Kentucky Landowner Tags
Three of Kentucky's five elk permit types are landowner-based: Landowner Cooperator (5,000 acres in the elk restoration zone with at least five years of public access), Voucher Cooperator (100 acres under an elk-hunting-access agreement, earning one point per elk harvested, 10 points for a permit) and Elk Restoration (no acreage - the landowner lets KDFWR capture and relocate elk). Landowner cooperator permits may be given away or sold outright. Deer and turkey have no landowner permit programme at all, only the licence exemption.
Checked against Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources rules, October 20, 2026. Where the rule is silent or its sources disagree, the line says so.
Landowner Cooperator elk permit · Voucher Cooperator elk permit · Elk Restoration permit
contiguous, deeded and other tests apply
with an exemption
Hunting Your Own Land
KRS 150.170(4), as amended by 2026 SB 39 (Acts ch. 93, emergency), lets an owner of farmlands who is a resident, or their spouse or dependent children, hunt without procuring any sport hunting or sport fishing licenses; tenants residing there have the same privilege. No acreage threshold appears in the current text. This is the broadest exemption of the 21 states because it waives licences AND permits, though elk still needs its permit unless exempt (source: ky_sb39_2026).
Sources conflict: KRS 150.170(4) as amended by 2026 SB 39 carries no acreage threshold at all versus KDFWR's own pages still advertise a 5-acre minimum for the farmland exemption
Landowner Cooperator elk permit
Landowner cooperator permit, 301 KAR 2:132
contiguous and deeded tests below
none - landowner cooperator permits are issued outside...
not addressed in the rule
Who Qualifies
| Species | Elk (Elk only. Deer and turkey have no landowner permit programme in Kentucky.) |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | 5,000 acres in the elk restoration zone under a written agreement to allow public access and hunting for at least five years. No habitat or management plan is required.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Agricultural use within the hunt unit |
| Nonresident owner | Not addressed in the rulesNot addressed in the rule. 301 KAR 2:132 sets the acreage, the elk restoration zone and the five-year public-access agreement for a cooperator and never mentions the cooperator's own residency. |
| Who may hunt it | The public, which is the consideration for the cooperator agreement, plus whoever the landowner transfers or sells the permit to. Only the permit holder may hunt on it. |
| When to apply | No published enrolment deadline (KDFWR phone 1-800-858-1549). For contrast the general elk drawing runs Aug 1 - Apr 30.Not addressed in the rule. KDFWR publishes no enrolment deadline for cooperator agreements, only a phone number. |
What You Get
| The tag | One either-sex permit per 5,000 acres per year, or two antlerless, guaranteed rather than drawn, and the holder may hunt during any season - a de facto extended season. Valid only on the enrolled land, plus adjacent land of a different owner with permission. |
|---|---|
| Set-aside | none - landowner cooperator permits are issued outside the general drawing of roughly 500 permits |
| Transfer or sale | Yes. KDFWR states plainly that landowners may give away or sell these permits. Not transferable once used to harvest. By contrast the general drawing quota permits cannot be bought or sold. |
| Going rate | No agency price exists. The sources reports only an approximate secondary figure for scale - 209,676 acres enrolled for 2025-26 yielding 33 landowner permits (trade press) - with no per-permit price and no URL, so no market value is recorded here. (market reports, not the agency)Not addressed in the rule. No agency price exists for a cooperator permit; the only figure in our sources is trade-press enrolment acreage, with no per-permit price. |
A nonresident who owns Kentucky land gets no break at all and must buy nonresident licences and permits.
