How to Apply for a Montana Elk Tag as a Nonresident
You find the number on a Tuesday night and it stops you cold. The Montana nonresident elk license costs $1,112, and that is the price before you have paid for a single night of lodging or burned a single day of vacation. You sit there running the math on a trip you have been promising yourself for years, and then you notice the second problem. The application window closed back in April, and it will not open again until March.
So you are two problems deep now, and the second one is the expensive one. Montana does not sell an elk tag to a nonresident over the counter the way most states sell you yours. You apply inside a narrow window each spring, you wait for a drawing that decides your fall for you, and if the answer is no you either hunt somewhere else or you wait a year. It is a system built to be understood once and then never worried about again, and almost nobody explains it before you are already staring at the fee.
Here is the whole thing: what a nonresident elk tag really is in Montana, what it costs in 2026, when you apply, and the quiet mechanics that decide whether the tag lands in your hand.
Quick facts — Montana nonresident elk, 2026 cycle
| What | The number |
|---|---|
| Tag type | A General Combination license, drawn. No over-the-counter elk tag for nonresidents |
| Big Game (Deer & Elk) Combination | $1,312 |
| General Elk Combination | $1,112 |
| General Deer Combination | $760 |
| Application window | March 1 – April 1, 2026 |
| Drawing | mid-April 2026 |
| If you don't draw | Alternates List, May 1 – June 1, 2026 |
| Preference points | Nonresident Combination draw only; maximum of 3, at $100 each |
| Resident contrast | A resident general elk license runs $20 over the counter |
The one thing to understand: you don't buy it, you draw it
If you come from a state where the elk tag is a shelf item behind the counter, the Montana system will confuse you for about ten minutes and then it will make sense. Residents here walk in and buy a general elk license over the counter for $20. Nonresidents do not have that option, and there is no version of the year where they do.
Every nonresident who hunts elk in Montana on a general tag is holding one of three Combination licenses. Each of the three bundles more than its name suggests. A Combination is not only a tag. It is a package that carries your general deer and elk hunting, your upland game bird hunting with the exception of turkey, and a season fishing license. For a hunter flying in for a week with a rod in the truck, that is real value, not marketing filler.
The three are worth knowing by name, because the price gap between them is not small:
- General Big Game (Deer & Elk) Combination, $1,312. This is the full package. It carries both a general deer tag and a general elk tag, along with the upland bird and season fishing privileges every Combination includes.
- General Elk Combination, $1,112. This is the one most elk hunters want. You get the general elk tag, the upland bird hunting, and the season fishing license, for $200 less than the deer-and-elk version.
- General Deer Combination, $760. This is the cheap seat, and it is for the hunter who wants deer and does not care about chasing elk. It carries a general deer tag with the same bird and fishing additions.
One Combination per nonresident per year, so you are choosing one of the three and living with it.
It is worth stacking the extras on top before you decide the price is settled. Every nonresident hunter also carries a Conservation License at $10, a Base Hunting License at $50, and an AISPP at $7.50, and those add up to a real line item the headline fee does not show you. If you want the full nonresident cost picture laid out line by line, the nonresident license costs breakdown is where we keep it.
Which Combination to pick, and why
The honest answer depends on one question, and it is not about money. Will you hunt deer on this trip or not?
If the answer is yes, the Big Game Combination is the smarter buy, even at $1,312. That extra $200 over the elk-only license buys you a general deer tag in a state with elk and deer spread across most of the map. On a trip you have spent a year and a long drive planning, the option to fill a deer tag on a slow elk morning is worth more than the difference. Hunters who skip it and then watch a good mule deer buck walk past camp spend the rest of the season regretting that choice.
If the answer is no, take the Elk Combination at $1,112 and put the savings into the trip itself. There is nothing wrong with an elk-only year, and a deer tag you will not use is not a bargain at any price. The Deer Combination at $760 is for the hunter who wants whitetails or muleys and has no intention of chasing elk, and it is a perfectly serious license. It simply is not the elk tag you came for.
The mistake we see most is the reverse of what you would expect. It is not the hunter who buys too little. It is the hunter who buys the Big Game Combination because it sounds like the real one. He never hunts the deer half of it, and he ends up paying $200 for a tag that sat in a pocket all season. Pick the license that matches what you will actually hunt.
The application window and the draw
The nonresident Combination application window is March 1 through April 1, 2026, and the drawing happens in mid-April 2026. That is the entire timeline that matters for this license, and it is short enough to miss if you are not paying attention in February.
It is the same window FWP uses for resident and nonresident deer and elk permits. So if you are chasing a limited-entry bull unit on top of your general tag, you are working inside the same deadline. One window, one application, one decision to make. Miss it and the door closes for a full year. No amount of calling the regional office in July reopens it.
Set the reminder in January. The hunters who draw every few years are almost never the ones with the best luck. They are the ones who simply never forget to apply.
How the draw actually works
Here is where the system rewards a little patience, and where a lot of hunters misunderstand what they are buying.
For the nonresident Combination draw, Montana uses preference points, and preference points work differently from the bonus points you may already be thinking about from other states. Three things matter.
First, 75% of the nonresident Combination licenses go out in preference-point order. The hunters holding the most points are served first, so if you have three and the hunter next to you has zero, you are ahead in line for three-quarters of the available licenses.
Second, the other 25% go to a random draw among applicants who hold zero preference points. This is the door that stays open for the newcomer. You do not need a decade of points to apply, and every year a number of people with no history in the system draw a Montana elk tag on their first try.
