Updated on September 8, 2026. Confirm every fee, draw deadline, and hunter-education rule on the MDWFP hunting license requirements page and the license prices sheet before you put a card in the reader. This is the field readout, not the proclamation.
| Who this is for | Resident and nonresident deer hunters in Mississippi (whitetail only). |
|---|---|
| Buy it here | MDWFP licenses & permits · licensing.outdoors.ms cart · vendor · 1-800-5GOHUNT. |
| Hunter education | Required before you buy if you were born on or after January 1, 1972. In-person class is free. Online course exists. Apprentice is a one-time resident workaround. Hunter education. |
| What you actually buy | All Game or Sportsman (or lifetime). Sportsman bundles archery/primitive/crossbow. All Game does not. Nonresidents add a separate deer permit. Velvet and WMA User Permit are extras. |
| OTC vs draw | Regular deer licenses are over the counter. Quota WMA deer hunts still draw (apply mid-July to mid-August). A draw application is not a license. |
| License year | Valid one year from the start date you buy, not a July-to-June season year. Confirm on the cart. |
| Antlerless / bonus | No separate statewide antlerless stamp. Bag and legal-buck rules are by deer management unit on the Mississippi hunting guide. Velvet is a short extra permit. |
| WMA / public extras | WMA User Permit plus HuntFish check-in on MDWFP WMAs. Forest Service WMA overlays need the permit for hunting. Open national forest outside a WMA overlay does not. Four north-Mississippi refuges add an NWR permit. |
| Youth / apprentice | Under 16 is generally hunting-license exempt. A resident 16 or older without hunter ed can buy a one-time apprentice license and hunt with a licensed or exempt resident 21 or older. |
| Where to hunt next | Mississippi deer hunting guide · what a WMA is · hunting national forest land |
Buy the Mississippi tag before you book the pine-woods motel
I have watched people roll into a Leaf River two-track with an Alabama all-game license in the console because they “already bought a deer tag at home.” Mississippi does not care. You need a Mississippi All Game or Sportsman license — and if you are not a resident, a Mississippi deer permit on top — before you hang a whitetail on Mississippi dirt, including De Soto, Homochitto, and every MDWFP wildlife management area. The national walkthrough lives at how to get a hunting license. Seasons, dogs, baiting, and the four deer management units live on the Mississippi hunting guide.
Step 1: Hunter education
If you were born on or after January 1, 1972, MDWFP will not sell you a hunting license until you finish an approved hunter-education course. That cutoff is on the hunting license requirements page (Mississippi Code 49-7-20). Carry the card or the number. Do not assume a gas-station vendor can “look you up.”
Free in-person classes still run. Mississippi residents 12 and older can take Today’s Hunter in Mississippi online. Course notes: what a hunter education course is actually like. Out-of-state hunter ed is usually accepted — bring proof. A kid older than 12 and younger than 16 can hunt without the certificate if a Mississippi licensed or exempt hunter 21 or older is right there. Under 12, that adult stays at their side. Details: MDWFP hunter education.
Step 2: Resident or not
Residency is not a camp in Claiborne County and a Louisiana driver’s license. If you hold a current driver’s license from any other state, you buy nonresident — even if you sleep in Mississippi most nights. College students with a current Mississippi school ID, and active-duty military (not Reserves or National Guard) stationed on a Mississippi base, are the exceptions on that same requirements page. I do not invent others at the counter.
Residents 16 through 64 buy a hunting license, except while hunting on land titled in their own name. Residents 65 and older are license-exempt if they carry proof of age and Mississippi residency; a voluntary Senior Exempt card also covers archery/primitive and the WMA User Permit. A first-year nonresident can still buy over the counter. Last checked September 8, 2026 on the official price sheet: resident All Game around $25, Sportsman around $45. Nonresident All Game around $300, plus around $100 for the deer permit, plus around $75 if you need archery/primitive. Confirm those bands the week you buy. Trip planning: planning an out-of-state deer hunt.
Step 3: What goes in the cart
Think in layers. Mississippi does not sell one product named “deer license” the way Michigan does, and All Game is not a complete deer setup the way Alabama’s all-game license is.
- All Game Hunting/Freshwater Fishing, or Sportsman, or a lifetime license. All deer hunters must buy one of those. Small game does not cover deer.
- Archery / primitive / crossbow privilege if you hunt those seasons. Sportsman already includes it. All Game does not. A gun-only hunter on All Game can skip it.
- Nonresident deer permit on top of All Game, 7-day, 3-day, or youth All Game. Native lifetime is the exception. The current deer permit includes velvet.
- Velvet Season Permit for residents who want the three-day September archery hunt. Lifetime and some exempt hunters skip the fee.
- WMA User Permit before you use an MDWFP wildlife management area. License-exempt youth, seniors, and disabled hunters skip the fee. On U.S. Forest Service WMAs, the permit is required for hunting, fishing, and trapping.
