How to Become a Hunting Guide: Licenses, Requirements and First Job by State

Becoming a hunting guide is a licensing process that starts with a job. In the western states that license guides, the license runs through an outfitter who has agreed to hire you, so the order is: get hired, get the outfitter’s signature, get licensed, then build days toward the next level.

This walks through that path state by state, with the forms, fees and exams in effect in September 2026. What outfitters screen for when they hire is covered in hunting guide jobs: what outfitters look for; this is the paperwork and the steps.

What license do you need to be a hunting guide?

It depends on the state, but in every state below the license or the legal responsibility runs through an outfitter. Here is the first license in each state and the step after it. The rules for all 33 states that license, register or permit hunting guides and outfitters are in hunting guide license requirements by state.

State	First license and what it takes	Fee	Next step up
Montana	Guide license: 18+, Montana conservation license, board-approved first aid, outfitter endorsement, and a license from an equivalent state, a board-approved guide school or an outfitter affidavit	$125 application, $50 renewal	Outfitter: 100 verified days as a licensed guide
Idaho	Guide license: 18+, Red Cross or comparable first aid, 10 days in the outfitter’s operating area, navigation, meat and trophy care	$105 license plus $20 first-time application	Outfitter license: $400 plus $400 first-time application
Wyoming	Professional guide license: 18+, working for an outfitter, first aid card, hunter safety card if born on or after Jan 1, 1966, written exam	$145 a year plus $25 new applicant; $70 for 14 days	Outfitter: at least one year as a licensed professional guide
Colorado	No license. Guides must be 18+ with a Red Cross first aid card or equivalent training	None	Outfitter registration with a surety bond and liability insurance
New Mexico	Guide registration: 18+, hunter education, department exam passed at 70 percent	$50 resident, $100 nonresident a year	Outfitter at 21, after three years as a registered guide
Alaska	Assistant guide: 18+, 60 days of Alaska big game hunting over two or more years, first aid card, letter from a hiring registered guide-outfitter	$200 application plus $310 resident or $620 nonresident, for two years	Class-A assistant guide at 21, then registered guide-outfitter

Sources: state licensing boards, statutes and rules listed below, accessed Sep 14, 2026. Licenses do not carry across state lines, though Wyoming sells a 14-day license, once in any 12-month period, for guides filling a short gap.

How do you get a Montana guide license?

Find an outfitter who will endorse you, then file one application with the Montana Board of Outfitters. Step by step:

1. Get hired by a licensed Montana outfitter, which must endorse and recommend you.
2. Buy a Montana wildlife conservation license from Fish, Wildlife and Parks and attach a copy.
3. Take a board-approved first aid course. First-time applicants may use a board-approved online course.
4. Qualify one of three ways: an active guide license from a state with substantially equivalent requirements, a certificate from a board-approved guide school, or, without either, the endorsing outfitter’s affidavit that it will employ you or retain you as an independent contractor.
5. Send the application with proof of age and the $125 fee. Complete routine applications are processed within 10 days; non-routine ones go to the board and can take up to 120 days.
6. Carry the license whenever you guide, and have each outfitter you work for sign and date it before you take a client out (ARM 24.171.601).

The license expires December 31 and renews for $50 between November 1 and December 31. If you want to become an outfitter later, Montana requires 100 days of verified experience as a licensed guide, and the board can waive three days of that experience for each day of training at an approved outfitter or guide school, up to 30 days (ARM 24.171.502). Current openings are at Montana hunting jobs. The full path, state by state, is in how to become an outfitter, and school prices are compared in guide school cost.

How do Idaho and Wyoming guide licenses work?

Both tie the license to a specific outfitter, and Wyoming adds a written exam. In Idaho, the outfitter completes page three of your application, checking the species you will guide and listing the operating areas, and certifies that it is responsible for your actions. For hunting you must show at least ten days of experience in that outfitter’s operating area, the ability to use a map and compass or GPS, and training in caring for meat and trophies, including correctly caping an animal (IDAPA 24.35.01.103). You also need a Red Cross or comparable first aid card, and Idaho law bars licensing anyone under 18. The license costs $105 plus a $20 first-time application fee and is valid only while you work for a licensed Idaho outfitter.

Wyoming’s professional guide application, revised in 2026, asks new applicants for a notarized signature, a copy of a first aid card, a hunter safety card if born on or after January 1, 1966, the $25 new-applicant fee, the $145 license fee and a completed exam. The exam has sections on board rules (31 questions), Game and Fish regulations (36), public lands (10), miscellaneous topics (10) and first aid (8), with links to the reference sites printed at the top. Guides licensed in either of the prior two years renew without retaking it. The license is valid only while you work for a licensed outfitter, who must sign it with the outfitter’s license number and your dates of work.

Wyoming law also explains why its wilderness outfitters need guides: a nonresident hunting big or trophy game in a designated wilderness area must be accompanied by a licensed professional guide or a resident guide, with at least one guide for every two nonresident hunters (W.S. 23-2-401).

Do you need a license to guide hunts in Colorado?

No. Colorado registers outfitters, not guides. Under C.R.S. 12-145-106, anyone who works as a guide must be 18 or older and hold a first aid or first aid instructor card from the American Red Cross or equivalent training, and working without one is a civil infraction. The Office of Outfitters Registration counts American Heart Association, Wilderness First Aid, Wilderness First Responder, EMT and Mountain Oriented First Aid training as equivalent (4 CCR 733-1).