“A landowner cooperator permit may be transferred to any person eligible to hunt in Kentucky” — 301 KAR 2:132; KDFWR elk hunting permits page on transferability1
Voucher Cooperator elk permit
Voucher cooperator permit, 301 KAR 2:132
contiguous and deeded tests below
drawn with everyone else
not addressed in the rule
Who Qualifies
| Species | Elk |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | 100 acres under an elk-hunting-access agreement. No habitat or management plan is required.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Agricultural use within the hunt unit |
| Nonresident owner | Not addressed in the rulesNot addressed in the rule. 301 KAR 2:132 states no residency condition for a voucher cooperator. |
| Who may hunt it | Whoever holds the permit; the public hunts the enrolled land under the access agreement. |
| When to apply | No published enrolment deadline.Not addressed in the rule. KDFWR publishes no enrolment deadline for the elk-hunting-access agreement. |
What You Get
| The tag | A point system: one point per elk legally harvested on the enrolled land, with 10 points exchanged for one either-sex permit. |
|---|---|
| Transfer or sale | Yes. Treated with the other cooperator permits, which KDFWR says landowners may give away or sell; not transferable once used to harvest. |
Ten harvested elk on the property are needed before a permit is earned, so a landowner-facing tool should not present 100 acres as a threshold for a permit.
Elk Restoration permit
Elk restoration permit, 301 KAR 2:132
no acreage test
drawn with everyone else
not addressed in the rule
Who Qualifies
| Species | Elk |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | No acreage requirement: the landowner lets KDFWR capture and relocate elk from the property, earning one point per relocated elk, with 10 points for a permit.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Agricultural use within the property |
| Nonresident owner | Not addressed in the rulesNot addressed in the rule. 301 KAR 2:132 states no residency condition for a capture-and-relocation agreement. |
| Who may hunt it | The permit holder. |
| When to apply | No published enrolment deadline.Not addressed in the rule. KDFWR publishes no enrolment deadline for restoration agreements. |
What You Get
| The tag | One point per relocated elk; 10 points earns one permit. |
|---|---|
| Transfer or sale | Yes. Restoration permits are transferable. |
No enrolled list is published; eligibility turns on a capture-and-relocation agreement rather than acreage.
General Season or Limited Draw?
Deer and turkey are over the counter statewide, zone-based and with no draw - quota hunts exist only on specific WMAs. The statewide deer permit covers four deer and an optional additional permit adds two, under a hard cap of one antlered deer per hunter statewide. Four zones set the antlerless limits: zone 1 unlimited, zone 2 a maximum of four, zone 3 four with firearms limited to one antlerless, and zone 4 two with one antlerless and none during modern gun or early muzzleloader. Elk is the only drawn big game, with nonresidents capped at 10 percent, and a nonresident who owns Kentucky land must still buy nonresident licences and permits. The geography is four deer zones defined by county lists, plus a CWD Surveillance Zone overlay and county-specific bait-licence rules.
Per-unit classification: KDFWR deer hunting page (zone bag limits, county lists and the CWD zone) plus the Hunting and Trapping Guide PDF, with regulations at 301 KAR 2:*..
Check a parcel on the map →
Click the ground or paste a listing's coordinates: the unit for every species (6 Kentucky units mapped), and whether the acreage clears the floor.
Kentucky draw odds →
Every species, unit and hunt code, with the odds at each point level, fees and deadlines.
Things That Trip People Up
- The farmland exemption waives licences AND permits for resident farmland owners, the broadest of the 21 states - but elk still needs its permit unless the hunter is exempt.
- 2026 SB 39 removed any acreage threshold from the exemption text, yet KDFWR pages still advertise a 5-acre minimum.
- Exempt hunters still follow seasons, bag limits, hunter orange and reporting.
- A nonresident who owns Kentucky land gets no break at all.
- Landowner cooperator permits may be sold, but general drawing quota permits cannot - do not generalise.
- The enrolled-landowner list is only available on request under the Open Records Act, so enrolment cannot be checked from open data.
Sources
- 1. Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · 301 KAR 2:132, elk hunting permits · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 2. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources · Elk hunting permits · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 3. Kentucky General Assembly · 2026 SB 39 (Acts ch. 93, emergency) amending KRS 150.170 · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 4. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources · KDFWR deer hunting page (zone bag limits, county lists, CWD zone) · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 5. Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources · Kentucky Hunting and Trapping Guide · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 6. Kentucky Legislative Research Commission · 301 KAR Chapter 2 (game regulations) · retrieved 2026-10-20
This page summarizes agency rules for orientation. The statute, commission rule and the current year's application booklet govern; check them before buying land or applying.