Third, the points themselves are capped and they are consumed. A nonresident can hold a maximum of three preference points, and each one costs $100. That cost matters when you do the math on a license that already runs four figures. Points are lost if you skip a year without applying, and they are used up the moment you draw. There is no scenario where you build a stack of points and keep them after the tag lands.
This is the part that trips people up, because preference points are not the same animal as bonus points. If you have read anything about Montana points and come away confused, that is why. Our bonus points page covers the squared system that applies to other permits. If you want the plain-language version of the difference, the glossary entry on what a bonus point is lays it out side by side. The short version: preference points are a place in line, and only the nonresident Combination uses them.
Parties of up to five may apply together, and the party is entered using the average of its members' points. It is a useful tool if you are hunting as a group and want to draw together or stay home together. Understand, though, that the average cuts both ways. One high-point hunter pulling four zero-point friends does not arrive at the front of the line.
If you don't draw
Not drawing is the normal outcome, and it is not the end of the season. Montana runs an Alternates List for returned nonresident Combination licenses, open from May 1 through June 1, 2026, and it is the second door into the same hunt.
Here is how it works. Someone draws a license, pays for it, and then cannot use it, whether from a schedule change, a family emergency, or a better hunt elsewhere. Those licenses go back into the system, and the Alternates List is the line that decides who receives them. Availability peaks in the early fall, right as the season approaches and the last of the returned licenses surface. That means the list is not a one-day event. It is a season-long watch, and the hunters who sign up and check back through the summer and into September are the ones who convert.
For a broader look at the other leftover paths, FWP also opens a surplus license sign-up from June 15 through July 15, 2026, before unsold licenses go over the counter later in the summer. Not every leftover is a hunt worth taking, but the mechanism exists and it sometimes puts a real tag in a real hand.
The honest counsel here is simple. Plan your year as if the draw will fail, and treat the Alternates List as a bonus rather than a strategy. If you draw, you have a great fall. If you do not, you have a season somewhere else already mapped, and a point purchase that will help you next March.
The honest picture
Now the part the outfitter brochures leave out, because this is the section where we tell you what actually fails.
The fee is real, and it is not the whole cost. An Elk Combination at $1,112 is a serious commitment for most households. It does not include your Conservation License, your Base Hunting License, your AISPP, your fuel, your lodging, or your meat processing. Budget the full number before you apply, not after, because a drawn tag is a paid tag. There is no walking away from a license you won once you have paid for it.
Nonresidents genuinely cannot buy their way in. If your plan depends on finding an over-the-counter elk tag in September, Montana does not have one for you. The only paths to a nonresident elk tag are the March draw, the Alternates List, the landowner sponsor route, and the handful of special programs for former residents and Montana natives. Anything promising you a shortcut over the counter is not describing this state's system.
Do not blow the deadline. March 1 through April 1, 2026 is the window, and the drawing is mid-April 2026. A missed deadline is a missed year, and there is no appeal.
Do not treat the draw as a formality. Most applicants do not draw, and no strategy changes that for a first-time applicant beyond the 25% random pool and the cold math of preference points. Apply knowing the odds, not hoping past them.
Do not waste the tag if you get it. The hunt is only half the license. A general elk tag in Montana puts huntable elk country across most of the state in front of you. The nonresident who draws and then hunts blind public ground with no plan squanders the tag as surely as the hunter who never applied. Before you go, learn where the public access actually is. Start with Block Management, the free private-land access program that opens millions of acres you could not otherwise hunt.
Do apply anyway. This is the counterweight to everything above. The odds are real, the 25% pool is real, and plenty of nonresident elk hunters get a Montana tag every year without an outfitter, a lease, or a family connection. The system is hard, not closed. Knowing the rules is most of the advantage.
FAQ
Can a nonresident buy a Montana elk tag over the counter? No. Nonresidents cannot buy a general elk license over the counter. They draw a General Combination license, and the tag itself is the General Elk Combination at $1,112 or the Big Game (Deer & Elk) Combination at $1,312.
What is the deadline to apply for a Montana nonresident elk tag in 2026? The application window runs March 1 through April 1, 2026, and the drawing is held in mid-April 2026. Miss the window and you wait until the following March.
How do preference points work for the Montana nonresident elk draw? Preference points apply only to the nonresident Combination drawing. 75% of those licenses go in preference-point order, and 25% go to a random draw among applicants holding zero points. Points max out at three, cost $100 each, are lost if you skip a year, and are used up when you draw.
What if I don't draw a Montana elk tag? You can join the Alternates List for returned licenses, open May 1 through June 1, 2026, with availability peaking in the early fall as the season approaches. You may also watch the surplus license sign-up from June 15 through July 15, 2026.
Is the Montana elk tag worth it for a first-time nonresident? That depends entirely on whether you will hunt the state seriously. The license is expensive and the draw favors patience, so a hunter who plans one trip and never applies again is paying a high price for a single shot. A hunter who treats Montana as a multi-year project will find the fee, the points, and the public land stack up better than almost anywhere else in the West.
Get the Draw Odds & Deadline Calendar
The numbers in this article are accurate for the 2026 cycle, and they change for 2027 the way they change every year. Before your next application, you want the deadlines, the fee schedule, and the point history in one place you can check in February instead of remember in April.
Get the Draw Odds & Deadline Calendar — every nonresident deadline, every fee, and the dates that decide your fall, kept current against FWP's own published schedule.