The outfitter carries the rest. A registered outfitter must keep a surety bond and liability insurance and is responsible for making sure its guides know the hunting techniques, equipment, terrain and hazards for the hunts it sells. The one exception to the first aid rule is an emergency: if a guide drops out less than seven days before a hunt, an outfitter may hire someone 18 or older without first aid for up to ten days or one hunt, whichever is less, and must notify the client in writing. Outfitters add their own bar: Cherokee TP Outfitters in Jasper asks guide applicants for CPR and first aid certification and no criminal history.

How do you become a hunting guide in Alaska?

You climb three license levels, each with more days and more responsibility. Alaska requires nonresidents hunting brown or grizzly bear, mountain goat or Dall sheep to be accompanied by a licensed guide or a resident spouse or close relative (AS 16.05.407), and 3,090 nonresidents hunted with guides in 2019.

Level	Minimum age	Experience	Test	Fees
Assistant guide	18	60 days of legal big game hunting in Alaska over two or more calendar years, 30 of them in a guide camp or supervised by a licensed guide; an approved course counts for 10 days. Plus a first aid card and a letter from the registered guide-outfitter who will hire you	Jurisprudence questionnaire, 70 percent	$200 application; $310 resident or $620 nonresident license
Class-A assistant guide	21	Three calendar years as a licensed guide in the game management unit, 60 days of guiding over three or more years and 10 years of Alaska hunting; or residence in the unit, 15 years of hunting there and a registered guide’s recommendation	Jurisprudence questionnaire, 70 percent	$200 application; $310 resident or $620 nonresident license
Registered guide-outfitter	21	Assistant or class-A guide for part of each of three years, 125 days in the field; big game hunting in Alaska in any five years; eight favorable client recommendations	Written and practical qualification exam plus a unit exam, 75 percent to pass	$200 application, $125 exam, $400 per unit exam; $850 resident or $1,700 nonresident license

Sources: Alaska Big Game Commercial Services Board application instructions and statutes listed below, accessed Sep 14, 2026. An assistant guide cannot contract a hunt or take charge of a camp unless the contracting registered guide or a class-A assistant is there supervising; a class-A can run a camp in its unit. The registered guide exam is given twice a year and includes judging real antlers and horns with Boone and Crockett and SCI scoring, aging animals, sexing goats and bears, and a video of you caping an animal. In 2019 Alaska had 640 licensed assistant guides, 61 percent of them state residents (McDowell Group). Openings are at Alaska hunting jobs.

What certifications do you need: first aid, CPR, hunter education?

First aid is the one every state requires. The rest depends on the state and the outfitter.

• First aid. Required for guides in Montana (board-approved, online accepted for first-time applicants), Idaho (Red Cross or comparable), Wyoming, Colorado (Red Cross or equivalent) and Alaska (a basic first aid card from the Red Cross or a similar organization).
• CPR. Not written into these state guide rules, but outfitters ask for it. Hells Canyon Outfitters required elk guides to be certified in first aid and CPR in 2025, and Swan Mountain Outfitters requires Wilderness First Aid for pack trip guides and prefers current CPR and Wilderness First Aid for packers.
• Hunter education and hunting licenses. Wyoming requires a hunter safety card for guides born on or after January 1, 1966, and New Mexico requires a hunter education course before you apply. Montana requires a conservation license, and Alaska makes it unlawful to guide without a current guide license and hunting license in your possession.
• A clean record. Idaho and Wyoming applications ask specifically about fish and game violations. Alaska requires a criminal history report that includes fish and wildlife violations and bars assistant guide applicants with certain recent hunting or guiding convictions.

Course formats and what they cost are in outdoor job certifications.

How do you get your first hunting guide job?

Start in camp in a job that does not need a guide license, then move up with the same outfitter.

1. Hire on as a packer, wrangler or camp jack. Wyoming’s definition of a professional guide excludes people employed only to care for, groom or saddle stock, cook, cut wood or transport people and gear (W.S. 23-2-406), and Hells Canyon Outfitters pitched its 2025 packer job as a way to get your foot in the door. Some outfitters teach: J Bar H in Colorado will teach mule packing to the right hire, and Five Bears Outfitters runs a mandatory three-week June training for elk guide applicants without packing experience.
2. Pick an outfit with a long season. Buck Horn Outfitters in Idaho hires a guide, packer and wrangler from May 1 to November 10, spring bear through fall elk, which builds the kind of time in one operating area that Idaho’s ten-day rule asks for. Five Bears guarantees its 2026 elk guide six weeks of work, September 5 to October 30.
3. Apply on the hiring calendar, not the hunting calendar. Alaska outfitters posted assistant guide openings on the Alaska Professional Hunters Association’s Guide Post from February through early September 2026 for hunts from late August into November. Alaska guides typically hunt four to six weeks in spring and six to eight weeks in fall. Montana outfitters posted fall guide openings in July and September 2026. See the outdoor job hiring calendar.
4. Finish the paperwork before the season. Get the first aid card, the conservation or hunting license and the outfitter’s signature lined up first. Montana’s 10-day processing applies only to complete, routine applications, and Alaska’s registered guide exam needs a 120-day lead.
5. Make yourself findable. People with little experience post ads on the APHA board asking for spring bear packing work. Write your own using how to write a Job Wanted post, and watch hunting guide jobs and packer jobs.