Kentucky Disabled Sportsman's License

This is the one substantial Kentucky benefit that opens below a total rating, and at fifty percent it is one of the lower gates in the state. A Kentucky resident veteran who is at least fifty percent disabled as the result of a service-connected disability may buy the Disabled Sportsman's License for $12.68. It contains the same licenses and permits as the Resident Sportsman's License, which retails at $100.42: the Combination Hunting and Fishing License, all Deer Permits, the Spring Turkey Permit, the Resident Fall Turkey Permit, the Kentucky Migratory Bird/Waterfowl Permit, and the Trout Permit. The saving is roughly eighty-eight dollars a year. Now the thing almost every summary of this benefit gets wrong, including the Kentucky Department of Veterans Affairs' own benefits document. KDVA describes it as "a three year Disabled Sportsman's License" costing $12. The Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources, which actually issues it, is clear that these are two different clocks: The disability authorization is valid for three years. That is the credential establishing that you are a qualifying disabled person, and you renew it every three years. The license is annual. The Senior or Disabled Sportsman's License is valid through the end of February each year. So a veteran who buys once and assumes three years of coverage is unlicensed from the following March. Budget $12.68 every year and re-establish the authorization every third year. To obtain the authorization, request a letter from your local VA office verifying that you are at least fifty percent disabled as a result of a service-connected disability, carrying your current Kentucky address and the last four digits of your Social Security number. Submit it through your MyProfile account on the Fish and Wildlife site, by mail, by fax, or in person. Disability authorization cards are no longer issued; once the authorization is on file the license system automatically allows the purchase. Veterans renewing an authorization through VA may call 1-800-310-1873 to update it. Two adjacent points. A veteran who is sixty-five or older should just buy the Senior Sportsman's License instead: KDFWR says both cost the same and include the same licenses and permits, and the senior license requires only proof of age, which means no VA letter and no three-year renewal. And a resident sixty-five or older can buy the Senior Lifetime Sportsman's License for $190.26, which never expires so long as Kentucky residency is maintained, and pays for itself in about fifteen years against the disabled license. The license does not carry the federal obligations. Holders must still complete the annual HIP survey to hunt migratory birds or waterfowl, and still buy the Federal Duck Stamp to hunt waterfowl.