How to Get a Montana Guide License (Hunting and Fishing), 2026

You get a Montana guide license from the Montana Board of Outfitters, and only with a licensed Montana outfitter signing for you. It costs $125, it takes about 10 days when the paperwork is clean, and the same license covers guiding hunters and anglers.

Montana gets one row in our hunting guide license by state table and a short step list in how to become a hunting guide and how to become a fishing guide. This is the full Montana rulebook as of September 2026, from the board’s forms, state law and the Administrative Rules of Montana.

Who issues guide licenses in Montana?

The Montana Board of Outfitters does, not Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks. State law creates the board inside the Department of Labor and Industry (MCA 2-15-1773), and no one may act as a guide, advertise as one or represent themselves as one without first getting a license under the outfitter and guide chapter of the code (MCA 37-47-301). The board’s licensing pages now carry the department’s Employment Standards Division name; older rules still call it the Business Standards Division.

The board has five members, and four are outfitters: one licensed for hunting and fishing on public land, one fishing outfitter, one private-land hunting outfitter, and one hunting and fishing outfitter whose business is mostly fishing. The fifth is a public member who owns a Montana business that relies on outdoor recreation.

FWP still matters, it just does not license you. It sells the wildlife conservation license you must hold before you apply, publishes the hunting, fishing and boating regulations the outfitter exam draws on, and requires licensed outfitters to get commercial use permits for its fishing access sites and wildlife management areas. Its wardens can also investigate outfitter and guide violations at the board’s request (MCA 37-47-345). Questions about an application go to the department’s professional licensing customer service line, (406) 444-6880.

What are the requirements for a Montana guide license?

Six things, set out in MCA 37-47-303 and ARM 24.171.601:

• Age and fitness. 18 or older, and physically capable and mentally competent to do a guide’s work.
• An outfitter’s endorsement. A Montana outfitter with a valid license must endorse and recommend you.
• A conservation license. Buy it from FWP online, at an FWP office or from a license provider: $8 for residents, $10 for nonresidents.
• Board-approved first aid. You must hold current basic first aid certification from a provider on the board’s list, and keep it current for as long as you are licensed (ARM 24.171.412).
• One qualification route. A current guide license from a state with substantially equivalent requirements, a certificate from a board-approved guide school, or, with neither, an Endorsing Outfitter Affidavit in which the outfitter swears it will employ you or retain you as an independent contractor and that, as far as it knows, you meet the qualifications.
• Knowledge. The hunting and fishing techniques for the services your outfitter sells, and the equipment, terrain and hazards needed to keep clients safe.

The approved first aid list, updated September 9, 2026, accepts any American Red Cross, American Heart Association or U.S. military course, plus named providers ranging from NOLS Wilderness Medicine to local ambulance services. EMTs, paramedics, nurses, physicians and several other licensed professionals can use that credential instead. The 2024 application accepts a board-approved online course for first-time applicants, though the board’s FAQ still says hands-on, so confirm an online class is on the list first. Course types are compared in outdoor job certifications.

Out-of-state licenses count only from certain states. The board’s 2025 substantial equivalency list rates guide licenses from Alaska, Idaho, Maine, Nevada and North Dakota as equivalent; Wyoming, Colorado, Washington and the other states on the list are not. The guide school list, revised April 23, 2025, names 23 schools, including one in Victor, Idaho, and one in Wilson, Wyoming. Neither the statute nor the application requires Montana residency.

How do you apply for a Montana guide license, and what does it cost?

Apply online through the department’s eBiz licensing portal at ebiz.mt.gov/pol, which the board recommends, or mail the paper application with a check or money order payable to the Montana Board of Outfitters. Online applicants can pay by credit card or bank account. The $125 fee is nonrefundable.

1. Line up a licensed Montana outfitter who will endorse you.
2. Buy your conservation license and finish a first aid course from the approved list.
3. Fill out the application and attach proof of age (driver’s license, birth certificate or passport), a copy of the conservation license, the front and back of your first aid card, and either your guide school certificate or the signed outfitter affidavit.
4. Ask every state where you hold or have ever held any professional or occupational license to send a verification directly to the board. The form’s examples run from EMT and nurse to taxidermist and real estate, and some states charge for it.
5. Answer the personal history questions. Each “yes” needs a written explanation plus court or agency records, and the form notes that a criminal conviction does not automatically bar you.
6. If you will guide from a boat, check the box requesting the board’s watercraft identification sticker.

Item	Fee in 2026	Who pays
Guide application	$125, nonrefundable	Guide
Guide renewal	$50 a year	Guide
Late renewal penalty	None for guides	Guide
Wildlife conservation license	$8 resident; $4 resident youth 12 to 17 and seniors 62+; $10 nonresident	Guide
Outfitter’s assistant registration	$25 per assistant	Outfitter
New outfitter license, exam and operations plan	$1,800	Outfitter applicant
Adding an endorsement to an outfitter license	$450	Outfitter
Outfitter re-examination	$150	Outfitter applicant
Outfitter renewal	$150 a year	Outfitter

Sources: Montana Board of Outfitters guide and outfitter license pages; Outfitter License/Examination Application (Rev. Sept. 2024); ARM 24.171.401 and 24.101.403; FWP conservation license page, accessed Sep 14, 2026. The outfitter application lists $1,300 for the license and exam application and $500 for the operations plan and inspection, which together make the $1,800.

