Standing in line for a week. Sitting online for a day. This is what out-of-state hunters do for a chance at general season deer and elk tags in Idaho. At least, it’s what they’ve done since the Covid-19 pandemic. But that all stops this week, because Idaho just announced that non-resident general season tags are moving to a draw. Last year, during the first-come-first-served OTC tag system for the 2025 hunting season, an estimated 80,000 users in the online queue applied for some 28,000 nonresident OTC deer and elk tags.
“We’ve been on a trajectory of selling out tags every December, which led to the draw model rather than over the counter,” says Tara Reichert, Idaho Department of Fish and Game license operations manager. “This decision is based on public response rather than congestion in the field.”
The last major change Idaho made for non-resident big-game hunters happened in 2021. That one was for congestion. The cap on out-of-staters went from a statewide maximum to a maximum per unit. That was in response to complaints of overcrowding in select units. This new change for the 2026 season keeps those unit caps while also dealing with overcrowding of a new kind: online and in-person queues.
“For my third year in a row, I jumped in line and waited to see what random number I would be assigned for the Idaho draw. I had a plan if I was given a favorable shot at drawing a tag,” Outdoor Life’s Audience Development Manager Derek Horner says of his last experience with the online queue system in December 2024. “Lo and behold, I was given number 49,571 … and the odds, yet again, were not in my favor.”
Reichert says other non-residents have experienced similar frustrations in recent years when trying to pick up an OTC tag in person, only to find long lines of other hopeful hunters. This brought up broader concerns around fairness.
“Prior to 2021, it was common for a non-resident to show up in Idaho, grab a tag, and go into the woods,” she says. “Now people fly out to wait in line or [they] sit at their computer for 10 hours. The increase in demand changes the dynamic and becomes a frustration. How many people can take off work for a week to fly to Idaho for a tag? How many people have the time and money to do that?”
Not many, which is why non-residents may see the draw as a way to level the playing field. But it comes with a catch. Hunters will now have to buy a non-refundable, non-resident hunting license before they can enter a draw. It’s valid for one year of hunting plus three days of fishing at a cost of $195. It includes a $10 access fee.
“People have expressed concern because they haven’t had to do that in the past,” Reichert says. “But we’re not pioneering this by any means. This is really similar to other Western States and how Idaho already does its controlled hunts. It’s just new for general season and we are not the most expensive Western tag.”
Idaho does not want to be the most expensive. It just wants to be the most attractive. The draw eliminates congestion in line and online, but it comes with a risk. The IDFG receives zero state funding. Instead, the state-agency operates on whatever revenue is generated by license and tag sales — of which 60 percent come from non-residents. If those buyers don’t like the new draw, they might not buy a license. But IDFG is banking on the Gem State’s wide appeal among nonresident hunters in years past.
For the 2026 season, the draw application period runs December 5-15, 2025. Results will be announced in early January. Winners have to claim their tag by January 20, 2026.
“The biggest question we have is, what are hunters are going to do?” Reichert says. “We’re hearing from folks who are excited because they couldn’t fly out here and stand in line. But guys who could afford to fly out and hang out in line are not as pleased. It changes their odds a bit. It levels the playing field.”
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