Nebraska Landowner Tags
Nebraska landowner limited permits scale with acreage and residency: 80 acres for a resident owner and 320 for a nonresident owner for deer, pronghorn and turkey, with much larger thresholds for elk and mountain lion. Permits equal acreage divided by 80 resident or 320 nonresident per species, at statutorily half the regular fee. Deer and turkey landowner permits are unlimited and guaranteed; pronghorn and elk are drawn. Nothing may be sold, loaned or transferred.
Checked against Nebraska Game and Parks Commission rules, October 20, 2026. Where the rule is silent or its sources disagree, the line says so.
Landowner limited permits · Free-earned elk permit
contiguous, deeded and other tests apply
with an exemption
Hunting Your Own Land
none for the species permit - 37-403's farm and ranch exemption expressly excludes deer, elk, antelope and turkey - but the habitat stamp is statutorily waived for limited-permit holders under 37-426(4) (source: ne_statute_37_455).
Landowner limited permits
Landowner limited permits, Neb. Rev. Stat. 37-455 (eff. Jul 18, 2026)
or 320 ac nonresident owner, deer/pronghorn/turkey; elk 320...
75 percent unit set-aside for pronghorn, elk and mountain...
out-of-state owners qualify
Who Qualifies
| Species | Deer, Antelope (Pronghorn), Turkey, Elk, Mountain Lion (Mountain lion was added by LB979 (2026) and is residents-only; NGPC has not published whether the permit will be offered.)Not addressed in the rule. LB979 (2026) added mountain lion to the programme, and NGPC has not published whether the landowner lion permit will actually be offered. |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | Deer, pronghorn and turkey: 80 acres for a resident, 320 for a nonresident owner. Elk: 320 resident owner, 640 resident lessee, 1,280 nonresident. Mountain lion: 320 owner or 640 lessee, residents only. Free-earned elk: 80 acres, any residency. The land must be farm or ranch land used for agricultural purposes - hunting and recreational leases never qualify - and elk and lion land must lie in a management zone, a layer distinct from the hunt units.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Deeded✓ Agricultural use within the property Not addressed in the rule. 37-455 sets each acreage threshold without a contiguity test, and NGPC's landowner page adds none. |
| Who may hunt it | The qualifying landowner or leaseholder, including one designated partner, officer, shareholder or beneficiary, plus an exhaustively defined immediate family - a sibling only if a co-owner, and parents excluded. The household test was dropped. Employees are not eligible. |
| When to apply | Landowner deer is a purchase with no application: resident sales Jul 8, 2026 and nonresident Jul 22. Pronghorn and elk applications run May 18-29, 2026, with elk hand-delivered to district offices. Turkey is over the counter. |
What You Get
| The tag | Permits equal to acreage divided by 80 (resident) or 320 (nonresident) per species, with no more than one person per described property, at statutorily half the regular fee. Deer and turkey landowner permits are unlimited over the counter and guaranteed; pronghorn and elk are drawn. Scope differs by species: deer, pronghorn and turkey permits are good on the enrolled parcels only, elk and lion are unit-wide, and free-earned elk reverts to own land. |
|---|---|
| Set-aside | 75 percent unit set-aside for pronghorn, elk and mountain lion (37-456); deer is deliberately excluded, with no set-aside and no cap |
| Transfer or sale | No. The statute says the permit may not be sold, loaned or transferred; family members apply in their own name. LB1197 (2026) would have allowed transfer to a designee for a fee and failed (indefinitely postponed). |
Nonresident owners qualify at four times the resident acreage for deer, pronghorn, turkey and elk; a nonresident lessee never qualifies, and there is no nonresident mountain lion permit. Resident preference applies to the sales calendar. Data is good: Commission Order C03 carries per-unit Landowner quota columns (deer rows read Unlimited), the 2026 draw results break out landowner elk and pronghorn, and the Rec Book reports 14,631 landowner deer permits sold with 4 percent to nonresidents. No enrolled-parcel list exists.
