The Hunt Roster is one of the ways FWP selects public hunters to participate in hunts where animals are causing damage to stored agricultural crops or private property.
FWP may also utilize other means of hunter selection besides the Roster, including first-come, first-served advertised opportunities, unsuccessful special license or permit applicant lists, or lists of names supplied by landowners. No more than 25% of the total hunters authorized to participate in a game damage hunt or management hunt may be selected from a landowner’s list, and if any antlered animals are authorized for harvest during a hunt, no names may be selected from a landowner’s list.
The Hunt Roster, and hunters from this roster, may be used for four types of hunts:
Game Damage Hunt
Management Hunt
Supplemental Game Damage License Hunts
Elk Management Removals
FWP regional offices will be the point of contact for Hunt Roster opportunities. Depending upon their randomized order on the list, hunters registered on the Hunt Roster may be contacted by FWP regional offices if a hunt emerges for the species and hunting district they've identified. Such hunts often come forward quickly and cannot be predicted.
Hunter names are cycled through and never deleted from the current Hunt Roster unless they have been identified for a hunt for that species that year. Hunters may only participate in one game damage hunt, management hunt, or management removal for each species per year.
Given the General Season Antlerless Deer B Licenses are allocated separately, it is possible for hunters to participate in a game damage hunt or management hunt for deer and also receive an antlerless deer B license for use during the general season.
There is no guarantee that hunts will occur in the same hunting district in subsequent years as game animals, weather, natural causes such as fire and drought, human pressure, etc., are all factors for population distribution.
A Conservation, base hunting license, and valid General Deer, Elk or Antelope hunting license is required to hunt. Valid license types are identified for each hunt. Depending on the type of hunt, the FWP Regional office may require or offer the purchase of additional B license(s).
Game Damage and Management Hunts could take place anytime from August 15–February 15. Elk Management Removals may extend for a longer period of time in the spring.
The sign-up period for the Hunt Roster is June 15–July 15 each year.
Sign up for the Hunt Roster on MyFWP
The rosters are randomized at the end of the sign-up period. The roster is NOT on a first-come, first-served basis.
Select deer, elk and antelope and choose one available hunting district per species.
Hunters are encouraged to select hunting districts they are familiar with and can get to quickly if contacted for a hunt opportunity.
Game damage occurs when wildlife such as elk, deer, and antelope concentrate on private farms and ranches and damage crops and property.
Landowners may be eligible for game damage assistance if they allow public hunting during established hunting seasons. Assistance may include hazing, repellants, temporary or permanent stackyard fencing, damage hunts, kill permits, or supplemental game damage licenses.
A management hunt is a proactive measure to prevent or reduce potential damage caused by large concentrations of game animals resulting from seasonal migrations, extreme weather conditions, restrictive public hunting access on adjacent or nearby properties, or other factors. Management hunts typically occur on a larger scale than game damage hunts and may take place across multiple ownerships. There may be relatively large numbers of hunters recruited from the Hunt Roster for a longer period of time with the potential for a significant harvest. Some hunters (no more than 25% of the total) may also be selected from a list of names submitted by the landowner or landowners, if requested by FWP.)
An elk management removal is a management response to the risk of brucellosis transmission between elk and livestock. These small-scale removals reduce commingling events between elk and livestock using a very limited number of hunters and harvest to adjust elk distribution in a localized area. These removals may take place throughout the winter and early spring and are applied only in those areas near Yellowstone National Park with brucellosis prevalence.
Elk management removals are not used to control elk population size. Before the management removal option can be used, it needs to be adopted by the Fish & Wildlife Commission.
A supplemental game damage license hunt is a very small-scale measure trying to harvest no more than 12 animals to prevent or reduce crop or property damage in situations where larger-scale game damage hunts or management hunts are not applicable.
By law (MCA 87-2-520), FWP may issue a specific type of license called a supplemental game damage license, valid only for antlerless or doe/fawn elk, deer, or antelope, and valid only for a specific property, specific time period, and this specific type of hunt.
Also by the same law, depending upon whether the hunting district regulations offer limited permits or not, landowners may designate some or all of the hunters who may receive supplemental game damage licenses.
By statute, a landowner may designate 75% of the hunters eligible to receive supplemental licenses if the hunt occurs in a hunting district with limited permits, and up to 100% of the hunters eligible to receive supplemental licenses if the hunt occurs in an unlimited permit district.
Email the Wildlife Division at fwpwld@mt.gov
Call the Wildlife Division at 406-444-2612