Application Strategy 2024: Wyoming Elk - Sample

Wyoming's 2024 Elk Application Overview

If you are interested in some of the best elk hunts that the West has to offer, then Wyoming needs to be on your radar. Whether you’re after limited quota hunts or general season fun, the cowboy state is full of quality hunts that satisfy all. The application deadline for Wyoming elk for nonresidents is Jan. 31, 2024, by 11:59 p.m. MT. The application is entirely done online and you can apply here. Resident elk limited quota applications are due by May 31, 2024. 

New Or Noteworthy For This Year

For the 2024 season, there were a couple of big changes that were finalized and will be discussed below. 

Nonresident region general elk

In previous years, the nonresident general elk license was good for the entire state and hunters were able to hunt any open general unit within that unit's season dates. Now, the applicant must choose from one of three general elk regions when applying and, if successful, can only hunt the open general units within that region. We will discuss more of this topic later on within the article.

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Nonresident special elk license

Nonresident applicants have until May 8 to modify or withdraw their applications. Tentatively, draw results will be posted on May 16. Wyoming’s draw system still requires you to front the entire cost of licenses with your application by Jan 31. Those funds will not be refunded to your card until late May if you are unsuccessful in the draw.

Preference point reminder

Unsuccessful applicants will not automatically be given a preference point if unsuccessful in the draw. You must purchase a point during the point only time frame, which is July 1 to Oct. 31, 2024.

State Information

View important information and an overview of the Wyoming rules/regulations, the draw system, preference points, SuperTag and SuperTag Trifecta, tag and license fees, and an interactive boundary line map on our State Profile. You can also view the Wyoming Elk Profile to access historical and statistical data to help you find trophy areas.

Important dates and information

* The costs above do not include a 2.5% processing fee on the total transaction amount. For example, if you applied for special full price elk, you will pay an additional $32.45 in fees.

** Nonresident youth who apply in the special draw will pay the full special license cost.

Note: Even if you are unsuccessful in the draw, you will not automatically be given a preference point. Preference points must be bought during the summer/fall point only time frame. The cost is $52 for adults and $10 for youth.

Snow water equivalent 2024 vs 2023

January 6, 2024, Wyoming snow water equivalent percent of normal.

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January 6, 2023, Wyoming snow water equivalent percent of normal.

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Insider features

Point Tracker

Point Tracker allows you to enter the number of points you have for each state and species and, as you research through Filtering and Draw Odds, your point total will automatically be highlighted. Learn more about using Point Tracker below:

Draw Odds

GOHUNT displays the number of applicants at each point level below the cut-off draw line for each hunt on the detailed draw odds page. This gives applicants a much greater understanding of point creep for each hunt and allows them to apply with a much better understanding of their chances. Check out a great article on point creep here and how to find the detailed draw odds page for each hunt.

The Wyoming Draw System

Every state is different, and whether you are reapplying or applying in Wyoming for the first time, we have everything you need to know in the article below. Wyoming’s draw system and application process can seem complicated; however, understanding a few key components of their system will help you navigate it with ease.

Point system

The nonresident elk draw works on a modified preference point system where 75% of the licenses are allocated to applicants with the most preference points and the other 25% are randomly allocated. The Wyoming preference point system is a true preference point system, meaning that the licenses for any given hunt are allocated to the applicants with the most points who apply. Basically, they work from the top, down. 

After the preference point licenses are allocated, all unsuccessful applicants have a chance in the random draw. There is no weight given to the number of points you have in the random draw. For example, an applicant with 10 points and an applicant with one point have the same odds in the random draw.

There is no point system for residents. The draw is completely random for resident applicants.

Regular vs. special draw

Wyoming offers two separate draws for nonresidents: the regular draw and special draw. Nonresidents can apply in either the regular draw or the special draw, but they cannot apply in both. The special draw license is $1,258 more than the regular draw license. The potential benefit of applying for hunts in the special draw is that the odds of drawing may be better due to the fact that, often, fewer people are willing to pay the higher price. However, this is not always the case, especially for a lot of the more highly sought after licenses.

Review the Draw Odds to see if the odds are actually better in the special draw and worth the added cost. In some cases, it is. For example, a general season elk license in the special draw had random odds of 11% while the odds in the regular draw were 7.7%. That is a 3.3% increase in odds for the special draw at a cost difference of $1,258. That may or may not be worth it to you, but it’s worth considering for the hunt(s) you apply for.

Elk license splits

Wyoming’s elk licenses are split between residents and nonresidents: 84% are allocated to residents and 16% allocated to nonresidents. Out of the nonresident licenses, 60% of those are allocated to the regular draw and 40% are allocated to the special draw. One additional split offers 75% of licenses to the highest preference point applicants and the other 25% are randomly allocated.