Packages exist so you do not fat-finger five SKUs: a resident Deer Hunter Package rolls Sportsman plus the WMA User Permit; a nonresident Deer Hunter Package rolls All Game, archery/primitive, and the deer permit. Read the line items. The cart will sell a 3-day All Game archery/primitive license that does not include the deer permit. That is how a weekend from Louisiana turns into a ticket. A Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, or Louisiana license does not cover Mississippi. Active-duty nonresidents have a 14-day Armed Forces hunt/fish product, processed through Jackson, that includes the deer permit — confirm it on permits and applications.
Step 4: When it goes on sale
Licenses are valid one year from the start date you choose. If you wait until the Friday before the gun opener, you can still get a resident or nonresident deer setup in a normal year. What does have a clock: WMA deer draw hunts. Last checked on the WMA draw hunts page, deer applications run July 15 through August 15. You need a current WMA User Permit, a lifetime hunting license, or a youth/senior/disabled exempt license just to apply. Drawing Mahannah or Canemount does not replace All Game or the deer permit. Velvet permit sale dates stay on the velvet season page.
How you carry it, tag it, and report it
Buy online and keep the PDF or the MDWFP HuntFish digital license on the phone you actually carry. I screenshot it. HuntFish shows the license, checks you into a WMA, and files Game Check. Statewide white-tailed deer Game Check is voluntary most of the year. Velvet is the exception: report the buck by 10:00 p.m. the day you kill it, and CWD sampling is required. On a WMA, check in before you hunt and check out when you leave; harvested deer often also go through the WMA data-collection station. Field how-to: how to tag a deer.
CWD is not a license, but it will ruin the drive home. Mississippi has management zones in the northern counties, an Issaquena/Warren/Claiborne piece, and a Harrison/Hancock piece. Whole carcasses do not leave a zone. Confirm the current map on the MDWFP CWD page the week you hunt. Symptoms and testing: CWD in deer and how to get your deer tested.
Public land: same deer license, different extras
Open public national forest — dirt that is not a WMA overlay — takes the same Mississippi deer stack. There is no Forest Service hunting fee. How any forest hunts: hunting national forest land. Official maps: National Forests in Mississippi. Use those maps plus the state guide for Homochitto, Holly Springs, and the rest.
An MDWFP wildlife management area is a different animal. You need the hunting license, the WMA User Permit if you are not exempt, and a HuntFish check-in. What a WMA actually is: wildlife management areas. How to hunt one: how to hunt public land deer. Some hunts are walk-on. Some are quota. Canemount is not Leaf River. Coldwater, Dahomey, Tallahatchie, and Sam D. Hamilton Noxubee add a North Mississippi NWR permit — youth 15 and under and hunters 65 and older are listed as exempt on the price sheet. Timber-company public access is another system: deer hunting timber company land in the South. Baiting, dogs, Sunday hunting, and hunter orange live on the state hunting guide, not in this cart.
Youth and first-timers
Under 16, residents and nonresident minors are hunting-license exempt. They still follow hunter-ed supervision rules, and they still Game Check a velvet buck. A resident older than 16 who never finished hunter ed can buy an apprentice Sportsman or apprentice All Game one time. The apprentice hunts with a licensed or exempt resident hunter at least 21 years old. That is not a solo-hunt pass, and it is not renewable next year. Finish the course. Stand work: tree stand safety.
Common ways this goes wrong
- Buying All Game, then hunting archery or primitive without the weapon privilege.
- A nonresident buying All Game and skipping the deer permit — including the 3-day archery/primitive SKU that never included it.
- An Alabama, Louisiana, or Arkansas license on Homochitto because “it’s the same pine.”
- Walking a WMA with no User Permit and no HuntFish check-in.
- No hunter-ed card, born 1972 or later, and no apprentice.
- Hauling a whole CWD-zone carcass toward Jackson because the processor is cheaper.
Where to hunt once the tag is in the truck
Start with the Mississippi deer hunting guide for the four DMUs, Sunday hunting, dogs, baiting, and the public-land list. Forest access: hunting national forest land. Neighbor-state carts: Louisiana deer license, Arkansas deer license, and the Alabama hunting guide. Overlooked woods: where to hunt. Index: hunting by state. Parent: how to get licensed · deer hunting. Highway collisions: what to do if you hit a deer.
FAQ
Can a nonresident buy a Mississippi deer license over the counter? Yes. All Game plus the deer permit, plus archery/primitive if you need it. Confirm the stack on the MDWFP price sheet. Quota WMA hunts still draw.
Do I need hunter education? If you were born on or after January 1, 1972, yes, before you buy — unless you are on the one-time resident apprentice path that day, or a youth under a qualifying adult.
Does an Alabama or Louisiana license work in Mississippi? No.
Do I need a separate license for a WMA? WMA User Permit (if you are not license-exempt) and a daily HuntFish check-in. Open national forest outside a WMA overlay does not take the User Permit.
Where do I report a deer? Game Check is voluntary most of the season. Velvet harvests must be reported by 10:00 p.m. that day. WMA deer also get checked in and out on the WMA.