Groups compete to auction off Montana hunting tags

BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com

Since 1986, the auctioning of Montana game tags to the highest bidder has raised $12.67 million.

The income is revealed in the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s annual request from conservation groups seeking the privilege of auctioning off or conducting a lottery for five hunting tags. The commission will decide who the lucky conservation groups are at its Aug. 19 meeting. The public can weigh in on the proposals by logging in to the Fish and Wildlife Commission’s agenda page.

Up for grabs is one hunting license for elk, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and mule deer. New to the tag auction this year, thanks to the Legislature, is the addition of a pronghorn and swan license.

The auctioned licenses, often referred to as a governor’s tag, are valid for any open season, any legal weapon, anywhere in the state, including limited-entry districts. Regular folks, who can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars, have a similar option through Montana’s SuperTag lottery.

Record price for bull elk

The conservation groups are allowed to keep up to 10% of the proceeds to cover their expenses. The rest supports Fish, Wildlife & Parks’ conservation efforts for each species.

Bighorn sheep tags have always drawn the loftiest bids, hitting a record high $480,000 in 2013. Sheep tags are so popular because the odds of drawing a license through the standard state lottery is extremely low, especially in trophy ram areas.

Last year the bull elk tag recorded a new peak bid — $158,000. The buyer, who remains anonymous, reportedly has a hunt booked on an expansive southeastern Montana ranch that’s being sold.

Conservation competition

Whereas for years the tags typically generated only one in-state conservation group for each hunting license, the competition has increased. This year, nine groups are contending for the honor, down from 11 last year. No one is pursuing the swan tag.

“Interest in obtaining and aggressively auctioning these licenses has remained high with the participating conservation organizations,” FWP wrote in its note to the commission.

Of the conservation group competitors, four are vying for the mountain goat, pronghorn and moose tags and three for the elk license. Bidding for five tags — the elk, mule deer, mountain goat, moose and pronghorn tags — is the Big Sky Chapter of the Dallas Safari Club.

In its proposal to the Fish and Wildlife Commission, the chapter said its tags will be broadcast for bidding on the Online Hunting Auctions website, which reportedly has 1.4 million subscribers. The group also estimated as many as 350 people from Europe, Africa and across the United States may attend its Great Falls banquet.

Other conservation groups also touted their access to the online website as a means to increase bidding for the tags and raise more money. For example, the group Grand Slam Club Ovis, which is touting an attendance of about 1,000 people at its annual banquet to be held this year in Nashville, is competing to auction off four tags. Last year the group’s banquet raised about $1 million, according to the group.

Raffle vs. auction

In 2025, Gov. Greg Gianforte vetoed a bill that would have allowed Montana’s bighorn and moose tags to be awarded via a raffle, as well as an auction, with the choice left up to the commission.

Gianforte cited the uncertainty of how much money would be raised from a raffle as his reason for the veto.

This choice is already allowed for mule deer, elk and mountain goat tags.

In 2024, Montana allowed the first raffle for a mule deer tag, which increased money raised by 38%. One of the reasons the Montana Chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers touted the idea was to make the opportunity more egalitarian by allowing average hunters who can afford a $20 chance, rather than relying on wealthy individuals who can bid thousands of dollars.

FWP has no decision criteria they provide to the commission for making a decision. Without any guidelines, the commission struggled in 2023 deciding which of 11 groups should receive the five game tags.

Montana began auctioning tags after the 1986 Montana Legislature saw it as a way for FWP to raise money to manage species that don’t generate a lot of income from license sales because there are so few of the animals. A bighorn sheep tag was the first to be provided.