Note: There must be at least four licenses for any given hunt to offer one in the random draw. When reviewing the odds, if you have less than maximum points for the hunt you are considering, make sure there are odds displayed all the way to the zero point level, which means there was — and likely will be — at least one random license available. Every year, applicants apply for tags without random tags available and it’s pretty much a wasted application at that point. 

Group applications

Wyoming will allow up to six people to apply on a party application for elk. The party is treated as a single application and, if it’s drawn, all members of the party will receive a license. Residents and nonresidents may not apply together in a party application. Party applications have their preference points averaged out to the fourth decimal point. For example, a party application of three hunters with seven, five and two preference points will go into the draw with 4.6666 points. Wyoming will allocate licenses over the hunt quota to cover a party application, so there is no decrease in odds for a group application. For instance, if there is only one license remaining in the draw and a group application with three people is selected for that license, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department (WGFD) will over-allocate and grant all three members of the group a license.

When applying as a party, you will need one member to apply as the Party Organizer. When they apply they will select “Party Organizer” and click “enter.” The next screen will show you your party ID number. The party ID includes the last name of the organizer and the six digit assigned number. You will have to give this party ID to the members of your party. It is required that they know and use the party ID when they apply to successfully join your party. The rest of your party should select “Party Member,” and enter in the party ID previously created by the party organizer. Once you enter the party ID, you will be taken to the application screen, but will not be able to change the hunt area or type since party applications are required to have the same species, drawing (special versus regular), hunt area and type as the party organizer.

Hunt choices

Applicants have three choices when they apply: first, second and third. Every applicant's first choice is considered before moving to any applicant's second or third choice. In essence, to draw a hunt as a second or third choice, there must be licenses remaining after every applicant's first choice has been considered. Your preference points will only be purged if you draw your first choice. I would suggest using your Insider account to see what hunts could be available this year for a second choice option. You can see those by filtering by “second choice” in the standalone Draw Odds page.

How to access second choice draw odds on our standalone Draw Odds page.

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Full price and reduced price licenses

The full price and reduced price hunts are separate draws. The full price draw works on the preference point system. The reduced price draw is completely random. Reduced price licenses are Types 6, 7 and 8, which are all antlerless (cow/calf) licenses. Full price licenses are Type 1, 2, 9, 4, 5 and 0. Preference points will not be impacted if you apply for and draw a reduced price license. Applicants can apply for both the full price and reduced price draw.

Hunt types

TYPE 1 LICENSE

A Type 1 is a rifle license valid for the season and weapon as indicated within the Wyoming regulations. In addition, most Type 1 licenses will also allow hunters to purchase an over-the-counter (OTC) archery stamp and bowhunt during the entire month or a portion of September.

TYPE 2 LICENSE Most often, a Type 2 license will vary by season or boundary. For example, some areas may have both a Type 1 and a Type 2 license where the only difference is the start and ending season dates. Other units may have a Type 1 and Type 2 license where the difference is that they are valid for different portions of the area. A Type 2 is also a rifle hunt. Hunters may be able to purchase an OTC archery stamp and hunt all or a portion of the archery season. See regulations for details.

TYPE 9 LICENSE

Archery only hunts that are valid in the hunt area and during the archery dates indicated.

GENERAL LICENSE

The general season license allows hunters to rifle hunt in any or all general hunt areas within their region. Successful applicants can also buy an OTC archery stamp that will allow them to hunt with a bow and arrow in general season areas during all or a portion of September. See rules and regulations for details.

TYPE 4 AND 5

These are full priced cow/calf licenses. One thing to be aware of is that if you apply for one of these licenses as your first choice and draw it, you will lose any preference points you have accrued. So if you are in the mode of building elk points for a more desirable unit, then a Type 4 or 5 license should be a second choice option only. 

TYPE 6 AND 7 

Type 6 and Type 7 are reduced price licenses and will not utilize preference points. You can apply for those on a separate application within the state draw system. The drawing for reduced price licenses is random with no point system.

Leftover draw

Any remaining licenses after the resident and nonresident draws will be available in a leftover draw. Residents and nonresidents can apply. There is no application fee and no point system. You must front the cost of the license when you apply. Unsuccessful applicants will be refunded back to the card used to apply. The leftover draw time frame is June 24 to 28, 2024 and results should be available July 9 (tentative). 

USFS Designated Wilderness Areas (DWA)

Every year, we talk to nonresident applicants who have unknowingly drawn a license in an area that is largely or completely within a DWA. Before you apply, it’s extremely important to consider that a nonresident cannot legally hunt within a DWA on their own; they must be accompanied by a licensed Wyoming outfitter or licensed Wyoming resident guide. A DWA is a United States Forest Service (USFS) designation. One thing to remember if you have a resident that is willing to take you into the DWA, he/she needs to go to a WGFD office and get a resident guide license in person. It cannot be done online. 

