Oklahoma hunting fishing license fee increase

New Bill in Oklahoma signed two days ago. I have only scanned through it, but for sure nonresident license fees are going up across the board. And by a lot it looks like.
http://webserver1.lsb.state.ok.us/cf_pdf/2023-24%20ENR/SB/SB941%20ENR.PDF

I had hoped they would combine all Deer seasons into a single license, but I'm reading Deer Gun, Archery, or Primitive still separate and now $500 each. Plus required Small Game now $208. So it will cost nonresidents a minimum of $708 to Deer hunt in Oklahoma. My understanding the goal was to reduce nonresident hunters on OK WMAs. I think they will accomplish that goal.

This is not good news. Thanks for posting.

Getting expensive if you hunt out of state. Kansas and Nebraska recently raised license fees as well.

Reading further in the bill.
Non resident fishing went from $54 to $80. Non resident one day fishing went from $14 to $25. No more 6 day.
More expensive for the waterfowlers too. Waterfowl stamp was $9, now $30 for non residents. And the Annual Wildlife Conservation Passport required by some public lands is now $30-$50 it looks like.

Holy S.

$208 for annual hunting

$505 -deer
505- elk
505 - pronghorn


ouchhhhhhhhhhh That hurts

2k a year for me. Bunch of Aholes

I know you duck hunt so might as well make that $208....$238. Thought you might want a little salt in that wound

brutal!!!

As soon as BarneyWho sees this Im sure Ill get a text about his lifetime lic. to add salt to the wound. Worst mistake of my life not getting one.

Good news is they havent implemented a time line yet on when you have to buy your licenses!!

Take away the elk and pronghorn and add in all 3 weapons for deer and we are same I guess.

I was going through hard times that last year the non resident lifetime was still offered. Divorce or something, I can't remember. I just could not afford it that year, but I saw the writing on the wall and had set money aside during the following year to buy it the next season. There was no warning they were going to do away with it. I knew I had made a mistake when I tried to buy it the next season and it was gone. I did at least buy $250 non resident lifetime fishing licenses for my wife and I. There are lots of times now I will spur of the moment run up to OK to fish or run yo-yos in the river that I probably would not otherwise if I did not have that lifetime license.

Its getting brutal for NR across the country. Odds and costs have gotten stupid.

Time for Texas To tell NR where to stick it. When in Rome.

And they even added a under 18 hunting license requirement for non-res, not sure that was there before, in fact pretty sure it was not there.

Cost of hunting land ownership in OK just went up a bit. Stinks!


Maybe I need to turn my land into a commercial hunting operation, licenses cost then is only 175 or something for all big game season.

I could charge people a couple dollars a day for hunting, and it could be a commercial hunting operation....might be worth looking into.....

I am sure they would hit me with a big tax bill for that , even if I didn't make any money doing it.

Ill donate $2 for your cause and I wont hunt.....

A friend of mine who had been gaining preference points in other states along with me, informed me this year he was no longer going to buy points and not going to do a future hunt. He feels he has reached an age and with complications from old injuries that he likely will not physically be able to go. And with the total cost of western hunts from gaining points, increased license cost, travel and expenses, care of meat and possible taxidermy cost all combined has become much too expensive for him to still justify another DIY western big game hunt. And then there are issues like point creep, reduced quotas, reduced non resident permits, etc. that often throw a wrench into the works. I imagine many of us will reach that day at some point giving up with several unused points in the system.

I messed up not getting my lifetime while growing up in Kansas, but somewhat redeemed myself with getting the Oklahoma lifetime while living there.
Hunting and fishing is just getting crazy expensive everywhere. We were warned about it by the Brits years ago.......

Ha ha , it is $315 to shoot a dang doe in Texas for a NR isn't it ?
But yes you can shoot a buck for the same price, I know.
NR all over the country, like BOBO stated, are getting hit harder because residents want a bigger share.


How many deer is that though for the license cost?
Most western states have separate draws for doe and buck tags, and separate fees.

You can kill a lot of deer in Oklahoma, up to 8 if you hunted the Christmas doe season. The dang problem is the per method of take cost is silly. I hunted archery there the last two years but that is over at those rates...Guess mission accomplished if there are others like me. Just sad to see hunting in general becoming more and more cost prohibitive...

TX is $315 for 5 Whitetails, 2 mule deer, 4 Turkeys, 2 javi’ and upland, and four months to kill all deer.

okla will be 508 per deer season(archery, ML, Rifle) now to kill total of 4-6 deer(depends on area)

Its going to cost me roughly $2800 if I hunt all seasons on my own land. i dont hunt all Deer seasons so basically 1700 for me to archery hunt deer, elk, pronghorn, rifle pheasants..

Here a crazy one i just realized I normally get 2 pronghorn doe rifle depredation permits each year. It now will cost me(me or my kids killing them) $1016 to kill 2 pronghorn depredation(winter wheat) does. Thats BS

Archery is the better deal for OK. It allows for the full combined 6 deer bag limit on one license and archery season runs from the beginning of Oct to the middle of Jan. If you have the time to spend bowhunting up there, you would still be able to get your money's worth on that one.

