Wyoming

Few states compare to Wyoming in terms of hunter opportunity. Wyoming's diverse terrain is made up of high mountain wilderness, sage flats, and winding river drainages. Multiple species can also be found here: Elk, mule deer, whitetail deer, antelope, Shiras moose, Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and bison. Bighorn sheep, mountain goat, moose, and bison are very limited in tag quotas and will take years to draw. Elk and deer tags can take some time to draw the highly desired limited entry areas, but both species have general tag options that are much easier to draw.

A general elk or deer tag is a great way to get in the field and still have a legitimate chance at harvesting a quality animal. Wyoming is the undisputed king of antelope numbers and hunter opportunity. Wolves and harsh winters are the greatest threat to Wyoming's big game. Trophy quality is good for all species found in the state and their preference point system will help to predict when you are most likely to draw a tag.

License Costs

Species Costs

*Prices include a $5 application fee for residents and a $15 fee for nonresidents when applicable

Important Dates

Big Game Draw (Elk)

Big Game Draw (Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, mountain goat, Shiras moose and bison)

Big Game Draw (Deer and antelope)

Draw Result Dates

Draw System

Points Only Purchase Period

Wyoming offers the opportunity for hopeful applicants to purchase points only outside of the draw applications. With this, hunters will not need to pay any prerequisite license fees and can simply purchase the point. Wyoming is a state that does not award points during the draw, if you want to build points in this state you need to purchase them during the points period.

Draw System

Tag lottery (Drawing)

Wyoming considers all applicants' first choices before they consider any second or third choice. Typically, most of the hunt choices are filled during this first pass, and there is usually no need for a second choice on the application. In some cases, hunt choices can go undersubscribed and be eligible to draw as a second or third choice.

Preference Points

Wyoming's preference point system allocates 75% of the tags to the applicants with the most preference points. The final 25% of the tags will be issued to nonresident applicants randomly. This only applies to hunt choices with at least four total nonresident tags available. There are no preference points for bison or mountain goat. Resident applicants only accumulate preference points for bighorn sheep and moose. For deer, elk, antelope, mountain goat, and bison, there are no resident preference points, so all tags are drawn at random.

Regular and Special Draw

What is the special and regular draw?

The special draw and the regular draw are separate pools of licenses. The difference between the special and regular licenses is that the cost of the special license is higher than the regular license. The potential benefit to the special draw is better odds of drawing a license because fewer applicants are typically willing to pay the extra cost. This is not always the case. Review the Draw Odds to see if the added cost is worth it.

Nonresident license quota split

To revisit the license split, 60% go to the regular draw and 40% go to the special draw. Within both the regular and special draw, 75% of the licenses go to high point holders for each hunt and 25% go randomly. Let's look at an example to see how it breaks down.

30 total licenses for this example:

Resident split

25 resident licenses (84%)

Nonresident split

5 nonresident licenses (16%)

3 regular licenses (60% of nonresident quota)

2 special licences (40% of nonresident quota)

Regular draw split

2 regular preference point licenses (75% of non-resident regular draw quota)

1 regular random license (25% of non-resident regular draw quota)

Special draw split

1 special preference point license

1 special random license

In some cases, there are not enough nonresident permits total to have any filter down into the random pools. If you are below the maximum point line taking a swing for the fence approach and hoping to draw a great random license, be sure to apply for an area/hunt that has a permit available in the random pool. Otherwise, you are essentially wasting your application in the draw.

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Wyoming nonresident general elk odds

When applying for the general elk draw in Wyoming, applicants should keep in mind that they are actually applying for the general rifle license. If successful in the draw, applicants can then purchase an Archery stamp that will allow them to hunt any accompanying archery season.

When researching for your hunt please keep in mind that the general archery hunts will not have draw odds attached to them as these are secondary seasons that are included with the rifle season. Instead, be sure to look at the "Rifle - General" even if you are only planning to archery hunt.

Nonresident allocation

Application choices

Three hunt choices are allowed per species, but only the first choice is considered for nearly all hunt choices. Most hunt choices are filled before any second or third choice is considered. If you draw your first choice, then your preference points will be used. If you draw your second choice, you will build an additional preference point in addition to being drawn. Please read “Tag lottery” and “Nonresident allocation” for details on the drawing process.

Party applications

Wyoming will allow up to six people to apply on a party application for elk. 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 five, three, and two preference points will go into the draw with 3.3333 points. The party is treated as a single application and, if it's drawn, all members of the party will receive a license. Wyoming will allocate permits over the hunt quota to cover a party application, so there is no decrease in odds for group applicants.

Withdrawing

Withdrawing or correcting an application is allowed, but must be performed online by the date listed above in the table.

Waiting period

Leftover licenses

After the initial draw, Wyoming will hold a leftover draw for any permits remaining from the first draw. They will produce a leftover list and then open a small application period. This typically takes place in late June. Any licenses remaining from the leftover draw will be made available for purchase in an over-the-counter fashion at a later date.

Credit cards

Credit cards are accepted (Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover). Credit cards will be charged the entire species license fee applied for at the time you submit your application, along with application fees. If you are unsuccessful in the draw, you will receive a refund less the application and preference point fee.

