Big Game by StateThe public record of western draws

Idaho · Bear · Hunt 8504

Idaho bear controlled hunt 8504

How many hunters put this controlled hunt first and how many of them drew it — season by season, for both of Idaho's application periods and both residency pools. Every figure comes from an Idaho Fish and Game response linked at the foot of this page.

What the 2026 drawing did

Idaho offered 25 permits on hunt 8504 in 2026 and issued 25 — the hunt filled. In the first application period, 115 hunters put it first and 25 drew, 21.74%.

Idaho grants no preference for having applied before. The department is direct about it — "IDFG does not use any point system in our draw process" — and its own published data has never carried a point, preference or bonus field in the twenty-nine seasons it covers. Applying for eleven years earns exactly what applying for the first time earns. There is no points-to-draw figure on this page because there is none to publish, and any site showing you one for Idaho has invented it.

Published in 12 of the 29 seasons Idaho offers, 2015 to 2026.

Application period
Residency

First-choice draw rate, by season

The rate is the hunters awarded this hunt on their first choice, divided by the hunters who named it first. Both are exact integers Idaho Fish and Game returns in the same record. A dash means nobody named it first, so the drawing answered nothing — absent, not nought.
SeasonPeriodAreaPermits availablePut it firstDrew on first choiceFirst-choice draw ratePut it secondDrew on second choicePermits issued
2026Second22-116116.67%201
2026First22-1251152521.74%4025
2025Second22-111516.67%401
2025First22-1251032524.27%2025
2024First32-2945353100.00%454194
2023First32-2945353100.00%504194
2022First32-21135757100.00%6856113
2021First32-2no cap5353100.00%8977130
2020Second31427941.43%5204
2020First3150557508.98%257050
2019Second3118011.25%1901
2019First31504735010.57%208050
2018Second22-1511054.55%305
2018First22-1251992512.56%7025
2017Second22-113812.63%501
2017First22-1251792513.97%4025
2016First22-1251832513.66%2025
2015First22-1252002512.50%9025

Idaho draws each hunt twice. The first application period is where almost everybody applies; the second is a real second drawing for what is left. They are different competitions and nothing here averages them.

No cap is a hunt Idaho drew without a permit limit. Its data carries 99,999 and 999,999 as placeholders in the permits-available field and states nowhere what they mean, so no quota is shown rather than one of those figures.

The area label changes across seasons for this hunt number — Idaho printed 22-1, 32-2, 31. A controlled hunt number is reissued, and the department publishes nothing that settles whether the same number covers the same ground from one season to the next: across all its hunts, 874 of 974 numbers see its own internal area key change and 888 see the printed label change, independently of each other. So each row shows the label Idaho printed for that season and this page asserts nothing about the place.

By residency

Idaho splits both applicants and permits by residency. The applicant counts are first-choice only in every season; the permit counts are not, which is why some rates here are blank.
SeasonPeriodResidencyPut it firstPermitsDraw rateWhat the permit count coversIDFG's own figure
2026SecondResident6116.67%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree17%
2026SecondNonresident00—no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2026FirstResident1122522.32%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree22%
2026FirstNonresident300.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2025SecondResident1516.67%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree7%
2025SecondNonresident00—no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2025FirstResident1022524.51%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree25%
2025FirstNonresident100.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2024FirstResident5151100.00%first choice only100%
2024FirstNonresident22100.00%first choice only100%
2023FirstResident5252100.00%first choice only100%
2023FirstNonresident11100.00%first choice only100%
2022FirstResident5656100.00%first choice only100%
2022FirstNonresident11100.00%first choice only100%
2021FirstResident4949100.00%first choice only100%
2021FirstNonresident44100.00%first choice only100%
2020SecondResident25841.55%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree2%
2020SecondNonresident2100.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2020FirstResident528478.90%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree9%
2020FirstNonresident29310.34%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree10%
2019SecondResident7511.33%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree1%
2019SecondNonresident500.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2019FirstResident4494810.69%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree11%
2019FirstNonresident2428.33%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree8%
2018SecondResident10454.81%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree5%
2018SecondNonresident600.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2018FirstResident1922412.50%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree12%
2018FirstNonresident7114.29%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree14%
2017SecondResident3500.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2017SecondNonresident3133.33%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree33%
2017FirstResident1732413.87%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree14%
2017FirstNonresident6116.67%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree17%
2016FirstResident1722514.53%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree15%
2016FirstNonresident1100.00%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree0%
2015FirstResident1832413.11%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree13%
2015FirstNonresident1715.88%no permits went to second choice, so the two readings agree6%

Why some residency rates are blank. Idaho changed what its residency permit columns count around the 2019 season without renaming them. Before, they cover both application choices; from 2019, first choice only. The applicant columns are first-choice-only throughout. So on an older row where permits went to second-choice hunters, dividing one by the other counts winners the denominator never counted — on one 1998 deer hunt that arithmetic gives 250%. Rather than publish that, or pick an era and apply it to every row, this site reads which meaning each row's own totals support and leaves the rate empty where the two do not match.

IDFG's own figure is the percentage the department publishes alongside its counts. It is a rounded summary and it disagrees with its own rows: on the 1998 hunt above it reads 100. It is shown because the department publishes it and a reader will meet it elsewhere, not because it answers the question this page is about.

Where Idaho's own figures disagree with each other

  • IDFG printed 3 different area labels for bear hunt 8504 across the seasons it published (22-1, 31, 32-2). Neither its label nor its internal area key is an identity, so this site shows what the department printed for each season and asserts nothing about whether the ground is the same.

Nothing above is corrected. Correcting it would mean publishing a figure the department never stated.

Sources for this hunt

  • bear/2026-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2026 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2026-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2026 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2025-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2025 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2025-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2025 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2024-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2024 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2023-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2023 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2022-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2022 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2021-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2021 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2020-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2020 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2020-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2020 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2019-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2019 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2019-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2019 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2018-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2018 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2018-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2018 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2017-draw2.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2017 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2017-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2017 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2016-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2016 season, fetched 2026-09-03
  • bear/2015-draw1.json — Idaho Fish and Game controlled hunt drawing odds, 2015 season, fetched 2026-09-03

Nearby hunt numbers

Idaho grants no preference to previously unsuccessful applicants, so nothing on this page accumulates and nothing here predicts next season. See how these numbers are produced and checked, or the Idaho application deadlines.