Wyoming Elk 117-3 — Hunt Area 117, Type 3

Spike or antlerless elk · South Black Hills

Hunt Area 117 within Wyoming

What you may take: Spike or antlerless elk
Weapon: Any legal weapon; Also open Sep 1–30, 2026 as an archery-only season, which needs a $72 archery license on top.
Where: Hunt Area 117 — South Black Hills; 23% public of 485,655 acres
Seasons (2026): Archery Sep 1–30, 2026 · Oct 15 – Jan 31, 2027
Nonresident tags (2026): 39; for 18 first-choice applicants
Hunter success here (2025): 47%; of everyone who hunted the area

Showing nonresident results (Regular class). Switch to resident · Regular Special Landowner

Odds by point level — 2026 draw

Undersubscribed: 18 of 39 tags claimed by first-choice nonresident applicants in 2026. Everyone who applied drew and the rest went to the leftover draw — the 100% reflects low demand, not a great tag. A code like this can flip the year demand catches up.

Prior-draw probability for a first-choice nonresident applicant. 39 tags, 18 first-choice applicants, drew out at 0 points. Source: 2026 Demand Report · p. 26.

Points	Your chance	Applicants	Drawn
0	100%	9 plus 5 party applications averaging just under 1 points, 5 drawn	9
1	100%	0	0
2	100%	2	2
3	100%	2	2
4–10	100% same chance at every one of these levels	—	—

Points pass + random pass, from published pools. A dash means Wyoming Game and Fish Department did not publish a count for that level — it prints exact counts around the cut and folds the rest into a band. How we compute these.

What it costs (2026 nonresident fees)

Cash to apply

$707

Out of pocket if unsuccessful

$15

Total if drawn

$728.50

Refunded if unsuccessful

$692

At the 2026 odds, expected cost per hunt-year ranges from $728.50 (enough points to draw) .

Nonresident big game application fee (per species applied for) · paid at application $15 source

Conservation stamp (annual; required with any hunting license) · paid if drawn $21.50 source

Nonresident elk license (regular), includes fishing privileges · paid at application, refundable $692 source

Nonresident elk preference point · only for a point bought without applying — an unsuccessful applicant gets the point free $52 source

Not applying this year? A point-only purchase costs $52 (Jul 1 – Nov 2, expected) and keeps you moving toward the 0-point cut.

Next application window: opens Jan 2, closes Feb 2, 2027 (expected) · results ~May 21. Last cycle's schedule rolled forward — confirm when the agency publishes.

Point creep & years to draw

Drew out at 0 → 0 → 0 points (2024–2026): no creep — drew at 0 points each year. Projecting that pace forward:

Your points now	Years until a sure thing
0	now

A projection of the last five draws' median creep (capped at 2 points/yr), not a forecast. Random-pass odds still apply every year you're below the cut.

Seasons (2026)

Special archery: Sep 1–30, 2026 Special archery season (archery license required): Spike or antlerless elk p. 21

Split 1: Oct 15 – Jan 31, 2027 Spike or antlerless elk p. 21

How this tag has hunted

Across every license type in Hunt Area 117, Wyoming Game and Fish Department counted 1,417 hunters and 664 elk taken in 2025 — 47% of them killed something. Full Hunt Area 117 profile: maps, public land, five years of harvest →

Hunters holding this license type (2025) — the rest of the area's hunters held something else:

What they hunted	Hunters	Harvest	Success	Days per animal
Type 3	299	88	29%	52.5

Wyoming's figures are estimates from a voluntary post-season survey of license holders, extrapolated to every license issued — not a count of animals checked in. Source: Elk 2025 Harvest Report Elk 2024 Harvest Report

As a lower choice

2nd choice

31%

Tags left after higher choices ÷ applicants at this choice — 13.0 tags left after higher choices. Points do not help a lower choice.

3rd choice

Tags left after higher choices ÷ applicants at this choice — 0.0 tags left after higher choices. Points do not help a lower choice.

Year by year

The regular draw for nonresidents, one row per year. Wyoming runs a second, random pass after the points pass; it is shown beside the year it belongs to.

Year	Tags	Applicants	Applicants per tag	Random pass	Source
2026	39	18	0.5	13 tagsfrom 61 applications	2026 Demand Report · p. 26
2025	39	9	0.2	13 tagsfrom 50 applications	2025 Demand Report · p. 27
2024	42	2	0.0	13 tagsfrom 7 applications	2024 Demand Report · p. 25

Tags left over after the main draws: 2026: 126 tags.

Other licenses valid in Hunt Area 117

Type 1 — Any elk Any legal weapon Type 2 — Antlered elk five (5) points or less on either antler or antlerless elk Any legal weapon Type 4 — Antlerless elk Any legal weapon Type 6 — Cow or calf Any legal weapon Type 7 — Cow or calf valid off national forest Any legal weapon Type 8 — Cow or calf valid on private land Any legal weapon

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How to read these numbers

Every percentage on this page is a prior-draw probability: the chance an applicant with that many points would have drawn in the draw year shown, computed from the agency's published results. It is not a forecast — quotas, applicant numbers, and point creep change every year. Every figure links to the agency document it came from. Where a state does not publish a number, we show a dash, never a zero. Hunts with fewer than five tags show counts instead of percentages. Fees show the fee year used. Read the methodology for the engine details.

Not an application service

This page is informational only. Draw rules, quotas, fees, and deadlines are set by the state agency and change by commission action — confirm everything on the agency's own site before you apply, and apply through the agency, not here. We disclaim all liability for reliance on this page.