Getting a Tag

Over-the-counter tags

Super Tags and Super Tag Trifecta

Super Tag (good for one species) and the Super Tag Trifecta (good for three species) are a competitive raffle outside of the regular license lotteries. Entries are $10 for SuperTag and $30 for Super Tag Trifecta. You can submit an unlimited number of entries. The winning licenses are liberal in terms of dates and areas, but they have probably the worst odds of all your options for elk in Wyoming.

Wyoming license types

When researching your options for elk in Wyoming, we often hear a lot of questions in regard to what a “license type” actually means. In Wyoming, license type indicates limitations such as sex of the animal, length of the season, type of weapon, or the portion of the hunt area in which the license is valid. The following table can help you understand the difference in license types.

Type 1 license

Valid for the season and weapon as indicated within the Wyoming regulations—typically a Type 1 is a rifle hunt. In addition, most Type 1 license 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 varies by season or boundary. For example, some areas may contain both a Type 1 and a Type 2 license where the only difference is the start and ending season dates. Others may have a Type 1 and Type 2 license where the differences are noted by where each permit is valid for within the area.

Type 3 License

Type 3 licenses are typically regarded as whitetail deer licenses but can also be seen in other species including elk and antelope where additional controlled hunt options are needed.

Type 4 and 5 License

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 saved up.

Type 6 and 7 License

Type 6 and Type 7 are reduced-price licenses and will not use your points. In fact, you apply for those on a separate application within the state draw system. The drawing for a reduced-price license is random with no respect to points.

Type 9 license License

These are archery hunts that are only valid in the hunt area and during the archery dates indicated. Something to be aware of is some areas allow Type 1 license holders to hunt along with Type 9 hunters for the whole hunt—or portions of it—if they buy the archery license and want to hunt. This may add some additional pressure to those areas. So pay attention to this when applying.

General licenses

Allow hunters to hunt in any general hunt area. Purchasing an archery stamp will also allow general season hunters to hunt with a bow and return to hunt during the rifle season if they have not yet filled their license.

Archery Stamps in Wyoming

In most cases, when applying for licenses in Wyoming, the license you are actually applying for is likely a rifle license, even if you have the intent to only archery hunt. After successfully drawing your rifle license you can then purchase a separate archery-stamp that would allow you to hunt any applicable archery seasons for the unit or area you were drawn for. The archery stamp is available as an over-the-counter add-on.

The primary exception to this would be Type-9 archery-only licenses where a rifle season is not offered with that license type. Hunters still need to purchase an archery stamp when applying for these.

Landowner tags

Youth tags

Returning tags/transferring tags

Hunting Rules

Minimum age to hunt

12 years old (14 years old prior to Sept. 15 for bison)

Hunters education

Required for anyone born on or after January 1, 1966

Bowhunters education

Not required in Wyoming

Hunters orange

One or more visible exterior garments of hunter orange are required. Excluding archery seasons

Wilderness area restrictions

A nonresident cannot legally hunt a DWA on their own; they must be accompanied by a licensed Wyoming outfitter or licensed Wyoming resident. A DWA is a United States Forest Service (USFS) designation.

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.

Every year, we receive email questions after the draw from applicants who have drawn licenses that are comprised of all DWA or large portions of DWA and they are trying to figure out how to hunt. Please do some research and apply accordingly.

Weapon restrictions

Archery: Bows must have a minimum draw weight of 40 pounds for deer, antelope, bighorn sheep, and mountain goat, bows must have a minimum draw weight of 50 pounds for moose and elk. Fixed or mechanical broadheads cannot pass through a seven-eighths (7/8") inch solid ring when the blades are fully deployed. Hunters may use crossbows during the archery seasons. Crossbows must have a minimum draw weight of 90 pounds and must use a bolt that is at least 16" long.

Muzzleloader: Muzzleloading rifles or handguns of at least .40 caliber that fire a lead or expanding-point bullet using at least 50 grains of black powder or its equivalent can be used.

Rifle: Only centerfire rifles are legal. For deer and antelope, a .22 caliber with a cartridge of at least two inches in length is required. For elk, bighorn sheep, bison, mountain goat, and moose, a .24 caliber with a cartridge of at least two inches in length is required.

Hunting opportunities for military members

Residency

Any service member and their dependents who are permanently deployed to Wyoming for a period of 90 days are eligible to claim residency for the purpose of purchasing hunting tags, licenses, and permits.

Active duty resident in combat zones license

Any Wyoming residents who are serving on active duty in a combat zone will be issued resident general elk, resident general deer, resident game bird/small game, and resident daily fishing licenses when home on military leave.

Disabled veteran/U.S. Military Purple Heart medal recipient

Any veterans who have received a Purple Heart medal or are rated as 100% disability will be awarded a free lifetime game bird, small game, and fishing license.

Donate a license

The holder of any valid big game license in Wyoming may choose to donate the license or permit back to the department for re-issuance to a disabled veteran. Qualifying veterans must be sponsored by a nonprofit charitable organization that provides hunting opportunities. The application for the donation can befound here. For a list of currently donated licenses, you can also visit thispage.