Montana’s 2025 Big Game Hunting Regulations covering sheep, moose, mountain goat, and antelope are available. The 2025 regulations can be ordered from the Montana Fish, Wildlife, and Parks office by calling 406-444-2535. Regulation booklets can be downloaded from their website at https://fwp.mt.gov/hunt/regulations.

The deadline to apply for sheep, moose, mountain goat, and bison is 11:45 p.m. on May 1, 2024, and the antelope deadline is 11:45 p.m. on June 1, 2024. Draw results for sheep, moose, mountain goat, and bison will be available in mid-May. Antelope results will be available early August, with the exception of antelope archery 900-20 results which will be available mid-June. Antelope refunds will be mailed out after the draw. Every year, Montana rotates most of the sheep, moose, and mountain goat units where non-residents are allowed to apply for a permit, making it different from year to year. All of the units covered in this section are available for non-residents to apply for in 2024. Do not apply based off of old information as there may not be a non-resident tag available there this year. We do not have enough room to cover all of the resident units, but if you are a resident, you can call us and we can go over the options that are available.

Montana has a complicated application process for non-residents. They need to apply for one of the big game, elk, or deer combination licenses in the general draw in order to apply for special, limited-entry deer and/or elk permits, both of which are due by April 1st at 11:45 p.m. MST. Montana only accepts online applications for all big game draws. You may apply online at https://fwp.mt.gov/buyandapply.

Party applications are available for elk and deer with a maximum party size of five. Preference points will be averaged to a decimal while bonus points will be averaged and rounded to the nearest whole number. All big game hunting applications are final after submission. You may not withdraw or amend any of your big game hunting applications.

Applicants wishing to apply for bonus points only for any species may do so from July 1st through September 30th. Applicants wishing to apply for a preference point only may do so from July 1st through December 31st. When applying for bonus or preference points only, applicants only have to pay the preference point fee and/or bonus point fee for each species. If you apply for a combo license/limited-entry hunt, the corresponding preference or bonus point may only be purchased at the time of application. You will be locked out of the upcoming points only period and will be ineligible to purchase a point for anything previously applied for in the general combo/special drawings that year.

You may apply online at https://fwp.mt.gov/buyandapply. Montana only accepts online applications for all big game draws. Paper applications are no longer accepted, and Montana does not allow phone applications.

You cannot apply as a party for Montana’s sheep, moose, or mountain goat hunts. Antelope hunters may apply as a party. The maximum number of hunters who can apply as a party is five. If you don’t want to apply in the draw, you can purchase a bonus point from July 1st through September 30th. The fee to purchase a bonus point without applying is $15 per species for residents and $25 per species for non-residents. The exception is for sheep, moose, and goat for non-residents, which is $75 per species.

If you don’t want to apply in the draw, you can purchase a bonus point from July 1st through September 30th. The fee to purchase a bonus point without applying is $15 per species for residents and $25 per species for non-residents. The exception is for sheep, moose, and goat for non- residents, which is $75 per species.

Everyone’s first choice is awarded before anyone’s second choice is considered. For deer and elk, draw results will be available mid-April. There is no waiting period to apply if you have previously drawn an elk or a deer permit.

Applicants who apply online will need a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, or debit card to apply. When applying, license fees must be paid for at the time of application.

Applicants need a Visa, MasterCard, Discover, American Express, or debit card to apply online. You will only be charged the application fee at the time of your application for sheep, moose, mountain goat, and bison, and a service fee of approximately 3% of the total purchase will be added to the application fees. For antelope, you will submit the entire tag and application fees and a service fee of approximately 3% of the total purchase will be added to the application fees.

The Montana bonus and preference point systems are voluntary. The bonus point costs $20 for non-residents per species. The preference point costs $100 for non-residents for the general combination drawing. When applying online, you will be charged a convenience fee of $0.20, plus 3% of the total purchase will be added to the application fees.

