On May 17, 2023, the Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) agency announced that an error had occurred while drawing hunting licenses for moose and bighorn sheep last week. FWP staff members entered incorrect quota numbers into the computer systems for managing license drawings.
Consequently, FWP drew more licenses in specific hunting districts than expected, requiring the agency to implement corrections and issue fewer licenses than initially announced.
Affected Sheep Licenses
According to FWP data, 120 bighorn sheep licenses were issued in four hunting units instead of the 60 expected. The breakdown of affected bighorn sheep hunting districts and licenses is as follows:
- Unit 482-20: Expected quota of 15 licenses; 20 applicants received one
- Unit 482-30: Expected quota of 5 licenses; 40 applicants received one
- Unit 622-30: Expected quota of 10 licenses; 20 applicants received one
- Unit 680-31: Expected quota of 30 licenses; 40 applicants received one
Affected Moose Licenses
FWP data shows that only ten licenses to hunt moose were expected to be issued last week in three specific hunting units. However, due to the license system error, 14 applicants received one.
- Unit 270-50: Expected quota of 2 licenses; 3 applicants received one
- Unit 332-00: Expected quota of 6 licenses; 8 applicants received one
- Unit 341-50: Expected quota of 2 licenses; 3 applicants received one
How The Error Affects Montana Hunts
The Montana Fish and Wildlife Commission is responsible for setting quotas for each new hunting season based on data and recommendations from FWP biologists.
The system FWP uses to allocate licenses to hunters operates in sequential order, meaning that the system draws and remembers which hunters have drawn a license and in which order they applied. On May 12, the moose, bighorn sheep, mountain goat, and bison drawings occurred, but FWP staff only realized the mistake on May 16.
The agency will use the system’s data to determine which hunters were mistakenly issued a license and remove them from the system. The agency will notify affected hunters by email and phone and update their online MyFWP accounts to reflect the correction.
