Montana preference points

Why this drawing answers the question and the others do not

Montana law — MCA 87-2-115 — sends seventy-five per cent of the nonresident combination quota out in order of preference points held, and the remaining twenty-five per cent to a random drawing among applicants holding none. That makes it a queue, so a number of points really can guarantee a licence, and FWP publishes exactly that: the range of preference points it took to draw with certainty.

Montana's other point system works the opposite way. Bonus points, which cover every drawn species and both residencies, are squared and added to your application as extra chances, so no bonus point level ever guarantees anything. The two systems have different prices, different closing dates and different drawings, and a figure from one says nothing about the other.

Holding points is not always better than holding none. The zero-point pool is drawn separately for its own quarter of the quota, so in a year when the queue runs long, an applicant with none can draw while applicants with one or two do not — and FWP's own reports show exactly that.

Big Game/Elk Combo, 2026

• 2.2 to 3 preference points drew in full — every one of the 5,377 applications in that band was successful.
• 2 points was the threshold: 9,609 applied and 7,281 drew, which FWP puts at 75.77%.
• 0.2 to 1.8 points drew nothing at all — 7,063 applications and no licences, because the point-order share of the quota was gone before the queue reached them.
• No points drew at 53.61% from its own random pool: 7,843 applied and 4,205 drew.

Deer Combo, 2026

• 1.2 to 3 preference points drew in full — every one of the 5,410 applications in that band was successful.
• 1 point was the threshold: 3,637 applied and 760 drew, which FWP puts at 20.9%.
• 0.2 to 0.75 points drew nothing at all — 137 applications and no licences, because the point-order share of the quota was gone before the queue reached them.
• No points drew at 51.03% from its own random pool: 4,029 applied and 2,056 drew.

What FWP has not published

The department's summary for one cycle does not add up to its own heading. Its 2022 big game and elk combination block is headed 30,947 applications and lists bands totalling 18,759 — a band of roughly twelve thousand applications is simply missing from it, and the 2023 report reprints the same incomplete block. Nothing here fills that gap in.

FWP also states that these reports are taken during the primary drawing and do not include licences later refunded and reissued to applicants who failed to draw their elk permit. The figures above are the primary drawing only, which is what the department published.