Yeah, the archery tag is the best clue for cost benefit...but it is harder by a long way to get deer to behave long enough from late oct thru late November to get an archery shot on them, doe get run by bucks and bucks are running all over the place going crazy from hormones.

I looked up and I would have to HF my place to make it a commercial hunting operation. State rules. 8 foot fence required as part of the facility rules. So that is out as a work around. Bummer. Thought I might have had something there.

Cut off their nose despite their face. How many gazillion economic dollars are they gonna lose now? Probably a lot of mom-n-pop businesses who made their money on catering to the NRs are gonna lose big time. Heck, they'll even be losing toll fees.

I mean, why else would you go to OK other than to hunt or fish?

I thought whoever died with the most points wins...

I'm getting worried about my out of state points although I've spent a lot of them. Colorado looks like it may slide off into the Washington/California trash pile in a few years now that two major cities have more than half the state population. I'm spending those points in the next three years. Elk, Deer, Bear, Pronghorn. I'll keep building my Wyoming points but not for long. Arizona, I hope to be a resident in the next year or so and plan to convert them so I can draw better units. I'm starting to look more at the central states. But I'm not paying $800 to hunt Ok. It's just not worth that to me. I had always wanted to hunt whitetails in western central OK but I can do a similar hunt in SD and make a better trip out of it. Colorado has set it's fees to adjust for inflation. That makes more sense as I can expect an increase every year and plan on it. Oklahoma would probably be in the same spot it is in now if they had done that. I wonder how the landowners are going to feel when the demand for leases goes down, if it does. We'll have to wait and see. If they really wanted to make points valuable the would make them transferrable. I'd sell my Colorado points and buy Wyoming or Arizona points. Allow us to at least trade them for other state points.

We'll see the effects of this change in the next couple of years and if it results in a significant decrease in revenues they will make an adjustment. But I'm out until then.

What would make a big economic boost to Okla would be to lengthen the rifle season. Thats the main thing keeping Texans away, IMO. Our landowner in Okla is well connected politically and there was a hard push to extend rifle season by just one week a few years ago. Supposedly it was going to pass but it didnt. Rumor had it that the good old boys in Okla that grew up with archery just didnt want us. Now with this price increase its like they are building a wall around their State.

Oklahoma has always had a hate for NR. They hate leases, wasnt long ago Okla was a posted state. Drive byes on none posted property was an Olympic sport. There was no civil restitution and fine for poaching was like $200, and most GR’s didnt confiscate animal. Luckly they finally put into place high civil restitution fees

I remember meeting with Congressman to push for the ability as a NR landowner to put in for Landowner draw tags.

CO wont have any significant public hunting in 20 years, they will reduce tags so low it wont matter.

I’m in the minority but I’m very glad to see the price increase to cut down on some of the pressure. Unfortunately so many people have moved to north Texas and looking to hunt Oklahoma it’s absolutely insane so I welcome the price increase to keep it in check “OR” they can simply go to a draw system like so many other states do and see how everyone likes that instead. The states only so big and can only handle so many hunters so in my opinion this was well overdue.

As far as the rifle season length goes, it needs to stay just like it is. The hunting is as good as it is due to the length of rifle season and everything not getting shot to hell and I highly doubt this ever changes..

Thump, lots of good logic to your reply. I do see the other side of it and had to think before I replied before. My personal situation is unique because we control so much country. If I had a small place with small places all around then it would likely get shot up without the system they have in place and the price increase. Nothing is ever black and white.....

it wont cut down on pressure on private, it may cut down on a few WMA’s and the draw’s, but not private. leases are still cheap in terms of quality

It will cut down on the number of people willing to pay the price period, that’s all that matters. The private land sector is going to be changing very soon as well on its on, I’ve been offered up to three times what I’m currently getting on leases and it’s routine to be offered double so with any luck this increase will at least slow it down somewhat. Also the chip plant is about to make the land prices in the south central Oklahoma area go though the roof so anyone hunting that area be prepared because I’m already getting calls over in our area from contractors working on it looking for places to hunt.

its really only roughly $260 for most people. Most NR hunters only do “A” deer season.

I do think some NR might drop out of the draws though, I’ve been in bid wars with outfitters and NR for school leases, okla now has a rep for big deer, NR will continue to come just like they do to KS.

.

I can’t disagree with anything you said but at least the price increase is a start to attempt to control it. Ive been hearing rumors floating since well before this was announced about the state going to a draw system if this doesn’t slow it down by 2028 but who knows. Oklahoma isn’t a state that messes around so if they see a problem which they obviously do they generally fix it pretty damn quick so the draw rumor probably has some backbone to it.

I hope this helps the situation and by the comments in this thread alone it appears to have some shock factor to it but only time will tell.

What is this "chip plant" you speak of?

