Idaho Mountain Goat

Unit G50 (Mountain Goat Hunt Area 50)

Idaho Hunting Guide — Mountain Goat

Hunt Area 50 is drawn from units 49 and 50, in Blaine, Butte and Custer counties. Named ground inside it runs from 4,833 to 11,964 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.

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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 G50 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 G50

Where to Find Mountain Goat in Hunt Area 50

Idaho Fish and Game's material on hunt area 50 stops at the boundary — there is no agency account of where its mountain goat live. The country below is verified; where to begin in it is our judgement, not the agency's.

What hunt area 50 is

Idaho Fish and Game describes mountain goat hunt area 50 as all of Unit 49 and that portion of Unit 50 south and east of the Trail Creek Road and south and west of U.S. Highway 93. 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 Blaine, Butte and Custer counties. Idaho Fish and Game also uses the code 50 for moose and pronghorn 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: Pioneer Mountains, Hyndman Peak and The Devils Bedstead

Named high points inside the hunt area include Pioneer Mountains at 11,964 feet, Hyndman Peak at 11,915 feet, The Devils Bedstead at 11,802 feet, Standhope Peak at 11,795 feet and Duncan Ridge at 11,736 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: Antelope Pass, Corral Creek Summit and Blizzard Basin

Below them sit Antelope Pass at 8,916 feet, Corral Creek Summit at 8,735 feet, Blizzard Basin at 8,485 feet, Smiley Meadows at 8,475 feet and Star Hope Gulch at 8,353 feet. That is the low country of the hunt area — the ground animals drop into when they are pushed or when the weather turns. Pick the one with the least road on its upwind side.

Water: Big Buck Spring, Big Spring and Cold Spring

Named sources include Big Buck Spring, Big Spring, Cold Spring, Richardson Spring, Strode Spring and Chokecherry 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 50 runs from 4,833 feet to 11,964 feet — more than 4,000 feet between the named features alone, so the season you draw decides which part of it you hunt.

Unit G50 terrain and land status

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

Named features inside the unit

Glass from: Pioneer Mountains (11,964 ft), The Devils Bedstead (11,802 ft), Standhope Peak (11,795 ft), Pyramid Peak (11,567 ft)

Holding ground: Johnstone Pass (9,971 ft), Big Basin (9,792 ft), Surprise Valley (9,180 ft), Big Buck Spring, Big 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 50

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 50 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 50.

Hunt 6017 — 6 tags, 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 50

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 Smiley Mountain, Big Black Dome and Redbird Mountain

Take a position on one of Smiley Mountain (11,474 ft), Big Black Dome (11,341 ft), Redbird Mountain (11,263 ft) and White Knob Mountains (11,245 ft) and be on it before light. Cold air slides downhill in the dark, so keep your scent out of the bowl you mean to watch; expect the thermals to turn uphill an hour after the sun reaches the slope. 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 Pioneer Mountains, The Devils Bedstead, Standhope Peak and Pyramid Peak as places to see from, and Johnstone Pass, Big Basin, Surprise Valley and Big Buck 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. Join two of them into a morning: be on the first before light, move to the second once the thermals turn.

What a day here costs you

With 7,131 feet between the lowest and highest ground, the walk back up out of a kill site is the part to plan first. Leave the truck earlier than you want to and you will hunt the best half-hour of the day.

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 50 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)	5	139	4.0%	—
Controlled — 1st Drawing either sex (nonresident)	1	22	5.0%	—

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 50, with residents and nonresidents kept apart because they draw from different tag pools:

Hunt 6017 — residents 139 applicants for 5 tags, 4% drawn; nonresidents 22 applicants for 1 tag, 5% 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

25 named water sources inside the hunt area in our water layer, including Big Buck Spring, Big Spring and Cold 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 U.S. Highway 93. 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 4,833 to 11,964 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 6017 (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 50?

Hunt Area 50 is drawn from units 49 and 50, in Blaine, Butte and Custer counties. Idaho Fish and Game describes mountain goat hunt area 50 as all of Unit 49 and that portion of Unit 50 south and east of the Trail Creek Road and south and west of U.S. Highway 93.

What is the mountain goat success rate in hunt area 50?

Idaho Fish and Game's per-unit harvest statistics cover general seasons on game management units, and hunt area 50 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 50, 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