Licenses and Permits

​​​GENERAL HUNTER LICENSING

Persons who take or attempt to take game are considered hunters and therefore subject to licensing requirements.

Unless license exempt, hunters and trappers must obtain and carry while in the field proof that they have met the license requirements for the kind of hunting they are doing. This proof can be either a paper license/permit or a license authorization number.

Persons who cannot show they are licensed properly while hunting risk being issued a citation.

Each hunter and trapper must have his or her own license or permit. 

Lose your license or permit? Replacements can be printed at no cost at http://fw.ky.gov/Licenses/Pages/Reprint-Your-License.aspx.

LICENSE-EXEMPT HUNTERS

In some cases, a resident hunter may not be required to buy a hunting license or game permits.  Here are those situations:

• Resident and nonresident children under the age of 12 are not required to purchase licenses and permits, except the elk hunt drawing application. Hunters eligible to participate in the Free Youth Hunting & Trapping Week or Free Youth Deer Hunting Weekend, and adults who accompany a youth hunter but are not hunting themselves, are not required to have a license or permit during these seasons
• Kentucky resident owners of farmland, their spouse and dependent children hunting or fishing on their land.
  
• Tenants, their spouses and dependent children hunting on 5 or more acres of farmland where they reside and work.​​
  
• Kentucky residents on military leave of more than three days in this state who carry identification and papers verifying their leave status
• Members of the U.S. Armed Forces based in Kentucky engaged in sport hunting or fishing on these Kentucky National Guard properties: Hidden Valley Training Area in Powell County, and the Wendell H. Ford Regional Training Center in Muhlenberg County