Non-resident hunting licenses now on sale

It’s not quite the same as opening day for hunting, but it’s an opportunity for nonresidents to have an opening day for deer and elk in Idaho as the limited pool of 2017 tags are now on sale except the popular Sawtooth Elk Zone tags.

Hunters can once again buy licenses and tags online after internet sales returned in late November with added security measures after a data breach occurred last summer. Hunters now register a user name and password before buying licenses and tags online, which will further protect their personal information.

Nonresident tags sales will not include the popular Sawtooth Zone elk tags, which sold out in less than an hour last year, and the resident tags went almost as quickly when they went on sale in July.

Fish and Game officials are looking at different methods to distribute the Sawtooth Zone elk tags for 2017, and the Fish and Game commission will likely decide how to allocate them in March when it sets the 2017-18 big-game rules.

Idaho limits nonresident tags for big game, and the pool of general-season, nonresident tags for deer and elk both sold out in 2016, which hasn’t happened since 2008.