A Wilderness Study Area (WSA) is a BLM designation and a nonresident can hunt those areas without a guide.

Before applying, be aware that there are large tracts of USFS DWAs in many hunt areas. Use the GOHUNT Maps platform to check out hunt areas, land ownership and wilderness layers to review areas with DWAs. Hunting within many of the DWAs can be very good, but if you plan to apply and draw a hunt for one of these areas, you should have an agreement with a guide/outfitter or a plan to hunt with a Wyoming resident at your side. Please do some research and apply accordingly.

Grizzly country

Since 2000, the grizzly population has continued to grow and expand well beyond the Grizzly Bear Recovery Zone. The most recent population estimate was approximately 700 grizzly bears.

Wyoming grizzly bear range in 1990 and 2020.

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Hunting in grizzly country can be intimidating and is a cause for concern. My biggest piece of advice would be to take the proper precautions needed and give them the respect they deserve. If hunting in occupied grizzly bear areas is something you do not want to do, please do some research and apply for areas where that is not an issue. 

Wyoming's 2024 elk breakdown

For the 2024 draw, the elk hunts available will appear very much the same as they have in previous years; however, with the new “special” price increases and changes made to the general elk license, there will definitely be a change in how folks apply this year. 

Wyoming is still an incredible elk state and it’s worth applying in 2024. At a minimum, we highly recommend buying a preference point for elk during the summer/early fall point only purchase time frame. Almost every area of the state is above population objective and Wyoming still offers the best mix of trophy potential and opportunity. The state even increased the tag quotas in several units last year because of this. There’s definitely not a shortage of elk. However, in 2023, Wyoming issued only 135 licenses to maximum point holders and there are still 756 maximum point holders and another 917 with 17 points going into the 2024 draw. In addition, with the three new general regions, it’s going to be tough to tell how the odds and creep are going to affect the nonresident general elk draw. I would anticipate point creep to stay the same or slightly decline, depending on the region. The good news is that Wyoming does offer 25% of their licenses through the random portion of their draw. Within that random draw, every applicant (regardless of the number of points they have) has equal odds of drawing. For those who do draw — the hunting is very good! Elk populations continue to be strong throughout the state and trophy potential is generally good. Wyoming is not a hub for trophy bulls that score north of 350”, but most units have bulls that will hit the 300” mark and there is always a decent number of 330” to 350” bulls that are killed every year.

One of the biggest benefits of any Wyoming elk license is the longer seasons . Most of the Type 1 and some Type 2 hunts allow you to bowhunt during the heart of the rut and return to hunt with a rifle in October if you were unsuccessful with your bow. If you are strictly a bowhunter, they also have several Type 9 archery only hunts that are typically easier to draw. In addition, full priced Type 4 and 5 cow elk hunts are good antlerless options and many of those can be available as a second choice. Finally, don’t forget the reduced price hunts Type 6 and 7, which are valid for cow or calf elk. The reduced price draw is completely separate and the draw is random. Your preference points will not be impacted if you draw a reduced price license. 

Limited quota hunts

Basically, all hunts for nonresidents are limited quota — even the general season hunts. As previously stated, the general hunts will still likely require a handful of points to draw in 2024. Beyond the general season elk licenses, there are many other hunts available to apply for. Going into 2024, the maximum number of preference points for full priced elk is 18. Many of the best hunts in the state will require maximum points and, even most of those hunts are back to a random draw, due to the number of maximum point holders. 

When it comes to hunts that can provide the best chance at a trophy bull, it’s worth calling out the factors that most often yield those types of bulls. The hunt areas that regularly offer big bulls in Wyoming are either areas with limited access and/or they offer very few licenses. Private land limits access in several areas as do DWAs (wilderness). Those areas often provide refuge and allow more bulls to reach an older age class. For nonresident hunters, those hunts often have better draw odds. Less access and lower amounts of public land equates to better draw odds for obvious reasons. If an applicant's objective is to hunt bigger bulls and they have fewer than the maximum number of points, they might consider a guided/outfitted hunt on private land or within a DWA. If you cannot or do not want to go on an outfitted hunt, then we suggest you begin to research areas that have better odds and then find the remote areas that are not within DWAs, but are still challenging for the majority of other hunters to reach.

There are hunts that are managed for quality bulls that have large amounts of public land and good access. These areas will be the hardest to draw. Be aware that if you apply for the areas where the trophy quality, access and amount of public land are good, your odds of drawing are going to be very low. 

In the table below, we break out the best trophy units with the associated number of points/odds to draw those hunts.

Note: the hunts in the table above did not offer randomly allocated licenses, so if you’re not anywhere near the point break level, then you are wasting your application.

How to uncover Wyoming's hidden gems

There are many hunts available with fewer than maximum points; however, you will need to be willing to dig into details and research to find them.

