Skip to main content
idfg-badge

Idaho Fish and Game

Motorized Vehicles and Hunting

Motorized Hunting Rule

Motorized vehicle use by all big game hunters is restricted to established roadways legally open to travel by full-sized automobiles.

The motorized hunting rule applies only to big game animals, including moose, bighorn sheep and mountain goats, in designated units (see link to map below) from August 30 through December 31.


Motorized hunting use restrictions apply to units in orange on the map. The rule does not apply to upland game animals or birds in hunts within designated units. The rule applies to motorized vehicle uses by hunters off an established roadway, except: 
 

  • Holders of a valid disabled person’s motor vehicle hunting permit may use a motorized vehicle as allowed by the land owner or manager.
  • Hunters may use a motorized vehicle to retrieve downed game if such travel is allowed by the land owner or manager.
  • Hunters may use a motorized vehicle to pack camping equipment in or out if such travel is allowed by the land owner or manager, but hunters may not hunt while packing camping equipment.
  • Private landowners on their private land, their authorized agents and persons with written landowner permission are exempt from the motorized hunting rule restrictions.

Definitions:

  • A motorized vehicle is any water, land or air vehicle propelled by means of steam, petroleum products, electricity or any other mechanical power.
  • A full-sized automobile is any motorized vehicle with a gross weight in excess of 1,500 pounds.
  • An established roadway is any road that is established, built, maintained, approved or designated by any governmental entity or private landowner for the purpose of travel by full-sized automobiles. An established roadway shows evidence of repeated use by full-sized automobiles, and may include a traveled way of natural earth with depressed wheel tracks and little or no vegetation in the wheel tracks.
  • A hunter is any person engaged in the activity of chasing, driving, flushing, attracting, pursuing, worrying, following after or on the trail of, shooting at, stalking, or lying in wait for, any wildlife whether or not such wildlife is then or subsequently captured, killed, taken or wounded.
 

The following links connect to the official state rules regarding motorized vehicles and hunting.

 


Hunt units with Motorized Hunting Rule

Select map for larger view.
 
Motorized vehicle and rider
 
Try the Idaho Parks and Recreation Trail Mapping System. Print travel maps on demand!