How long does it take to get a Montana guide license?

Ten days for a complete, routine application. A non-routine application has to be considered by the board at a regularly scheduled meeting, which can take up to 120 days, and the board may ask you to appear for an interview. The board notifies you in writing of anything missing, and tells you if your file is going to be treated as non-routine.

Staff send a file to the board when it involves evidence of unprofessional conduct, materials the board’s professional members need to evaluate, documents missing for good cause, or anything else staff think the board should see (ARM 24.101.402). A fish and game record is the big one for guides: one conviction or bond forfeiture for a fish and game or outfitting violation in any state is grounds to deny a license (MCA 37-47-341), and having hunting or fishing privileges or a conservation license suspended counts as unprofessional conduct (ARM 24.171.2301).

If an outfitter is short a guide mid-season, the law allows an unlicensed outfitter’s assistant only in an emergency, such as an unforeseen staffing shortage, and for no more than 15 days in a calendar year unless the assistant is actively getting a guide license and the board rates the application routine (MCA 37-47-325). The outfitter has 15 days from the assistant’s first client to file the details and the $25 fee (ARM 24.171.410). The board’s FAQ says an assistant whose complete, routine guide application went in within that window can keep working until the license issues. Apply well before your first trip instead of counting on that.

Does Montana have separate fishing and hunting guide licenses?

No. Montana issues one guide license, and your outfitter’s license sets its scope. The code defines a guide as someone employed by or contracted with a licensed outfitter who accompanies clients in activities directly related to what that outfitter is licensed for (MCA 37-47-101). The endorsements live on the outfitter’s license, which lists hunting services, fishing services and, if the outfitter qualifies, saddle or pack animals and boats or motorized watercraft (ARM 24.171.501). Guiding outside that scope is unprofessional conduct.

Guides who use any type of watercraft must display the board’s watercraft identification sticker with their license number. Every boat carrying clients needs a Coast Guard-approved life jacket for each person, a throw line at least 55 feet long, a spare oar or motor and a first aid kit, and children under 12 must wear life jackets (ARM 24.171.412).

Once you are licensed, the rules keep you tied to an outfitter:

• Every outfitter you work for during the year must sign and date your license before you take its clients out, and you must carry it whenever you guide. Electronic proof is allowed.
• You may not advertise to the public in print, online or on social media (ARM 24.171.405), or guide clients your endorsing outfitter did not refer to you.
• You may not set prices or collect fees without the outfitter’s consent. The board’s FAQ says repeat customers are the outfitter’s clients, not yours.
• Hunting guides may not shoot, kill or take big game for or in competition with the people they are guiding (MCA 37-47-301).

How do you renew a Montana guide license?

Through the department’s eBiz portal between November 1 and December 31, for $50, with an outfitter’s signature. Every guide license expires December 31. Under MCA 37-47-303, a renewal must be signed by an outfitter employing you, and an unsigned renewal must be denied. Between outfitters in December? Line up next season’s first.

A license issued within 60 days of December 31 runs through December 31 of the following year, so a guide licensed in mid-November does not renew a few weeks later. Your first aid card also has to stay current the whole time you hold the license, not just when you apply.

Missing the deadline costs you status, not money. Guides pay no late penalty fee (ARM 24.101.403). But a license not renewed by December 31 lapses and can be reactivated within 45 days; after that it is expired, which can still be reactivated for up to two years. After two years it terminates, and you would have to meet every requirement for an original license again (ARM 24.101.402). A timely online renewal must be submitted before 11:59 p.m. Mountain time on the renewal date (ARM 24.101.413).

How many guide days does it take to become a Montana outfitter?

One hundred days of verified experience as a licensed guide for most outfitter licenses, and three years and 120 days for a fishing outfitter license with a watercraft endorsement (ARM 24.171.502). The outfitters you guided for must verify the days in writing on the department’s forms, so collect each signature as you go. Out-of-state experience can count, subject to board approval.

Requirement	Fishing outfitter with watercraft endorsement	All other outfitter applicants
Verified experience	3 years and 120 days as a licensed guide	100 days as a licensed guide, in the game and methods you want to be licensed for
Guide school waiver	3 days waived per day of approved training, up to 30	3 days waived per day of approved training, up to 30
Business purchase or succession waiver	Up to 50 days and 1 year, with a 12-month supervision plan	Up to 50 days, with a 12-month supervision plan
Most days all waivers can remove	50	80

Sources: ARM 24.171.502 and 24.171.507; Board of Outfitters outfitter license page and FAQ, accessed Sep 14, 2026.

The exam is open book, with 50 questions in the general outfitter section and 25 each in the hunting, fishing and horse and packing sections; you take the general section plus the ones for the services you will sell. It is scheduled once your application is approved and your days are met, at the Montana Job Service Center you choose, with any electronic device in airplane mode. Fail a section and you can review your wrong answers within 15 days, but you cannot retake it for 30 days.

You also need an approved operations plan, liability insurance on file, an equipment inspection and the $1,800 fee, and the board processes a complete, routine outfitter application in about 30 days. Hunting outfitters on private and state land also need net client hunter use, and the board’s FAQ says it can no longer issue new NCHU, so it has to be bought from an existing holder. Current openings are at Montana hunting jobs and fishing guide jobs.