Alaska Draw Hunts: The Big 5, Plus Goat and Wolf

• Draw hunts only
• Rules checked Oct 26, 2026
• Source: ADF&G

How the Alaska lottery works

Alaska drawing permits are awarded by random lottery. There is no preference or bonus point system for these hunts, so a first-year applicant has the same chance in a given hunt as someone who has applied for twenty years. Each year ADF&G publishes a Drawing Hunt Supplement listing every hunt number, its area, season dates, permit count and any special conditions.

• Up to six per species. You can put in for up to six hunts for the same species, counting individual and party applications together, and you can enter the same hunt more than once. Some hunts set their own limits.
• Every hunt costs a fee. Each hunt choice carries an application fee. Applications are final and fees are not refunded, whether you draw or not.
• License first. You must hold a valid Alaska big game hunting license before you apply (current year or the hunt year). Alaska residents 17 and younger are exempt.
• Online only. ADF&G no longer takes paper applications.

We are not publishing odds for Alaska hunts yet. Figures you hear secondhand, like a single number for nonresident sheep, vary a lot by hunt, so look up the results for the exact hunt number on ADF&G before you pick.

Resident vs nonresident, and guide rules

Most drawing hunts are open to residents and nonresidents. A resident has lived in Alaska for the 12 months before applying for a license, intending to stay. Military members stationed in Alaska for 12 months, and their dependents, qualify too.

• Nonresidents hunting brown/grizzly bear, Dall sheep or mountain goat must be personally accompanied by an Alaska-licensed guide, or by an Alaska resident 19 or older within the second degree of kindred (parent, child, sibling, spouse, grandparent, grandchild, in-laws and step relatives).
• Nonresident aliens (not U.S. citizens, living outside the U.S.) need a licensed guide for every big game species.
• Guide-client contract. Most nonresident draw hunts for guide-required species need a signed guide-client contract in place by the time you apply. These hunts carry a handshake symbol in the supplement, and your guide submits the application with a verification code. Hunting with a qualifying relative? Choose “2nd Degree Kindred” as the guide type.
• Moose, caribou, black bear and wolf do not need a guide for U.S. nonresidents; choose “Unguided”.

Guide rules from ADF&G Guide Requirements for Hunting in Alaska. Guide registrations: Big Game Commercial Services Board, (907) 465-2543.

Species

How to apply, step by step

1. Read the current Drawing Hunt Supplement on the ADF&G draw page and note your hunt numbers.
2. Buy an Alaska big game hunting license online if you do not have one; the purchase link is on the ADF&G draw page.
3. Nonresident after brown bear, Dall sheep or goat? Line up a registered guide for that Guide Use Area and sign the contract, or confirm your relative qualifies.
4. Apply online between Nov 1, 8 a.m. and Dec 15, 5 p.m. Alaska time. Up to six hunts per species.
5. Check the draw results ADF&G posts after the drawing.

Not covered here

This page covers ADF&G drawing permit hunts. It leaves out registration hunts, Tier I and Tier II subsistence hunts and federal subsistence hunts on federal lands, which have their own rules and eligibility.

Other states

See every draw deadline, plus Wyoming, Colorado, Montana and Texas draw odds.

Rules, dates and guide requirements restated from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game: Drawing Hunt Information and Guide Requirements. TagCanyon is not affiliated with ADF&G. Always confirm in the current supplement before you apply. Photos: NPS/Jacob W. Frank; caribou and Denali, NPS (public domain); moose at Sukakpak Mountain, Bureau of Land Management Alaska (CC BY 2.0). public domain.