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 can’t 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. Paper
licenses and permits must be signed and
the hunter information portion (signature,
address, eye and hair color, sex,
height and weight) completed before
going afield.
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
Other Laws Apply!
Hunters exempt from buying licenses
and permits are required to follow
hunting season laws, bag limits,
comply with the hunter orange
clothing law, and follow hunter harvest
recording, checking and tagging
requirements. Kentucky landowners,
their legal dependents and
their tenants, as described above,
are subject to the usual license requirements
anytime they hunt somewhere
other than their own lands.
In some cases, a resident hunter
may not be required to buy a hunting
license or game permits. Here are those situations:
- Kentucky resident owners of farmlands,
their spouses and dependent
children hunting upon their own
farmlands during an open season.
- Tenants, their spouses and dependent
children hunting on farmlands 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.
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.
SHOOTING PRESERVE LICENSE
A shooting preserve license, available
only online, is valid
for one license year only, and only at the
shooting preserve indicated at the time
of purchase.
HIP SURVEYS
In addition to purchasing a Migratory Bird-Waterfowl Permit, or any
license that includes it, hunters who
intend to hunt migratory birds must
go online or make a phone call and fill
out the Harvest Information Program
(HIP) questions before they are legal
migratory bird hunters. Only those
who plan to hunt migratory birds need
to complete the HIP survey.
The process takes less than five
minutes. Go to the "My Profile" page to complete the survey. This page will ask for some basic
information to confirm your identity.
After completing the HIP questions,
you will receive a confirmation number
that must be written on your hunting
license or Kentucky Migratory Game
Bird-Waterfowl Hunting Permit.
Those without internet access may
call the department at 1-800-858-1549
from 8 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. weekdays for
assistance.