If you want to hunt Western states in 2025 and beyond for elk, deer, pronghorns or other big game, start learning all you can about each state’s wildlife programs and application systems.
Don’t be discouraged if you feel like you’re treading water the first week. No two states offer the same wildlife species, wildlife numbers, license requirements or application systems and deadlines. You’ll feel frustrated trying to learn what’s behind every door, but the sooner you start, the better odds you’ll have to draw coveted tags each fall as you build preference points and bonus points, enter license lotteries, and capitalize on each state’s nuanced system.
Also realize that a little money up front can shorten the learning curve if you hire or subscribe to a hunt-application service. Their experts can advise you and handle much of the load if you’re making multiple applications in several states.
But even that choice requires homework. Check out operations like GoHunt, Huntin’ Fool, Worldwide Trophy Adventures, The Draw, Epic Outdoors or other application-service sites. For a $150 (or thereabouts) membership, you can ease the application process and increase your options in several states each fall.
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Just be advised that the more applications you make, the more you must double-check that season dates don’t overlap. And that obligation ushers in more complications as you learn which states will refund a license you can’t use, and which ones make you eat that expensive price tag.
Fortunately, many Western states offer Hunt Planner guides on their wildlife agency’s website, which walk you through each decision while helping you learn your hunting options. Once you zero in on what you want to hunt and how/when you do, most states make it easy to buy or apply for tags, and sometimes help you accumulate preference points or bonus points for future use.

Make it a hobby
Karl Malcolm, of Milwaukee, has turned Western hunt applications into a hobby the past decade or so. He’s drawn tags in eight Western states, and killed a bull moose in Idaho, pronghorns in New Mexico, and elk in Idaho, Arizona and New Mexico, to name a few. Even so, he still keeps learning more about each state’s system by endlessly studying them online.
“The ground is always shifting, and it’s not as simple as knowing apples from oranges,” Malcolm said. “With all the Western states you can hunt, you’re comparing apples, oranges, bananas, grapes and every other fruit you can think of. But the better you learn each state’s nuances, the easier it is to make at least one good hunt each fall while keeping yourself in the game for once-in-a-lifetime tags 20 years from now.”
Malcolm recommends subscribing to a hunt-application service. For do-it-yourselfers, it’s a poor-man’s alternative to hiring a guide.
“To apply for Western tags, you can’t just set it and forget it,” Malcolm said. “The more states you’re applying to, and the more species you want to hunt, an application service is money well-spent. It’s their job to update you as the rules of engagement change.”
Stick with it
Cheapskates like me, however, don’t like the stress and expense of monitoring multiple states and species. I prefer to keep it simple. I apply annually for elk tags in Idaho, Colorado and Arizona; and mule deer tags in Colorado, Montana and New Mexico.

My application season begins in early December with Idaho’s online lottery, which resembles trying to buy tickets to see Taylor Swift or Lady Gaga. On application morning, you sign in on multiple computers and smartphones before the 10 a.m. start, and then wait for the Idaho Fish & Game Department to spin its tens of thousands of eager applicants inside its digital “barrel” at the appointed hour.
You’re then assigned your place in the queue. And then you wait. And wait. And wait some more in hopes your choices don’t sell out before your turn comes – which is often several hours later.
Idaho’s system often consumes your attention for hours, forcing applicants to schedule a vacation day for it. The upside is that if you don’t draw your coveted tag that day, you can focus your application efforts on states that set draw-application deadlines from January through early April. Those states simply collect all the applications by a designated deadline, and then fill them based on chance and/or specified criteria.
Next up for me is the Arizona application date in early February. I haven’t drawn an elk tag in Arizona since 2018, but with six points and a bonus point in hand, my odds are increasing annually. I have a site I like to hunt in a national forest, so this application isn’t too complicated.
After typing the hunt code into the appropriate box to apply, I also verify my credit card information is current. I learned the hard way that you can miss out on the draw if the agency can’t tap your credit card when processing your application.
Things get more complicated as the application deadlines near for New Mexico in March; and Colorado and Montana in early April. I then lean on my friends for their hunt-application services. Malcolm offers suggestions for “low-odds, high-value” mule deer hunts in New Mexico; “Dreadlocks Dave” Burgess offers similar suggestions for elk and muleys in Colorado, along with insights for building preference points; and Matthew Williams does the same for mule deer in Montana.
But even my so-called system didn’t build itself overnight. I started by booking a drop-camp elk bowhunt in Colorado in 2005 with three friends. The next year, another friend and I started bowhunting Idaho, back when the state sold nonresident elk tags over the counter. By hunting Idaho annually, I casually learned Arizona, Montana, Colorado and New Mexico’s application systems through friends who hunt or live in those states.
Whatever system you use, stick with it and keep building your knowledge and preference points. Just google the hunt-application sites for every Western state, and then look for the agency’s “Hunt Planner” website. The more time you spend planning, the better prepared you’ll be each winter as the application windows open.
And if that proves too much work, start studying those hunt-application services.