(1) Manner of drawing. The department issues elk permits for landowner preference described in section 87-2-705 , MCA, according to the following policies and procedures:

(a) The statutory requirement of 640 acres of contiguous land is used only to determine if the applicant is eligible to apply as a landowner.

(b) If license/permits are valid in a designated portion of a hunting district, some of the land owned by the applicant must be within the boundaries of that portion.

(c) Both resident and nonresident landowners must use the special drawing application provided by the department. The department shall verify that the applicant owns 640 acres, that it is contiguous land used by elk, and that the designee of the landowner preference is eligible.

(d) The 15% calculation may result in a fraction of a license/permit. e.g. 15% of 50 is 7.5. If the decimal is equal to or greater than .5, it will be rounded up to the next whole number. If the decimal is less than .5, it will be rounded down to the next whole number.

(e) Partnerships may delegate landowner preference to members of the immediate family, a partner or an employee. Only one person may be delegated landowner preference for each sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation. A corporation may delegate the landowner preference to one shareholder.

(f) All applicants entitled to landowner preference will be considered in the preference drawings for elk. Unsuccessful landowner applicants who exceed 15% of a district will be entered into the regular drawings with their district choices. As a result, unsuccessful landowner applicants will have two opportunities to be drawn.

(g) Landowner applications must be on current year forms and be postmarked no later than June 1.

(2) Party applications. Where the commission has authorized party elk hunts, the following rules apply:

(a) Application for elk permits is limited to two members per party;

(b) Both applications will be considered as a single application for the purpose of the drawing; both members of the party will either be successful or unsuccessful.

(c) Applications must have all requested party information correctly presented. A party will be broken up only under the following circumstances:

(i) If both members of the party do not list their districts in the same order on their applications the party will be broken up and both members will be entered in the drawing individually.

(ii) If one member of the party is missing mandatory information such as date of birth, signature, etc. only that member will be eliminated from the drawings. The remaining member will be entered in the drawing individually.

(3) Special elk permits. Residents may not apply for an elk permit without first purchasing an A-5 elk license. Nonresidents must purchase the B-10 nonresident big game combination license prior to or at the time of submittal of drawing applications. All persons holding a valid elk license may participate in postseason elk drawings under annual rules adopted by the commission.

(4) Landowner preference applications. Applications with errors may be sent back to the applicants for a correction at the discretion of the department if time allows.