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Hunting Licenses / California

California Hunting License: $64.54, $106.92 With a Tag

In California the licence is $64.54 and the first deer costs $106.92

$64.54
Resident licence
Resident Hunting License
$42.38
What the first deer costs on top
$106.92 for the licence and the tag together
a fixed licence year
When it stops working
licence year
7 / 10
Licences and tags read here
each one linked to the fee table it came from
The short answer

What a season in California actually costs to start

Tags on topCalifornia Department of Fish and Wildlife

A resident hunting licence in California is $64.54, sold as the Resident Hunting License. Hunting a deer on it means buying the First-Deer Tag or First-Deer Tag Drawing Application as well, at $42.38, so the first day costs $106.92 rather than $64.54. That is 66% more than the licence price a search result would have shown. 39 of the 50 states read here work the same way. The licence itself runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar.

  • Resident licence $64.54, the Resident Hunting License
  • Nonresident licence $225.46
  • First deer on top of it $42.38, the First-Deer Tag or First-Deer Tag Drawing Application
  • What the first morning costs $106.92
  • The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar

California Department of Fish and Wildlife sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.

What the agency sells

Every California hunting licence, at the price California Department of Fish and Wildlife prints

Ten tags and permits were read off California Department of Fish and Wildlife's own fee pages for California, each one priced below with the row it sits in. A tag is a second purchase, and the licence price on its own is the first half of what a season costs.

  • Resident Hunting License$64.54

    taking birds and mammals, with a tag or validation bought on top for big game and for birds

    annual

    Resident Hunting License | $64.54 | Required for any resident 16 years of age or older who takes birds or mammals.
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Nonresident Hunting License$225.46

    taking birds and mammals, with a tag or validation bought on top for big game and for birds

    annual

    Nonresident Hunting License | $225.46 | Required for any nonresident 16 years of age or older who takes birds or mammals.
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • One-Day Nonresident Hunting License$31.06

    one day of game birds, and only on licensed game bird clubs or licensed shooting areas

    1 day

    One-Day Nonresident Hunting License | $31.06 | IMPORTANT! This license is only available for nonresidents taking resident and migratory game birds on Licensed Game Bird Clubs (Upland Game Bird Validation is also required) or Licensed Domesticated Migratory Game Bird Shooting Areas (Federal Duck Stamp and California Duck Validation are also required).
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Two-Day Nonresident Hunting License$64.54

    two consecutive days of game birds, small game mammals, wild pigs, nongame mammals and furbearers, and no big game

    2 day

    Starting with the 2023-2024 hunting license year, a Two-Day Nonresident Hunting License allows a nonresident 16 years of age or older to take resident and migratory game birds, resident small game mammals, wild pigs, nongame mammals and furbearers for two consecutive days. Additional validations and tags may be required for certain species. IMPORTANT! This license is NOT valid for deer, bear, elk, pronghorn antelope, or bighorn sheep.
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Junior Hunting License$17.02

    taking birds and mammals for anyone under sixteen, and it carries the bird validations with it

    annual

    Junior Hunting License | $17.02 | Required for any resident or nonresident less than 16 years of age who takes birds or mammals. To qualify, hunter must be less than 16 years of age at the beginning of the license year (July 1).
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Disabled Veteran Reduced Fee Hunting License$10.04 at CDFW Offices $10.54 from License Agents

    the annual hunting licence at the reduced veteran rate

    annual

    Disabled Veteran Reduced Fee Hunting License | $10.04 at CDFW Offices $10.54 from License Agents | Available for any resident or nonresident honorably discharged disabled veteran with a 50 percent or greater service-connected disability.
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Lifetime Hunting License, Ages 10-39$1,160.25

    an annual hunting licence every year for life, for a resident

    lifetime

    Ages 10-39 | $1,160.25 | Available to any resident showing proof of completion of hunter education training. Lifetime hunting licensees receive an annual hunting license each year for life.
    California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
The second purchase

The tags and permits that sit on top of a California licence

A tag is attached to one animal of one species, and the last column is the part that decides a calendar rather than a budget. Over the counter means it can be bought on the way to the woods. A draw means the application closed months ago.

