Draw odds / Wyoming

How the Wyoming draw works

The draw is how Wyoming Game and Fish Department hands out its limited elk, deer, pronghorn, moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat and bison tags: you apply by the deadline, and the system below decides who is drawn. Everything here — the rules, the dates and the odds for every hunt — comes from the agency's own published material.

Rules from Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s published materials — verified against the cited sources on 2026-08-04.

Wyoming hunting units — public land, access and harvest for every unit →

The system

Elk, Deer, Pronghorn — Resident

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

Residents are a pure random draw within each hunt area/type quota — no preference points for these species (Ch. 44 §19 species enumeration; WGFD "Understanding the Draw").

Elk, Deer, Pronghorn — Nonresident — preference pool (75%)

Pure preference: tags fill from the highest point level down; the last level in is a random subset, everyone below draws nothing.

WGFD publishes the 75% preference share as its own report with its own quota — computed here as the pure-preference pool it is ("not less than 75%... to a preference point drawing", Ch. 44 §4(e)(iv)(C)). The preference advantage applies to first choices only. The Special (higher fee) and Regular price tiers are separate quotas (40%/60% of the NR share, §4(e)(iv)(A)); Special hunt codes carry a -S suffix.

Elk, Deer, Pronghorn — Nonresident — random pool (25%)

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

The remaining 25% random share, also published standalone — a flat draw over first-choice applicants regardless of points, into which unsuccessful preference-pool applicants fall. Together with the preference pool this is the regulatory 75/25 hybrid; the calculator still offers the combined hybrid model.

Moose, Bighorn sheep — All applicants

Hybrid: 75% of tags award by point rank, the remaining 25% through a flat random draw over everyone still standing.

Same 75/25 shape in statute (W.S. 23-1-703(b)), points for both residencies, separate quotas per residency (90% resident / 10% nonresident, W.S. 23-1-703(e), enacted 2022). Once-in-a-lifetime for licenses issued on/after July 1, 2022. WGFD publishes each pool per residency as its own demand report; the per-pool rules below are what the published statistics compute under, and this combined model stays for the calculator.

Moose, Bighorn sheep — Nonresident — preference pool (75%)

Pure preference: tags fill from the highest point level down; the last level in is a random subset, everyone below draws nothing.

The published nonresident preference-point demand reports (per point level, WGFD's own success-odds column).

Moose, Bighorn sheep — Resident — preference pool (75%)

Pure preference: tags fill from the highest point level down; the last level in is a random subset, everyone below draws nothing.

Residents run the same 75/25 split for these species — WGFD publishes "Resident Preference Point" as its own report (unlike elk/deer/ pronghorn, where residents are a single random draw).

Moose, Bighorn sheep — Nonresident — random pool (25%)

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

The 25% random pool, flat over first-choice applicants.

Moose, Bighorn sheep — Resident — random pool (25%)

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

The resident 25% random pool.

Mountain goat, Bison, Bighorn sheep — Resident

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

Mountain goat and bison carry no preference points — one flat random report per residency. Bighorn's ewe/lamb hunts are published the same way and land here (ram draws live in the preference/random pools above; hunt type distinguishes them in the code).

Mountain goat, Bison, Bighorn sheep — Nonresident

Pure random draw: tags ÷ applicants, points play no part.

Nonresident flat draws for goat, bison and ewe/lamb sheep.

Points: preference. Nonresident-only for elk, deer and pronghorn, and PURCHASED, never earned free — "$31 antelope / $41 deer / $52 elk" in the July–Oct 31 window (Ch. 44 §19(g), §18(e)); missing the purchase two consecutive years deletes them (§19(b)(vii)). Moose and bighorn points exist for residents and nonresidents both, elected on the application and charged on failure (§19(f)). All points delete on a successful first-choice draw (§19(h)); second/third-choice awards do not burn points and still earn the year's point (booklet p. 13).

Parties: allowed — points average across the party and the fraction survives, ranking between whole-point levels. Parties of up to 6. Party points are "averaged and rounded out to four (4) decimal places" (Ch. 44 §4(e)) — the FRACTION SURVIVES and ranks between integer levels; the mid-pool "< N" rollup rows in WGFD's published demand reports are exactly these parties. Max party 6 (§16). Residents and nonresidents may NOT party together in the initial drawing (they may in the leftover drawing, §20(d)); special-tier applicants may not party with regular-tier; no parties at all for moose, sheep, goat or bison (§16).

Nonresident shares for elk/deer/pronghorn live in Commission regulation, not statute — elk 16%, deer 20%, pronghorn 20% of full-price limited quota (Ch. 44 §4(e)), re-adoptable annually, so re-verify each cycle. The statutory 90/10 resident/nonresident split covers sheep, bison, moose, goat and grizzly only (W.S. 23-1-703(e)). The 40% Special set-aside is statutory (W.S. 23-2-101(f)). Published drawing statistics are already per-residency, so this matters for forecasting, not odds arithmetic.