Guys

Do people need to have a permanent licence to hunt in the USA?

Hunting licensing is done on a state by state basis, with each state promulgating statutes and rules regarding what is required. This is true within a state even when the hunter is hunting on federal land within that state.

Most states offer the same licenses to both residents of that state and non-residents (citizens of foreign nations treated the same as U.S. non-state residents), with the price of a non-resident license being significantly higher than that for a resident. Most states have adopted a requirement for some kind of hunter education certificate for persons born after a certain date (oldsters are literally "grandfathered").

Some states like Texas offer a low-cost limited 5-day license to non-residents for certain types of hunting.

To find the hunting license requirements in any given state you can refer to the website of that state's game commission (the "game commission" will have varying names in the different states, but google "wildlife", "hunting", "Natural Resources", etc. along with the name of the state and you'll come up with it pretty quickly.

If you have any specific questions about Texas I can address them, but you'll have to rely on other sources for the 49 other states and various territories.

US states vary in their " non- resident hunter" requirements. Its best to check Departments of Fish & Game or Natural Resources websites for each & every state you may wish to hunt in. License fees are per year in most. Some Canadian provinces make the distinction between non- province hunters (non-residents) & non-Canadians (aliens); not sure if any States do this. Good luck!

Non-resident here in CO means no one from CO. Doesn't matter if you are from California, New York, or Micronesia. Here we don't have a "hunting license" just tags for specific species/sex, for big game. The only general licenses we have are for small game/fur bearers, and I think water fowl stamps. Turkey have their own tags. I believe a lot of the western states are like this. Some eastern/southern states have a yearly license on top of the tags.

Where are you considering a hunt?

Thanks gents........ but strewth, it's helluva complicated huh.....

The only reason I asked is that we're adding a new section on our website about hunting in Portugal & that country requires a hunting licence from country of origin for firearm import & I wondered what US citizens did for that......

I booked a hunt in France and they were willing to accept my state-of-residence license for their country-of-residence hunting license requirement...It seems logical that other countries would follow suit, but then, maybe not!
Just-a-Hunter has a good point re: proof of hunter safety course...a few western states require this...

Thanks.... FWIW, I think all EU countries have more or less the same requirements for hunters coming in from non EU countries.

Why didn't ya just says so?

Yes, a hunting license from any sovereign State of the United States serves as a "hunting license from country of residence" in any country which requires such. Insofar as I am aware, a country would accept a one-day small game license from Colorado (or any other state) as fulfillment of this requirement. Whether they might balk if your "country of residence" is "U.S., Texas", and you produced a license from "U.S., Colorado", I can't say.

I did the same thing in Austria: just showed my state hunting license.

So, what is available in Portugal? Would love to do some boar hunting there.

Texas has non-resident hunting licences for non-game animals that you could purchace, it's a lot cheaper but I don't know if it's what you need from a legal stand point.

thanks for your help guys.... it looks like we've got it pretty much sussed now.

quote:

Originally posted by eny:
So, what is available in Portugal? Would love to do some boar hunting there.

Here you go: Hunting in Portugal

In addition, many of the Indian Reservations issue their own hunting licenses and regulations.

Oh in that case, then Colorado has a hunters safety card, which is accepted in most states and many countries as a "hunting license". Just shows you went through a basic training course on game ID, survival, and shooting.