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Hunting Licenses / Michigan

Michigan Hunting License: $11, $31 With a Tag

In Michigan the licence is $11 and the first deer costs $31

$11
Resident licence
Base license
$20
What the first deer costs on top
$31 for the licence and the tag together
a fixed licence year
When it stops working
licence year
7 / 8
Licences and tags read here
each one linked to the fee table it came from
The short answer

What a season in Michigan actually costs to start

Tags on topMichigan Department of Natural Resources

A resident hunting licence in Michigan is $11, sold as the Base license. Hunting a deer on it means buying the Single deer license as well, at $20, so the first day costs $31 rather than $11. That is 182% 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 $11, the Base license
  • Nonresident licence $151
  • First deer on top of it $20, the Single deer license
  • What the first morning costs $31
  • The licence runs runs a licence year with its own start and end dates, set by the state rather than by the calendar
  • Hunter education required of anyone born on or after 1960

Michigan Department of Natural Resources sells it through its own licensing system, which is where a fee change appears first.

What the agency sells

Every Michigan hunting licence, at the price Michigan Department of Natural Resources prints

Eight tags and permits were read off Michigan Department of Natural Resources's own fee pages for Michigan, 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.

  • Base license$11

    small game hunting only, and it is the licence every other hunting licence is bought on top of

    valid through March 31, 2027

    Base license* N/A $6 $11 $5 $151
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Base license$151

    small game hunting only, and it is the licence every other hunting licence is bought on top of

    valid through March 31, 2027

    Base license* N/A $6 $11 $5 $151
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Small game 3-day nonresident license$50

    three days of small game hunting for a nonresident, without a base licence

    3-day

    Small N/A N/A N/A N/A $50 game 3-day nonresident license
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Small game 7-day nonresident license$80

    seven days of small game hunting for a nonresident, without a base licence

    7-day

    Small N/A N/A N/A N/A $80 game 7-day nonresident license
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Base license$6

    small game hunting for a hunter aged 10 to 16, resident or nonresident

    valid through March 31, 2027

    Base license* N/A $6 $11 $5 $151
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Base license$5

    small game hunting for a Michigan resident aged 65 or over

    valid through March 31, 2027

    Base license* N/A $6 $11 $5 $151
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
  • Hunt/fish combo license$76

    an annual fishing licence, a base licence for small game and a deer combo licence for two antlered deer

    annual

    The hunt/fish combo license is a license package that includes an annual fishing license good for all species on any Michigan body of water, a base license that allows small game hunting and a deer combo license (regular and restricted kill tags) valid in both archery and firearm seasons.
    Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
The second purchase

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

Michigan 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 Michigan Department of Natural Resources's own fee pages, dearest resident price first.
Tag or permitSpeciesResidentNonresidentHow it is issued
Deer combo licenseDeer$40$190Over the counter
Bear licenseBear$25$25Draw
Pheasant licenseSmall game$25$25Over the counter
Federal migratory bird hunting stampWaterfowl$25$25Over the counter
Single deer licenseDeer$20$20Over the counter
Universal antlerless deer licenseDeer$20$20Over the counter
Spring turkey licenseTurkey$15$15Both
Waterfowl license (includes HIP)Waterfowl$12$12Over the counter

Michigan Department of Natural Resources, the page this was read from, read 23 September 2026

The clock

When a Michigan hunting license expires Licence year

Michigan 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.

A Michigan base licence carries a year number and runs out on 31 March whatever month it was bought, so one bought in February is good for about six weeks.

A 2026 base license is valid through March 31, 2027.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
The requirement people find out about at the counter

Michigan hunter education: born on or after 1960

Michigan hangs hunter education on a birth date rather than on an age: the requirement reaches anybody born after 1960. Every state that publishes a cutoff publishes a different one, and across this reading they run from 1949 to 1986, which is why a national answer to this question is always wrong somewhere.

Michigan asks for a hunter education certificate or a previous hunting licence from anyone born on or after 1 January 1960, and a base apprentice licence is the way around it for up to two licence years.

Yes. If you were born on or after Jan. 1, 1960, you must present your hunter education certificate or previous hunting license (other than a base apprentice license) to purchase your license.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, 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 Michigan resident

Michigan 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.

To qualify as a Michigan resident, you must meet one of the following criteria: Reside in a settled or permanent home or domicile within the boundaries of this state with the intention of remaining in this state. Resident status can only be claimed in one state.
Michigan Department of Natural Resources, read 23 September 2026. Read it at the source
How Michigan compares

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

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

Michigan hunting license questions

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Hunting licenses in every state

Michigan Department of Natural Resources 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