mountain (10,780 ft), Bear Mountain (10,707 ft) and Long Mountain (10,670 ft) and be on it before light. In the dark the air runs downhill. Pick an approach that doesn't send it into the country you want to see, and plan to move once the slope warms. A tripod is worth more here than another hour of walking. On the rut hunts, early hunts find goats higher and later hunts find them pushed down by snow.

A first plan from the pins on this page

The map above marks Big Creek Peak, Lem Peak, Yellow Peak and May Mountain as places to see from, and Timber Creek Pass, Firbox Meadows, Devils Basin and Graves Spring as ground to watch. Each pin is a named feature verified to fall inside the hunt-area line, not a spot anyone has hunted. Walk between two of them rather than driving between four, and you will learn more in a day.

What a day here costs you

With 6,738 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. One good position held through the whole of first light beats three visited in a hurry.

What we can't tell you

Some of the ground named above carries no land-status flag we trust, so check ownership on a current layer before you hunt it. We have no mountain goat success figure for this hunt area that survives checking against Idaho Fish and Game's own harvest and hunter counts, and we would rather say so than print a statewide average as though it were measured here.

Idaho rules that decide your day

Summarised from IDFG regulations. They change — read the current regulations and your permit-tag before you hunt.

Legal shooting hours

Big game may be taken from half an hour before sunrise to half an hour after sunset.

Motorized retrieval

Idaho has no general off-road retrieval allowance on federal ground; stay on designated routes.

Tagging

Validate the tag by cutting out the month and day, and attach it to the carcass before moving it.

Leaving meat

Wasting edible meat is illegal.

Where you may not shoot

Occupied structures — No shooting from or across a public highway, and no shooting toward an occupied dwelling.

Mountain Goat: where to put the shot

Broadside or quartering away, on the back edge of the front leg about a third of the way up the body.

Shots to refuse

Nothing behind or overlapping the animal you picked.
Your maximum range is the farthest you have shot a three-shot group into a paper plate from the rest you are carrying.
Pass the shot you are talking yourself into.

Plan the carry: roughly 40– 120 lb of boned-out meat, before head and hide — two large coolers. ProHunt planning estimate, not an agency figure.

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Mountain Goat Success Rates

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics describe general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 37A is a controlled-hunt area, not a unit, so there is no figure here we can tie to it. A unit's general-season number would describe different hunters on different ground. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, which is the figure to check before you apply.

Mountain Goat Draw Odds

Season	Tags	Applicants	Draw %	Pts (n/p)
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (resident)	1	30	3.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	0	5	0.0%	—

Data from 2026 draw results. Each row is one residency pool — read the label before the number. This agency publishes no point thresholds, so the Pts column stays blank and these are pool odds, not what a point total draws.

Open in Draw Odds Engine

Idaho Fish and Game's 2026 first drawing for mountain goat in hunt area 37A, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 6014 — residents 30 applicants for 1 tag, 3% drawn; nonresidents 5 applicants for 0 tags, 0% drawn

Idaho draws at random with no point system, so these are what that year happened to look like, not a requirement to build toward. Idaho Fish and Game reuses hunt numbers for different areas between years, so the figures are matched on the area each hunt had in 2026. Checked against Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner draw results on 2026-06-09.

Unit Logistics & Expectations

Planning Notes

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Water

4 named water sources inside the hunt area in our water layer, including Graves Spring, Cold Spring and Purcell Spring. Which of them run in autumn is something only a scouting trip will tell you.

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Road Conditions

Idaho Fish and Game's boundary for the hunt area follows State Highway 28 and Forest Service Road 296. That is the edge, not a promise of access inside — check a current motor-vehicle-use map before you drive in.

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Terrain Difficulty

Named features inside the hunt area run from 4,575 to 11,313 ft. More than 4,000 feet between them alone, so plan the pack-out before the shot.

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Permit Notes

Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt 6014 (2025 and 2026 rules). Moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goat applications run April 1 to 30. Idaho's draw is random, with no preference or bonus points.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Where is Idaho hunt area 37A?

Hunt Area 37A is drawn from units 37A, 29, 58 and 51, in Custer, Lemhi, Butte, Clark and Jefferson counties. Idaho Fish and Game draws mountain goat hunt area 37A on a line that runs along State Highway 28 and Forest Service Road 296, and past Hayden Creek, Spring Mountain and Sawmill Canyon, written out corner by corner in its controlled hunt area descriptions.

What is the mountain goat success rate in hunt area 37A?

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics cover general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 37A is a controlled-hunt area, so there is no figure we can tie to it. Idaho Fish and Game's hunt planner reports controlled-hunt results hunt by hunt, and that is the number to check before you apply.

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Sources & Verification

Every fact on this page is tied to a primary source below. Last fact-checked 2026-10-24.

Moose, Bighorn Sheep & Mountain Goat 2025 & 2026 Seasons & Rules — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Controlled hunt area description for mountain goat hunt area 37A, The game management units the area is drawn from, Controlled hunt numbers, tags and season dates · accessed 2026-10-24
IDFG Hunt Planner — controlled hunt drawing odds — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Applicants, tags and percent drawn by hunt, year and residency · accessed 2026-06-09
IDFG GameManagementUnits and ControlledHunts_All feature services — game management units and every species' controlled-hunt areas — Idaho Department of Fish and Game · supports: Mapped extent of the unit or hunt area, Which named ground falls inside its line · accessed 2026-10-24