Madison County Hunting Overview

Madison County hunting units

IDFG gives units numbers, not names, and the lines follow roads, rivers and ridges.

Idaho sets big game seasons unit by unit, and Madison County touches 5 of them; 64% of the county lies in Unit 64. 4 units straddle the line with Jefferson County, more than with any other county.

Unit shares from the IDFG Game Units layer overlaid on Census county polygons (GIS shares of land area, both ways); elk zone of each unit from the IDFG Elk Zones layer; wolf zones from the IDFG Wolf Zones layer; CWD units from the 2026 brochure; bear tables from the 2026 brochure. Checked November 12, 2026.

Chronic wasting disease and wolves in Madison County

IDFG requires CWD testing of harvested deer in Units 63A and 64, even though they are not in the management zone. IDFG moved Units 64 and 69 onto the testing list and took Units 24 and 32A off for 2026, which matters here because of Unit 64.

Madison County wolf zones and wolf seasons

On the wolf zone layer Madison County reads Island Park and Southern Idaho; season dates depend on the unit and the land type. To trap a wolf, hold a trapping license and complete wolf trapper education; transmitting cameras became legal for wolf trap checks on July 1, 2026.

CWD zone, transport and testing rules from the Big Game 2026 Seasons and Rules p. 9; 2026 changes from IDFG, What hunters need to know about CWD requirements for 2026; county units from the IDFG CWD zone rules; wolf rules from the 2026 brochure; wolf zones from the IDFG Wolf Zones layer. Checked November 12, 2026.

Madison County controlled hunts for 2026

Hunts whose units reach the county; the hunt area itself can be smaller than the unit.

IDFG hunt numbers with a unit in Madison County add up to 47, namely 19 deer, 20 elk, 1 pronghorn and 7 moose. Their 2026 tag counts add up to 6,080, a sum that includes tags for ground outside Madison County.

Idaho draws controlled hunts at random: apply May 1 to June 5 for deer, elk, pronghorn and fall bear, April 1 to 30 for moose, sheep and goat. Moose, bighorn sheep and goat hunts below follow the 2025 and 2026 brochure (2026 season).

Deer draws reaching Madison County (19)

Madison County: controlled elk (20)

Madison County: controlled pronghorn (1)

Moose tags drawn around Madison County (7)

Hunt numbers, types, units, dates, bags and 2026 tags from the IDFG Hunt Planner hunt pages (each hunt number links its page) matched to the Idaho Big Game 2026 Seasons and Rules and the Moose, Bighorn Sheep and Mountain Goat 2025 and 2026 brochure; counties are whole units, so a hunt area can be smaller. Application periods from the 2026 brochure, the moose, sheep and goat brochure and the spring bear page. Checked November 12, 2026.

Madison County land by owner

Private land in Access Yes! and Large Tracts is open only on program terms.

The merged map of public hunting land in Madison County reaches 57,277 acres, 19% of the county surface. Sort the owners by size and national forest comes first, 40,079 acres within the county line. For forest roads, fire closures and camping rules, the Palisades Ranger District covers about 31,401 acres of the county.

16,211 acres are BLM-managed, and 16,211 of those report to the Upper Snake Field Office. Endowment land (21,208 GIS acres) sits outside the merged total; the IDFG brochure lists it among its access programs.

Madison County WMAs, refuges and access areas

Public places past the Madison County line

• East of Ririe Reservoir/ Meadow Creek Junction (Access Yes!)17 miles, Access Yes! property
• Sand Creek Wildlife Management Area17 miles, IDFG WMA
• Henry's Fork North of Chester Wetlands (Access Yes!)18 miles, Access Yes! property
• North Teton River (Access Yes!)21 miles, Access Yes! property
• Pine Creek Bench (Access Yes!)23 miles, Access Yes! property
• Tex Creek Wildlife Management Area24 miles, IDFG WMA

Acres are GIS measures of polygons with water over 2 square km removed, not official acreage: IDFG WMA layer, PAD-US 4.1 (forest, grassland, BLM, refuge, park, endowment, Reclamation, military, DOE and tribal land), IDFG Access Yes! 2026 layer, IDFG Large Tracts layer; refuges counted only when listed in 50 CFR 32.31; tribal rule from 18 U.S.C. 1165; closures from the 2026 brochure; Craters of the Moon from the NPS laws and policies page. Checked November 12, 2026.

Close to Madison County

Four county guides picked by the shortest centre-to-centre distance, then three statewide planning pages.