Hidden gems are most often associated with one or more factors, including lower trophy potential, limited public land, archery only Type 9 hunts or nontraditional elk habitat. The tables below offer the best hunts for applicants at a variety of mid-tier point levels.

Note: Some of these areas have some portion that is within DWAs. Before applying, research the availability of land to hunt and access if you are unguided.

Additional information is available in the Insider Unit Profile and in the map portion of your account. Insiders should cross reference the odds and units they are interested in with the unit profiles and mapping platform to find the best fit for their specific situations. Use all the tools available: trophy potential, season, public land percentage and harvest success to explore the possibilities.

General season elk license

The general season elk license is one of the best opportunities for applicants who do not have many points. However, this will be an interesting year with the new changes and splitting the state into general elk regions.

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As stated before, there will now be three general elk regions (W, S, E) for the hunter to choose from when applying. You’ll still be able to hunt any of the open general units within your selected region, but you won’t have the whole state as in previous years. Some might look at this change and think that the 2023 draw odds are completely irrelevant, but I don’t quite believe that to be true. 

With the three different regions (W, S, E), 2023 odds still give you a starting point of what you need. If you’re at point break (or higher), then you are probably safe — regardless of the region you choose, but it could jump a little. You can assume that most are going to target Region W, and current odds are going to be the most relevant in this new region. With Regions S and E being less desirable parts of the state, they might require the same or even less than the current 2023 point break level. Those are just some thoughts to consider. Throw in the special draw cost increase as well and it will be interesting to see how it shakes out.

Tag quotas for the different regions won’t be finalized until later this spring, but the proposed numbers could sway some people’s decisions.

With all the different factors going into this season, point creep is going to be interesting after the 2024 draw. One thing I’d like to remind folks about is if you plan to apply for a general region elk license, you are actually applying for the rifle license. There is no archery general elk license to apply for. You apply for the rifle license, then purchase the archery stamp in order to bowhunt during the general season. 

In the table below, we break down the top general season units based on trophy potential, harvest success, branch antlered bull success, public land and whether or not the area is within occupied grizzly habitat.

The Points System

Wyoming works on a preference point system. You obtain a preference point when you buy one from July 1 to Oct. 31, 2024. You do not automatically accrue points if unsuccessful in the draw.  An elk point will cost a nonresident $52. The maximum number of points for elk is 18 going into the 2024 draw. Keep in mind that the youth preference point fee for elk is only $10. This is a great state to start building points for a young hunter.

Comparing the 2023 point totals with the totals going into the 2024 draw, there was a 8% increase, increasing from 167,938 total to 181,815. That might seem like quite a big jump, but it’s actually down from the 2023 increase of 12%. 

Residents: The Wyoming resident draw process is 100% random for deer, elk and antelope. There are no preference points for residents.

Point creep

Point creep is a topic that comes up every year and I’ll do my best to explain it. As previously noted in this article, Wyoming implemented a preference point draw system for nonresidents 18 years ago and there are thousands of applicants with preference points within the elk draw. As such, point creep is a very real problem. Point creep simply defined is where there are fewer licenses issued than there are applicants and because of that it requires one additional point every year to draw. In addition, in a preference point system like Wyoming uses, there are applicants who have been buying and banking points without actually applying for years. Another factor that adds to point creep happens when applicants get tired of chasing a top-tier hunt and they change their hunt choice to one that they have enough points to draw. The addition of applicants who have been banking points and/or applicants who adjust their strategy on any given year can further propel point creep.

With the changes to the 2024 draw, it might shake up the point creep in a couple ways. This is pure speculation, but with the rising cost of special elk licenses, the point creep in the special draw could stay fairly dormant and it could cause the point creep in the regular draw to spike.  It’s really tough to tell, but I’d assume that more folks are going to apply in the regular draw. The switch to general elk regions will also affect the creep in one way or another, which we’ve previously discussed. I would expect the point creep to affect the limited quota licenses more than the general region licenses. 

It’s important to note that GOHUNT Draw Odds provide the breakdown of the number of applicants at each point level below the number that it took to guarantee a license in previous years. This feature allows you to evaluate the number of applicants who could potentially be going into this draw at your point level so you can better gauge your chances of drawing a preference point license. Reviewing those detailed draw odds pages for the hunts you are considering is critical. If you choose not to look at the detailed draw odds pages to evaluate your odds for the hunts you are considering, I would suggest that you look for hunts that were awarded at one or two points less than you currently have.

Conclusion

To wrap this article up, regardless of the new changes, Wyoming should still be at the top of your radar. Whether you’re chasing limited quota units or general regions, the quality and quantity of elk in the cowboy state is unbeatable in my opinion.  The elk numbers are still up across the state and, with the longer seasons, this state needs to be in your “must apply” column. Be sure to utilize the tools available to you through the Insider platform to really maximize your research prior to applying. Good luck to all in 2024.