If you won an any-deer permit, you may transfer it to any other hunter. In the past, you could transfer that permit to a junior or senior hunter, only.
Residents can only transfer their permits to other residents, and nonresidents to other nonresidents, but that’s the only limitation in the new law.
Representative Mike Shaw, House chair of the legislature’s Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, sponsored a bill that included this change, at my request. An amended version of our bill was enacted as an emergency measure, taking effect immediately.
I proposed this change after being frustrated last year when I could not transfer my any-deer permit to Harry Vanderweide’s daughter, who took up hunting a couple of years ago as a young adult.
This year, Amanda once again failed to win a permit, so I transferred mine to her, thanks to the law change.
The bill included a number of other interesting proposals and law changes, which I will report on soon in this blog.
If you want to transfer your any-deer permit to another hunter, you must do it before November 1. You can make the transfer online on the website of the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.