California allocates antelope, elk and other by draw, which means the application closes long before the season and the tag is awarded by lot rather than sold. What is over the counter and what is drawn is set out beside each tag below.

Tags and permits read off California Department of Fish and Wildlife's own fee pages, dearest resident price first.
Tag or permitSpeciesResidentNonresidentHow it is issued
Elk TagElk$610.20$1,871.80Draw
Bighorn Sheep TagOther$558.50$2,072.75Draw
Pronghorn Antelope TagAntelope$205.77$628.85Draw
Bear TagBear$62.90$397.60Over the counter
First-Deer Tag or First-Deer Tag Drawing ApplicationDeer$42.38$377.35Both
California Duck ValidationWaterfowl$41.04$41.04Over the counter
Wild Pig ValidationOther$28.34$101.26Over the counter
Upland Game Bird ValidationsTurkey$25.41$25.41Over the counter
Federal Duck StampWaterfowl$25.00$25.00Over the counter
Elk, Pronghorn Antelope and Bighorn Sheep Tag Drawing ApplicationsOther$8.38 per application$8.38 per applicationDraw

California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the page this was read from, read 23 September 2026

The clock

When a California hunting license expires Licence year

California runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar. The year turns on a date the state picked, usually in the spring or early autumn, so what a licence is worth depends on where in that year it was bought. The sentence the state uses is quoted below and links to the page it came from.

Every California hunting licence runs on the same July to June year, so one bought in spring stops at the end of June whatever was paid for it.

An annual hunting license is valid from July 1 through the following June 30. If the license is purchased after July 1 it is valid for the remainder of the license year.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
The requirement people find out about at the counter

Hunter education in California

California requires hunter education, and it sets the requirement without a birth year cutoff, so the test is what the applicant has done rather than when they were born. 29 of the 50 states read here use a birth year instead, and those years run from 1949 to 1986.

California asks every buyer of a first hunting licence for proof of hunter education or of a prior licence, with no birth year cutoff and no supervised beginner licence in its place.

Resident, nonresident, and junior hunters must present ONE of the following when applying for an annual California hunting license or Two-Day Nonresident Hunting License as proof of meeting California's hunter education requirements
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
A wide shallow wetland on a clear November morning, ducks scattered across the open water, a cottonwood in yellow leaf on a small island beside a low wooden viewing deck, and a flat brown horizon under a pale blue sky
Waterfowl is the clearest case of what these pages are about. The state licence is the first line on the receipt, and a duck morning adds a state stamp, a federal stamp and a harvest survey registration on top of it, none of which the licence price includes. “Llano Seco Unit (2024)-L1006548”, Frank Schulenburg, CC BY-SA 4.0
Which price applies

Who counts as a California resident

California defines a resident in its own words rather than by a count of days, and the definition is quoted below because the price on one side of it is rarely close to the price on the other.

Fish and Game Code Section 70 defines "Resident" as any person who has resided continuously in the State of California for six months or more immediately prior to the date of their application for a license or permit, any person on active military duty with the Armed Forces of the United States or auxiliary branch thereof, or any person enrolled in the Job Corps established pursuant to Section 2883 of Title 29 of the United States Code.
California Department of Fish and Wildlife, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
How California compares

39 of 50 states sell the animal separately from the right to hunt it

California works the way most of the country does. Of the 50 states read here, 39 sell the tag apart from the licence and 11 print it on the licence instead. Where the tag is separate, the middle state adds 95% to the licence price before anybody has left the driveway.

Resident licences across these states run from $10 to $64.54, and nonresident licences from $50 to $410, which is the widest spread on any licence this site has read. 25 states run a licence year of their own, 9 give a full year from the day of sale, and 9 end it on 31 December whatever month it was bought.

The national table puts California beside every other state on licence price, first tag, and the two added together.

California hunting license questions

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Hunting licenses in every state

California Department of Fish and Wildlife read 23 September 2026, with every licence price, tag price, expiry rule and hunter education cutoff above linked to the page it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and change between seasons, so the agency page beside each figure is what governs on the day. Tags on top