The 30 plus billion dollar computer chip plants going in around Sherman.

if I only hunted one species, It wouldnt be that big of a deal but typically grab deer, 1-2 pronghorn and an elk tag most years, but ill just wait until I glass up a good one then buy a tag with mobile app

I don't know, it may cut down a little bit on some non residents coming to hunt. But for the most part people always seem to find the money, or should I say credit.

I didn't see anything about turkey license? Did they jack that up to?

Seems every state is significantly increasing their turkey tags/license.

I am kinda with freerange on this, there are plenty of deer to go around in OK at least the places i have seen.

This will probably reduce the traffic into WMAs but probably not as much as some think…for the cost of a deer lease these days, 708 dollars for a season of hunting public is still a lot cheaper than a lease.

And if lease prices are going to go thru the roof in north TX-southern OK as thumper says, this proce increase wont affect a thing other than bringing more revenue to the state wildlife dept.

Just checked. Mine didn’t increase

Bobo is getting screwed. LOL. I just logged into my account to see prices, and it is $300 for deer rifle season for me. Same as last year I believe.

knew this was coming. I dont have alot of shame in my life, but fact a Mississippi boy has one and I dont is pretty shame full

happens next year

Glad i got my lifetime license in Oklahoma before i moved to Texas in the 90's.

That's gonna sting.

I want to apologize to everyone on here. I'm the reason for the price increase. I've never hunted OK and made the decision that I would do so this coming fall. Didn't mean for my bad luck to spoil things for the rest of you.

Please, wash your car as well......

Thought I would bump this up for a heads up that might save someone a few bucks if they hunt OK depending on what and when they hunt. The Bill that increases license fees goes into effect July 1st. One may be able to purchase some licenses before July 1st that will still be valid for next season and fall under the old fee structure. For example the nonresident fishing and nonresident hunting are 365 day licenses valid for one year from the day you buy it. And it looks like some of the big game may have dates that fall into next season. Deer Archery I think shows 10/01/2024 - 01/15/2025 and falls under the old fee and limit structure until July 1st. I did buy my nonresident hunting for next season tonight for $175 valid until 5/17/25. It would have cost me $208 if I waited until July or August to buy it. I don't know what the season date structure is on antelope and elk, but it might be worth researching for someone like Bobo that knows he will hunt one of these next season.

https://www.wildlifedepartment.com/licensing/license-restructure-faq
"Will my current licenses still be valid?
Yes, any license bought before July 1 will be valid for what it was intended (one single resident gun deer antlered license = one antlered gun deer). That one license does not, however, cover the hunter for all the deer they can hunt so after July 1, they will need to buy a resident deer gun license if they are going to hunt beyond just the license they bought previously. "

Sniper, thanks for the try but I dont understand. Ill have to call them I guess.

I'll try a shorter version. A Bill was passed that increased license fees for Non Residents. It goes into effect July 1st. If you purchase any license before July 1 that is valid for next season it will still good after the fee increase.

The NR hunting is valid 365 days from the day you buy it. If you buy a NR small game hunting license today it will cost $175 and be valid until 5/18/25. If you buy a NR small game license on July 1st after the fee increase it will cost $208 and be valid until 7/1/25. You save $33 by buying it before the fee increase. There might be potential for much larger savings with some of the big game options by purchasing before the fee increase.

Free, sniper is saying if you buy now for this years season the prices are last seasons prices. Saves about 200 off deer license types and about 30 off the non-res hunting license.

For someone looking to do deer archery, rifle and ML, this could save 600+ dollars.

That is if this years licenses are for sale now….and it appears as such that they are.

Interestingly, when you select the license for deer archery, it says you need no other licenses to hunt only deer in archery season. Does that allow one to game the system this one year and not get the hunting license per the new Bill for this season, since the license stares nothing else is required?

Reading thru the OK rules, it does not yet say anything about the need for a hunting license. Even tho this years season dates are in the system.
The other thing that may be different is the holiday antlerless season, it does not say you even need a gun license for this. In the past I could swear it required a rifle license to be eligible for holiday antlerless gun season. May have to ask my GW about that one.

The answer is in the FAQ I posted.

If a Non-resident buys a deer license in June ‘24 will they still have to buy an annual NR hunting license to hunt deer in the Fall?
Yes, every nonresident hunter in the fall of 2024 will need an annual hunting license and a deer license (even if they bought their deer license in June ‘24)

Thanks Sniper, I didn't go thru the FAQs, but that is helpful.

Your email still has potential to save $200/deer license type if bought before july 1, and $30 on the hunting license

That is good news for deer hunters, for this year at least

Do you not put in for the drawings?

The last time that I had a lease in Oklahoma, I bought the archery deer license and it was good for all of the deer seasons since I only hunted with my bow. I just had to wear the hunter orange during any firearm season. Is that still going to be the case for archery hunters ?

Yes plus general hunting licenses now

I been outa pocket a few days. I think I understand a little better now but I may need to get on the phone with them to be sure. Thanks guys