Earlier this week Dave Barnett and I were patiently waiting to see what tags would pop up on Idaho's next return tags sale date. And... earlier today that list finally went live! On the May 20 return sale date in Idaho at 10:00 am MT, there are 8 nonresident elk tags, 3 whitetail tags, 21 regular deer tags up for grabs.

For the nonresident regular deer tags, while there are 21 tags available, there are some special things to note about what units you can pick up a tag for.

• One tag can be purchased for any of the units listed in the table below.
• Individual unit tag counts are a not-to-exceed limit.
  • You'll see that the cap is listed at 21, but at the same time some units are capped at lower numbers. This means that potentially all 21 tags could come from a certain unit or they could be spread out until that 21 tag number is reached.
    • Note: I have called IDFG 10 times the past two days to get more information on this and still can't get through, but this is the information we can gather.
  • Not all general season units have tags available.

Returned sold out tags

Any available tags will be listed on Idaho's returned tag page here.

If there are any returned tags, they will be available once a month until September, and then it switches to the second and fourth Thursday of each month at 10:00 a.m. MT. The list of available tags for that period will be made available two days before the sale opens at 10:00 a.m. These tags will be available online and they will sell out quickly!

Below is a list of returned tag available dates:

Pick up an available tag here

General tags available

June 24 tags

May 20 tag list

Pick up an available tag here

What tags "could be available?"

• Sold-out nonresident capped elk zones
• Sold-out nonresident Sawtooth elk zones
• Sold-out nonresident elk tags
• Sold-out nonresident deer tags
• Resident capped elk zones

Future eligible returned tags include:

• Nonresident outfitter tags for elk and for mule deer
• Nonresident outfitter tags for capped elk zones (available in August)
• Resident and nonresident controlled hunts