New for 2025–26: LB979 (2026, eff. Jul 18) added mountain lion to the landowner programme and raised every fee cap, which raises the landowner ceiling too because landowner fees are statutorily half. Deer permits were restructured (Unit Buck and season-choice replacing November Firearm), the nonresident buck quota was cut from 10,000 to 9,000, and River Antlerless split into four private-land-only units.
Free-earned elk permit
Free-earned landowner elk permit, Neb. Rev. Stat. 37-456.01
contiguous and deeded tests below
Covered by the 75 percent elk unit set-aside in 37-456
out-of-state owners qualify
Who Qualifies
| Species | Elk |
|---|---|
| Acreage test | 80 acres of farm or ranch land in agricultural use, any residency; the land must lie in an elk management zone.1 |
| Land test | ✗ Deeded✓ Agricultural use within the property Not addressed in the rule. 37-456.01 sets an 80-acre test with no contiguity requirement. |
| Who may hunt it | The qualifying landowner and the statutorily defined immediate family. |
| When to apply | Elk applications May 18-29, 2026, hand-delivered to district offices. |
What You Get
| The tag | A free elk permit valid on the landowner's own land only - not unit-wide, unlike the ordinary landowner elk permit. |
|---|---|
| Set-aside | Covered by the 75 percent elk unit set-aside in 37-456 |
| Transfer or sale | No. Same statutory bar: may not be sold, loaned or transferred. |
The scope difference matters: ordinary landowner elk permits are unit-wide while free-earned elk is own-land only.
General Season or Limited Draw?
Nebraska is still largely over the counter. Unlimited: statewide archery, statewide muzzleloader, youth, Limited Landowner Deer and Special Landowner Deer. Most units are quota-capped but first-come Buy with no draw, covering all Unit Buck and Antlerless Only permits; the only true resident draw units in 2026 are Platte and Frenchman. Pronghorn archery is unlimited, elk is 100 percent draw and turkey is over the counter. Nonresidents face a hard statewide cap of 9,000 either-sex or buck-only permits (C03.14A), with youth and landowner permits exempt; statewide archery (3,000), muzzleloader (1,000) and 10 named units are draw-only. Only residents may apply for general elk, so a nonresident's only elk route is a landowner or free-earned permit.
New for 2025–26: Deer permits were restructured for 2026 and River Antlerless became four private-land-only units; the nonresident buck cap fell to 9,000.
Check a parcel on the map →
Click the ground or paste a listing's coordinates: the unit for every species (37 Nebraska units mapped), and whether the acreage clears the floor.
Nebraska draw odds →
Every species, unit and hunt code, with the odds at each point level, fees and deadlines.
Things That Trip People Up
- One statute carries three scopes: deer, pronghorn and turkey are parcel-scoped despite C03 reading Area Open: Entire state, elk and lion are unit-wide, and free-earned elk reverts to own land. Model it per species.
- Elk and lion eligibility turns on management zones, not the 1-15 hunt units, so unit membership does not equal eligibility.
- Land leased solely for hunting or recreation never qualifies.
- The acreage threshold is four times higher for a nonresident owner, and a nonresident lessee never qualifies.
- The species permit is always required; only the habitat stamp is waived.
- Nebraska's acreage thresholds carry no contiguity test: neither 37-455 nor NGPC's landowner page requires the acres to adjoin.
- outdoornebraska.gov hard-403s non-browser clients.
Sources
- 1. Nebraska Legislature · Neb. Rev. Stat. 37-455 (landowner limited permits, eff. Jul 18, 2026) with 37-456, 37-456.01, 37-403 and 37-426(4) · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 2. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission · Landowner permits · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 3. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission · 2026 Commission Order C03, deer, antelope and elk (approved Apr 17, 2026, eff. May 2) · retrieved 2026-10-20
- 4. Nebraska Game and Parks Commission · 2026 Nebraska draw results · 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.