recreationstate

Lifetime Hunting and Fishing Licence for $15, at 50%

Not a discount on the annual licence — a combination hunting and inland fishing licence valid for the rest of your life, from a 50% rating, for $15 plus a $5 transaction fee.

Verified August 18, 2026

What this benefit is

Not a discount on the annual licence — a combination hunting and inland fishing licence valid for the rest of your life, from a 50% rating, for $15 plus a $5 transaction fee.

What it's worth: A combination hunting and inland fishing licence for life, for $15 plus a $5 transaction fee

The $15 is the price of the hunting and inland fishing combination on the disabled veteran application; the $5 transaction fee is charged on top and is set by statute.
The value depends entirely on how many years you have left — this is a lifetime licence rather than an annual concession, so a veteran qualifying at 45 saves many times what one qualifying at 75 does.
Inland-fishing-only and coastal-recreational-fishing-only lifetime licences are each $15 on the same form; the full Sportsman is $131 and the Sportsman with coastal fishing $144.

Who is entitled to it

You served in the U.S. armed forces.
Your rating is at least 50%, which is what the licence requires.
You are a North Carolina resident.
Your home is in North Carolina.

Not sure whether that describes you?

Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.

How to claim it

1Apply on the Commission's Lifetime Hunting & Fishing License for Resident Disabled Veterans application with certification from the Department of Veterans Affairs. An incomplete application, or one without that certification, is returned rather than held.
2Use the certification form attached to the application itself and take it to a county or state veterans service office to be completed — that is the route the Commission provides, and it saves chasing a letter.
3Read the price column before ticking a box. The hunting and inland fishing combination is $15, and so is either fishing-only licence, but the full Sportsman is $131 and the Sportsman with coastal fishing $144. A $5 transaction fee is added to whichever you choose.
4Apply as soon as you cross 50%. Every year you wait is a year of the lifetime licence you do not get back.
5If you want to hunt, deal with hunter education on the same form. Unless you held a North Carolina hunting licence before 1 July 2013 or already have a certificate, you must hunt accompanied by a licensed adult until you complete the course.
6If you fish on the coast, tick the coastal option rather than assuming the combination covers it. The combination is inland only, and coastal recreational fishing is a separate $15 line on the same application.

File with: The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission
Documents you will need: va benefit summary letter · dd214
No renewal: None, but it lasts only while you remain 50% or more disabled.

CorrectionThis licence is cheap, not free. The record previously carried it as a waived fee. The Commission's own application prices the hunting and inland fishing combination at $15, with a $5 transaction fee on top set by N.C.G.S. §113-270.1B — and the full Sportsman licence at $131. For a lifetime licence $20 is still an extraordinary price, but a veteran who turns up expecting to pay nothing will be asked for money.

CorrectionThe lifetime is conditional. The Commission's wording is that the licence remains valid for the lifetime of the individual "so long as the individual remains fifty percent or more disabled" — so a rating reduced below 50% takes the licence with it. Every summary we have seen calls it simply a lifetime licence.

Worth knowingThe shape matters more than the threshold. Most states discount an annual licence; North Carolina issues a lifetime one. Claiming it early is worth more than claiming any annual concession in this corpus.

Worth knowingCoastal fishing is available on the same terms, contrary to what this record used to say. It is not bundled into the combination licence, but the application offers a lifetime coastal recreational fishing licence for the same $15, and a Sportsman licence that adds coastal fishing for $13 more than the plain one.

Known gapHow to apply is stated two different ways by the same agency. The Commission's disabled licences page says these licences can only be applied for by mail or in person because of the documentation; the April 2025 application form carries a line saying licences may now be purchased online. Assume the paper route works and ask before relying on the online one.

Known gapThe statute behind the licence, N.C.G.S. §113-270.1C, is still unread. The legislature's site returns a Cloudflare block page to a fetch and to a real browser alike, so everything here comes from the administering commission rather than from the section itself.

Sources

authority · published policyNC Wildlife Resources Commission — Licenses for Disabled Sportsmen
operating · formNC Wildlife Resources Commission — Application, Lifetime Hunting & Fishing License for Resident Disabled Veterans (April 2025), with the licence price list and the §113-270.1B transaction fee

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