Updated on September 8, 2026. Confirm every fee, lottery window, and hunter-education rule on the LDWF hunting licenses, permits, and tags page before you put a card in the reader. This is the field readout, not the proclamation.
| Who this is for | Resident and nonresident whitetail hunters in Louisiana. No mule deer hunt here. |
|---|---|
| Buy it here | LDWF hunting licenses, permits, and tags or the LouisianaOutdoors.com cart. Vendors work too. |
| Hunter education | Required to hunt unsupervised if you were born on or after September 1, 1969. Online-only at 16+. Ages 9–15 still need a field day. Other states accepted. Carry proof. |
| What you actually buy | A Basic Hunting license and a Deer license (tags, archery, and primitive are in the deer product). Youth 17 and under buy a Youth Hunting license with tags. Combos exist. |
| OTC vs draw | General deer tag is OTC for residents and nonresidents. WMA youth deer lotteries and some refuge quota hunts still draw. A lottery application is not a license. |
| License year | Valid 365 days from the date of purchase, not a July-to-June season year. Online buyers can turn on auto-renew. |
| Antlerless / bonus | The deer license includes your tags. Bag is by deer area. DMAP tags are extra and only on enrolled private land. |
| WMA / public extras | LDWF WMAs, refuges, and conservation areas: WMA Access Permit (18+) plus a free self-clearing check-in every day. Kisatchie is Forest Service — same deer license, no WMA access permit. |
| Youth / apprentice | Youth Hunting license for anyone 17 and under who is actually hunting deer. Direct supervision (line of sight and voice range) if hunter ed is not finished. |
| Where to hunt next | Louisiana deer hunting guide · hunting national forest land · overlooked public land |
Buy the tag before you book the swamp camp
I have watched people roll into the Sherburne parking lot with a Texas license in the console because they “already bought a deer tag at home.” Louisiana does not care. You need a Louisiana Basic Hunting license plus a Louisiana Deer license — tags in the deer product — before you hang a deer on Louisiana dirt, including Kisatchie.
The national walkthrough lives at how to get a hunting license. This page is only Louisiana’s cart. Seasons, dogs, baiting, and the ten deer areas live on the Louisiana hunting guide.
Step 1: Hunter education
If you were born on or after September 1, 1969, LDWF wants an approved hunter-education certificate before you hunt unsupervised. Read the current wording on the hunter and trapper education page. At 16 and older you can take the online course only. Ages 9–15 still need the full in-person class or online plus a field day. Certification from age 9 up is valid for life. Louisiana accepts cards from other U.S. states and Canadian provinces. A military or POST-certified law-enforcement exemption is Louisiana-only and does not travel to Mississippi or Arkansas.
You can still hunt without the card under direct supervision of a qualified hunter: a licensed Louisiana hunter born before September 1, 1969, or someone 18 or older with a valid, unrestricted Louisiana hunting license. Direct supervision means audible voice range and a direct line of sight the whole time.
Step 2: Resident or not
Residency is not “I have a camp in Grant Parish.” LDWF wants six months of continuous Louisiana domicile immediately before you buy, plus the usual tests: you vote here if you vote, you drive on a Louisiana license if you drive, vehicles in-state are registered here, and you file Louisiana income tax if you earn income. Hold a resident license from another state and you do not qualify here.
A nonresident can buy a Louisiana deer setup over the counter. The sticker shock is the basic hunting license, which sits in the couple-hundred range, plus a deer license around a hundred. Confirm the current numbers on the official fee sheet the week you buy. If you were born in Louisiana and left, ask about the Nonresident Native 10-day products — original or certified Louisiana birth certificate at the vendor. A Mississippi hunting license only covers a narrow river-border agreement for islands and accretion along the Mississippi River, not Kisatchie or Sherburne. Out-of-state trip planning: planning an out-of-state deer hunt.
Step 3: What goes in the cart
Think in layers, not “a deer license”:
- Basic Hunting license — required for hunters 18 and older. A deer product by itself is not enough.
- Deer license — required in addition to Basic. Includes tags plus archery and primitive privileges.
- Tags — every deer hunter, regardless of age, must have carcass or electronic tags in possession. Not transferable.
- WMA Access Permit — if you are 18 or older on LDWF-administered land. Annual or five consecutive days. Same price band for residents and nonresidents. Bundled in Sportsman’s Paradise, Senior Hunt/Fish, and lifetime licenses. Youth 17 and under are exempt.
- DMAP tags — only on private land enrolled in the Deer Management Assistance Program. They do not work on a WMA.
