Montana attracts hunters from all over the world that apply for licenses to hunt deer and elk. Like many states, Montana limits nonresident opportunities via a lottery system, with 17,000 deer-elk combination licenses and 4,600 deer licenses. Now there are more nonresident hunters applying for tags than there are licenses available. 

When it comes to which state produces the most nonresident hunters, none come close to the state of Washington.

The Evergreen State accounts for about 17% of all nonresident hunters awarded Montana deer and elk hunting licenses over the last four years, according to data provided by Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks through a public information request. That equates to nearly 17,000 of the more than 101,000 licenses distributed from 2019-2022.

The Montana State News Bureau requested zip codes for all nonresidents who received deer-elk combination, elk-combination and deer-combination licenses awarded through the annual lottery. 

On this week's episode, Tom Kuglin of the Montana State News Bureau, discusses what he found from looking into Montana's nonresident hunting data.