Idaho Return Tags 2025

Update: All 2024 return tag sales have concluded. Sale dates for 2025 will be posted once published by IDFG. Sign up for application reminders before future events, including each Idaho Return Tag sale.

Idaho Return Tags – Sale Overview

Each year many previously purchased tags become available again to new hunters, through the Idaho Return Tags Sale. These tags become available for a few reasons:

• Hunters who have purchased OTC tags during the Idaho Nonresident Elk and Deer tag sale may not be able to hunt their tags, either due to injury or lack of time.
• Tags can become available again after the Idaho Controlled Hunt Draw, when hunters swap their OTC tag for a controlled tag.
• Tags allocated to outfitters go unsold.

All of these tags are sold in monthly “Return Tag Sales”, where nonresidents (usually) are able to purchase returned elk tags and returned deer tags. You can read about these tags more on the Idaho Fish and Game return tag sale page. The later sales can include more tags than prior sales, when the tags exchanged for controlled hunt tags and outfitter pools are made available for general sale. However, these sales may allow both resident and nonresidents to purchase second tags, increasing competition for tags.

Sale Dates

Returned tags go on sale at varying frequency through the 2025 calendar year, usually on Thursdays at 10am MT.

Sale dates for 2025 have not yet been released. Below is a table of the scheduled dates for the 2024 returned tag sales. You can add applications to your calendar and track them through the OnPoint mobile app.

How to buy Idaho Return Tags

Returned tags are available for purchase through the Idaho Fish and Game licensing portal. Available tags amounts for each species and unit are posted on the Tuesday preceding each sale and are usually listed on the returned tag page or the individual species pages for elk, deer, and whitetail. Sales for these tags works in the same method as the standard OTC sale process which is described in further detail here. You can learn more about hunting opportunities in Idaho in our overview summary.