Maryland Hunting License: $35, $45 With a Tag

Q: What does a nonresident hunting license cost in Maryland?

$160 for the Nonresident Hunting License, against $35 on the other side of the residency line. Tags are priced separately for nonresidents too, and both figures are in the table on this page.

Q: How current are these prices?

Every figure here was read on 23 September 2026 off Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service's own fee pages and links back to the page it came from. Fees are set by statute or by a commission and move between seasons, so the link beside each price is what governs on the day.

$35

Resident licence

Resident Regular Hunting License

$10

What the first deer costs on top

$45 for the licence and the tag together

a fixed licence year

When it stops working

licence year

9 / 9

Licences and tags read here

each one linked to the fee table it came from

The short answer

What a season in Maryland actually costs to start

Tags on topMaryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service

A resident hunting licence in Maryland is $35, sold as the Resident Regular Hunting License. Hunting a deer on it means buying the Sika Deer Stamp as well, at $10, so the first day costs $45 rather than $35. That is 29% 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 $35, the Resident Regular Hunting License
Nonresident licence $160
First deer on top of it $10, the Sika Deer Stamp
What the first morning costs $45
The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.

What the agency sells

Every Maryland hunting licence, at the price Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service prints

Nine tags and permits were read off Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service's own fee pages for Maryland, 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 Regular Hunting License$35
all legal game birds and mammals in season, with stamps still needed for deer, migratory birds, furbearers and bear
full season
Resident Regular Hunting License - $35 For Maryland residents age 16 to 64.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident Hunting License$160
all legal game birds and mammals in season, with stamps still needed for deer, migratory birds, furbearers and bear
full season
Nonresident Hunting License - $160 For hunters who are not Maryland residents and are age 16 to 64.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident 3-Day Waterfowl and Small Game License$65
all legal game in season except deer, bear and turkey
three consecutive legal hunting days
Nonresident 3-Day Waterfowl and Small Game License - $65 This license allows nonresidents of Maryland to hunt all legal game in season except deer, bear and turkey for three consecutive legal hunting days.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Junior Hunting License$15
the same game as the resident full season licence, for a resident under 16
full season
Resident Junior Hunting License - $15 For Maryland residents under 16 years of age. Written permission of parent or guardian is required.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident Junior Hunting License$80
the same game as the nonresident full season licence, for a nonresident under 16
full season
Nonresident Junior Hunting License - $80 For hunters who are not Maryland residents and are under 16 years of age. Written permission of parent or guardian is required.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Senior Hunting License$5
the same game as the resident full season licence, for a resident aged 65 and above
full season
Resident Senior Hunting License - $5 For Maryland residents age 65 and above. It may be purchased in the calendar year in which a resident attains the age of 65.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident Senior Hunting License$65
the same game as the nonresident full season licence, for a nonresident aged 65 or older
full season
Nonresident Senior Hunting License - $65 For hunters who are not Maryland residents and are age 65 or older. This license may be purchased in the calendar year in which a nonresident attains the age of 65.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Resident Apprentice Hunting License$15
hunting under a mentor after a short online safety course, bought once by an adult resident who has never held a Maryland licence
full season
Resident Apprentice Hunting License - $15 Adult resident hunters age 17 and older, who never held a Maryland hunting license may purchase this license one time. Junior resident hunters may purchase the license annually through age 16.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
Nonresident Apprentice Hunting License$40
hunting under a mentor after a short online safety course, bought once by an adult nonresident who has never held a Maryland licence
full season
Nonresident Apprentice Hunting License - $40 Adult nonresident hunters age 17 and older, who never held a Maryland hunting license may purchase this license one time. Junior nonresident hunters may purchase the license annually through age 16.
Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source

The second purchase

The tags and permits that sit on top of a Maryland 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.

Maryland allocates bear 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 Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service's own fee pages, dearest resident price first.
Tag or permit	Species	Resident	Nonresident	How it is issued
Federal Migratory Bird Hunting and Conservation Stamp	Waterfowl	$29	$29	Over the counter
Black Bear Hunt Lottery Application Fee	Bear	$15	$15	Draw
Maryland Migratory Game Bird Stamp	Waterfowl	$15	$15	Over the counter
Bonus Antlered Deer Stamp	Deer	$10	$25	Over the counter
Sika Deer Stamp	Deer	$10	$200	Over the counter
Archery Stamp	Deer	$6	$25	Over the counter
Muzzleloader Stamp	Deer	$6	$25	Over the counter
Individual Furbearer Permit	Furbearer	$5	$5	Over the counter
Snow Goose Conservation Order Hunting Season Permit	Waterfowl	$5	$5	Over the counter

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, the page this was read from, read 23 September 2026

The clock

When a Maryland hunting license expires Licence year

Maryland 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.

Maryland runs a hunting licence year from 1 August to the following 31 July, and a full season licence bought part way through it runs only to that 31 July rather than a full twelve months.

Full Season Hunting Licenses are valid from the day they are issued through the next July 31. A hunting license year is August 1 through the next July 31.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source

The requirement people find out about at the counter

Hunter education in Maryland

Maryland 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.

Maryland does not use a birth year cutoff. The Wildlife and Heritage Service requires a Certificate of Competency in Firearms and Hunting Safety of all first time hunters, and accepts instead certification that the buyer held a Maryland hunting licence before 1 July 1977 or hunted private property before that date while legally exempt from buying one.

To hunt or purchase a hunting license state law requires : Presentation of a Certificate of Competency in Firearms and Hunting Safety (required of all first time hunters), or Certification that you held a hunting license issued prior to July 1, 1977, or Certification that you hunted on private property prior to July 1, 1977, and were legally exempt from purchasing a hunting license, or Certification that you are purchasing a nonresident 3-day license and will only hunt waterfowl.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service, 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

How Maryland compares

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

Maryland 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 Maryland beside every other state on licence price, first tag, and the two added together.

Maryland hunting license questions

How much is a hunting license in Maryland?

A resident hunting licence in Maryland is $35, sold as the Resident Regular Hunting License. Hunting a deer on it means buying the Sika Deer Stamp as well, at $10, so the first day costs $45 rather than $35. That is 29% 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.

Do you need a tag as well as a license in Maryland?

When does a Maryland hunting license expire?

Does Maryland require hunter education?

Maryland 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. Maryland does not use a birth year cutoff. The Wildlife and Heritage Service requires a Certificate of Competency in Firearms and Hunting Safety of all first time hunters, and accepts instead certification that the buyer held a Maryland hunting licence before 1 July 1977 or hunted private property before that date while legally exempt from buying one. Maryland also issues an apprentice or mentored licence, which is a different document with its own conditions and its own page at Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service.

What does a nonresident hunting license cost in Maryland?

Where do you actually buy one in Maryland?

How current are these prices?

More for Maryland

Maryland fishing licenseThe same agency, the other licence, and an expiry rule that works differently again.Maryland tick activityWhat the woods are doing this week, measured against the years behind it.Maryland first snowWhen the weather that ends most of these seasons usually arrives.Maryland unattended vehicle lawWhat the state says about a truck left running at a trailhead on a cold morning.

Maryland Department of Natural Resources, Wildlife and Heritage Service 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