Sportsman’s Paradise rolls hunting, deer, turkey, waterfowl, and WMA access into one product. Senior Hunt/Fish is the resident-60-and-up path that stands in for Basic, deer, and WMA access — confirm the current age cutoff.
Step 4: When it goes on sale
Licenses are valid 365 days from the date you buy. If you wait until the Friday before your parish’s firearms opener, you can still get a resident or nonresident deer setup in a normal year. The part that disappears is a youth WMA lottery slot, not the OTC tag. Youth deer lottery applications typically open mid-July and close late August at LouisianaOutdoors lottery applications. Winning a lottery hunt still means you need the right license and tags that morning.
How you carry it, tag it, and report it
Buy online and you get a text with a temporary authorization number and an email PDF. Print it or save it to the phone you actually carry. Louisiana driver’s-license holders can also push the license into the LA Wallet app.
Per the 2026–27 deer rules on eRegulations deer hunting: tag the deer with the correct carcass or electronic tag before it leaves the kill site. Record the date (and parish on a carcass tag). Validate within 72 hours — text-to-tag, the LDWF web portal, LA Wallet, LouisianaOutdoors.com, or 225-267-9998. Field how-to: how to tag a deer.
CWD is not a license, but it will ruin the drive home. Tensas Parish is where most of Louisiana’s positives have stacked up. If you kill a deer inside a CWD management zone, you do not haul a whole carcass out. Read the current LDWF CWD list before you cross a parish line. Symptoms: CWD in deer.
WMA extras are not optional, and Kisatchie is not a WMA
On LDWF wildlife management areas, refuges, and conservation areas you need the hunting/deer licenses, a WMA Access Permit if you are 18 or older, and a self-clearing permit. Self-clearing is free — paper at the box, the LDWF Check-In/Check-Out app, or the web portal. Check in before you start. Check out when you leave. I have watched people get cited at the gate for skipping the stub. Deer hunting on WMAs is still-hunt only. Baiting is prohibited on WMAs. Those details belong on the state hunting guide.
Kisatchie is national forest. The same Louisiana deer license covers it. You do not buy a WMA Access Permit just to hunt Forest Service dirt. You do follow the federal lands schedule, and during firearms deer season you still wear hunter orange or blaze pink — 400 square inches on head, chest, and/or back if you are carrying buckshot, slugs, a primitive firearm, or a centerfire. Stand safety: tree stand safety.
Youth and first-timers
Anyone 17 and under who is actively harvesting deer needs the Youth Hunting license and deer tags. Spectators do not. Youths 9–11, even with a hunter-ed card, still hunt under a qualified hunter. An adult without hunter ed hunts under direct supervision, or finishes the course (online-only at 16-plus) before going alone.
Common ways this goes wrong
- Buying only the deer license and skipping Basic Hunting.
- A Texas, Mississippi, or Arkansas license on Kisatchie because “it’s the same pine hills.”
- No self-clearing stub or WMA Access Permit because “I already paid for a deer tag.”
- No hunter-ed card, born 1969 or later, hunting alone.
- Moving a CWD-zone carcass whole, or using someone else’s deer tags.
Where to hunt once the tag is in the truck
Start with the Louisiana deer hunting guide for the ten deer areas, Sunday hunting, dogs, baiting, and the public-land list. Kisatchie how-to lives there plus hunting national forest land. Neighbor states if you are splitting a trip: Mississippi, Arkansas, Alabama. Overlooked woods: where to hunt. The animal is a white-tailed deer. If the season ends on the highway, what to do if you hit a deer. Sibling how-to: Michigan deer license. Parent hub: how to get licensed · deer hunting · hunting by state.
FAQ
Can a nonresident buy a Louisiana deer license over the counter? Yes. Basic Hunting plus Deer. Confirm the current price band on the LDWF licenses page the week you purchase.
Do I need hunter education? If you were born on or after September 1, 1969, yes, unless you are under direct supervision of a qualified hunter that day.
Does a Mississippi license work in Louisiana? Only on the narrow Mississippi River island/accretion agreement. Not on Kisatchie. Not on a WMA.
Do I need a separate license for Kisatchie National Forest? No. Same Louisiana Basic Hunting plus Deer licenses and tags. Follow the federal lands season. No WMA Access Permit for Forest Service land.
Where do I report a deer? Tag it before you move it. Validate within 72 hours by text-to-tag, LouisianaOutdoors.com, LA Wallet, the LDWF portal, or 225-267-9998.