Bonus points will be issued for the special deer and elk drawings. The maximum number of bonus points someone can have going into the 2025 draw for deer and elk is 23 points. A bonus point purchased at the time of application will be added to your existing point total and used in the draw. Bonus points are squared in the drawing. For example, if you have 3 points, that gives you 9 chances, plus you will receive an additional chance for the current year, making it a total of 10 chances in the drawing. Any bonus points accumulated will not be lost unless the individual draws the species they applied their bonus points to. Bonus points will only be lost if a person draws their first choice on the application. Party applications will have their bonus points averaged and rounded to the nearest whole number. Bonus points are not used or lost in second and third choice drawings.

Montana gives non-residents up to 10% of the big game tag quota. We listed the prior year’s first choice draw odds based on if that applicant had 1, 5, 10, or 15 points going into the draw. This will give applicants a better idea of their draw odds for that specific hunt, depending on the point level they are at, and it also gives applicants a timeframe of when they can anticipate increased draw odds.

For Montana sheep, moose, mountain goat, bison, and antelope, we list the total applicants who applied as non-residents and residents along with the total tag number and potential non-resident quota. All applicants are in the same drawing pool, unless non-residents have met their regional and/or unit quota. The information we list does not take into account accumulated bonus points. We try to show you how much demand there is for the tags that are available.

For detailed draw odds where you can enter in your points to see exactly what your odds were last year, go to research.huntinfool.com.

Under the Apprentice Hunter program, youth ages 10-17 can get out in the field to hunt deer prior to having taken hunter education. An apprentice hunter must be accompanied by a mentor who is at least 21 years of age. Apprentice hunters cannot apply for limited-entry draws. However, if you plan on hunting an unlimited unit, you must submit an application to FWP headquarters. Contact the licensing department directly with any questions.

In many units, youth ages 12-15 may harvest a cow elk with their elk license without having to draw a cow permit. FWP Commission is once again allowing legally licensed hunters who are 10-15 years of age to hunt deer during the statewide two-day, youth-only deer season, which runs October 16-17.

There are no special youth opportunities for moose, sheep, mountain goat, bison, or antelope.

For archery, your bow must meet all of the following requirements to be legal: must be handheld, must be at least 28” in length, and may have no more than 80% let-off. The arrow must meet all of the following requirements to be legal: must be at least 20” in length, the total arrow weight must be more than 300 grains, broadheads must weigh 70 grains or more and have two cutting edges, and expandables are legal if they expand to at least 7/8”.

The following equipment restrictions apply only to weapon restriction areas: muzzleloaders must not be capable of being loaded from the breech of the barrel; may not be loaded with any pre-prepared paper or metallic cartridges; must be charged with black powder, pyrodex, or an equivalent; must be ignited by a percussion, flintlock, matchlock, or wheellock mechanism; must be a minimum of .45 caliber; may have no more than two barrels; and must only use plain lead projectiles. Sabots or other similar power and range-enhancing manufactured loads that enclose the projectile from the rifling or bore of the firearm are prohibited.

One Super Tag will be drawn for each species and can be used in any hunting district. Revenue from the Super Tag sales is used to enhance hunting access and boost FWP enforcement efforts. Unlimited Super Tag chances may be purchased for $5 each at https://fwp.mt.gov/buyandapply. Super Tag chances may be purchased online and are available for bighorn sheep, moose, mountain goat, bison, elk, deer, antelope, and mountain lion. For 2024, here are the number of Super Tags purchased: 49,284 bighorn sheep, 29,285 moose, 14,849 mountain goat, 16,214 bison, 38,027 elk, 16,220 deer, 10,192 antelope, and 3,401 mountain lion.

In 1985, Montana started a Block Management program, which is a cooperative program between private landowners and Montana FWP. Block Management helps landowners manage hunting activities and provides the public with free hunting access to private land and sometimes to adjacent or isolated public lands. Currently, hunters can hunt about 8.8 million acres of private land for free. Program funding comes from the sale of various licenses. A regional Hunting Access Guide is published annually by August 15th, which lists the Block Management areas enrolled for that year and explains how to gain access to them. Call 406-444-2612 for more information.