Montana · Elk · District 798

Montana elk permit 798-21

(Archery License Required). How many people put this elk permitfirst and how many of them drew it — year by year, separately for each of the four pools Montana draws, and separately at every bonus point level. Every figure comes from a Fish, Wildlife & Parks report linked at the foot of this page.

What the 2017 drawing did

Montana set a quota of 705 on 798-21 in 2017 and drew 705 — the quota filled. Across the four pools FWP draws separately, 1 nonresident landowner applicant put it first and 1 drew, 100.00%; 3 resident landowner applicants put it first and 3 drew, 100.00%; 351 nonresident applicants put it first and 69 drew, 19.66%; 472 resident applicants put it first and 469 drew, 99.36%.

This licence code stops appearing after 2017. FWP's 2026 reports do not carry it, and this site does not map a retired code onto a current one — the department renumbered its licence-type suffixes and has published nothing saying which old code became which new one. What is below is the record of the 4 years it was drawn.

Drawing pool

First-choice success rate, by pool and year

The rate is the first-choice applicants in a pool who drew, divided by the first-choice applicants in that pool. Both are exact integers FWP printed in the same row, and it is the measure the department's own drawing statistics tool publishes: "the percentage of 1st choice applicants that were successful". A dash means nobody in that pool applied, so the draw answered nothing — absent, not nought.
Year	Pool	Pool cap	Put it first	Drew on first choice	First-choice success rate	Put it 2nd or 3rd	Drew on 2nd or 3rd
2017	Nonresident	70	351	69	19.66%	96	0
2017	Resident	705	472	469	99.36%	474	163
2017	Nonresident landowner	70	1	1	100.00%	—	—
2017	Resident landowner	106	3	3	100.00%	—	—
2016	Nonresident	70	320	68	21.25%	108	0
2016	Resident	705	468	461	98.50%	538	171
2016	Nonresident landowner	70	1	1	100.00%	—	—
2016	Resident landowner	106	4	4	100.00%	—	—
2015	Nonresident	70	294	68	23.13%	81	0
2015	Resident	705	383	382	99.74%	526	249
2015	Nonresident landowner	70	1	1	100.00%	—	—
2015	Resident landowner	106	5	5	100.00%	—	—

Pool cap is FWP's own QTA column, and it is a ceiling rather than an allocation. The resident regular cap equals the overall quota; the nonresident caps are ten per cent of it and cover landowner and regular nonresidents together; the resident landowner cap is fifteen per cent. The department states plainly that the ceiling is not a floor: "although the nonresident quotas are set at 10%, that entire quota may not be drawn by nonresidents", and that if every resident applicant draws, nonresidents may go over ten per cent.

Landowner rows are a different drawing, not a subset of the one below them.Landowner preference is the first stage, worth up to fifteen per cent of the quota to resident landowners, and its applicants are counted apart from the regular pool throughout. FWP publishes the landowner pools at first choice only, which is why their second and third columns are dashes rather than noughts.

Draw rate at each bonus point level

One row per bonus point level per pool per year, exactly as FWP's Detailed Bonus Point report publishes it. The rate is that level's successes divided by its applications — both exact integers in the same printed row.
Year	Pool	Bonus points	Applied	Drew	Drew at this level
2017	Nonresident	0	144	6	4.17%
2017	Nonresident	1	69	23	33.33%
2017	Nonresident	2	58	23	39.66%
2017	Nonresident	3	27	10	37.04%
2017	Nonresident	4	8	3	37.50%
2017	Nonresident	5	4	2	50.00%
2017	Nonresident	6	1	1	100.00%
2017	Nonresident	not stated	40	1	2.50%
2017	Resident	0	207	206	99.52%
2017	Resident	1	27	25	92.59%
2017	Resident	2	17	17	100.00%
2017	Resident	3	4	4	100.00%
2017	Resident	4	3	3	100.00%
2017	Resident	5	4	4	100.00%
2017	Resident	6	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident	9	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident	10	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident	11	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident	14	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident	not stated	205	205	100.00%
2017	Nonresident landowner	1	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident landowner	0	1	1	100.00%
2017	Resident landowner	not stated	2	2	100.00%
2016	Nonresident	0	116	11	9.48%
2016	Nonresident	1	74	16	21.62%
2016	Nonresident	2	50	19	38.00%
2016	Nonresident	3	23	13	56.52%
2016	Nonresident	4	7	3	42.86%
2016	Nonresident	5	2	2	100.00%
2016	Nonresident	6	1	1	100.00%
2016	Nonresident	8	1	1	100.00%
2016	Nonresident	not stated	46	2	4.35%
2016	Resident	0	204	201	98.53%
2016	Resident	1	27	27	100.00%
2016	Resident	2	13	11	84.62%
2016	Resident	3	9	7	77.78%
2016	Resident	4	2	2	100.00%
2016	Resident	5	3	3	100.00%
2016	Resident	6	2	2	100.00%
2016	Resident	7	1	1	100.00%
2016	Resident	8	1	1	100.00%
2016	Resident	not stated	206	206	100.00%
2016	Nonresident landowner	0	1	1	100.00%
2016	Resident landowner	0	1	1	100.00%
2016	Resident landowner	2	1	1	100.00%
2016	Resident landowner	not stated	2	2	100.00%
2015	Nonresident	0	117	13	11.11%
2015	Nonresident	1	79	22	27.85%
2015	Nonresident	2	31	13	41.94%
2015	Nonresident	3	10	5	50.00%
2015	Nonresident	4	7	4	57.14%
2015	Nonresident	5	1	1	100.00%
2015	Nonresident	not stated	49	10	20.41%
2015	Resident	0	151	150	99.34%
2015	Resident	1	22	22	100.00%
2015	Resident	2	16	16	100.00%
2015	Resident	3	5	5	100.00%
2015	Resident	4	4	4	100.00%
2015	Resident	5	4	4	100.00%
2015	Resident	6	2	2	100.00%
2015	Resident	9	1	1	100.00%
2015	Resident	10	1	1	100.00%
2015	Resident	not stated	177	177	100.00%
2015	Nonresident landowner	2	1	1	100.00%
2015	Resident landowner	0	3	3	100.00%
2015	Resident landowner	not stated	2	2	100.00%
2014	Nonresident	0	114	28	24.56%
2014	Nonresident	1	55	20	36.36%
2014	Nonresident	2	15	8	53.33%
2014	Nonresident	3	8	2	25.00%
2014	Nonresident	5	2	2	100.00%
2014	Nonresident	not stated	37	9	24.32%
2014	Resident	0	132	132	100.00%
2014	Resident	1	18	18	100.00%
2014	Resident	2	11	11	100.00%
2014	Resident	3	9	9	100.00%
2014	Resident	4	6	6	100.00%
2014	Resident	5	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident	6	4	4	100.00%
2014	Resident	8	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident	9	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident	11	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident	not stated	173	173	100.00%
2014	Nonresident landowner	not stated	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident landowner	0	1	1	100.00%
2014	Resident landowner	not stated	2	2	100.00%

No bonus point level guarantees a licence in Montana, and this page does not publish one. FWP squares your bonus points and adds them to your current application as extra chances — three points give ten chances, ten points give a hundred and one — so the drawing is a weighted lottery and not a queue. More points is better odds every time, and a place in line never.

Not stated is FWP's own blank cell, and it is not the same as nought. The department's reports frequently carry both a nought-point row and a blank one for the same pool in the same year, with different application counts, and both are inside the district total it prints. FWP does not say what separates them, so they are shown apart rather than added together into a "no points" figure it never published.

Sources for this licence

2017 elk permit stats.pdf — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2017-04-24, fetched 2026-09-03
2016 elk permit stats.pdf — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2016-04-19, fetched 2026-09-03
2015 elk permit stats.pdf — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2015-04-15, fetched 2026-09-03
2017 dea detailed bonus point statistics.xls — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2009-00, fetched 2026-09-03
2016 dea detailed bp stats.xls — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2016-03-01, fetched 2026-09-03
2015 dea detailed statistics final.xls — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2015-03-01, fetched 2026-09-03
2014 dea detailed statistics.xlsx — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks, dated 2014-07-22, fetched 2026-09-03

Other licences in these districts

Elk B licence 798-01 Elk B licence 798-81 Elk permit 702-20 Elk permit 798-15 Elk permit 798-16 Elk permit 798-20 Elk permit 799-00 Elk permit 799-15 Elk permit 799-20 Elk permit 799-21 All Montana elk All Montana species

Bonus points are one of Montana's two point systems and the only one that applies here. The other, preference points, exists on nonresident combination licences alone and works in the opposite way. See how these numbers are produced and checked, or the Montana application deadlines.