Federal Duck Stamp Update

The 2024-25 waterfowl season is the first since the federal duck stamp was instituted that hunters in Arkansas do not have to possess a signed-in-ink duck stamp while hunting as long as they obtained an electronic federal stamp online before or during the season. All the information necessary is now included on your AGFC account if you obtained your federal duck stamp through the AGFC’s website. Participants must still carry their E-stamp certificate when hunting in either digital or hardcopy form (if you have all your information downloaded on an AGFC license “card”, it is included there; or you can download a paper copy of all your license information or keep it on your phone in screenshot form), as well as other license requirements. A physical federal duck stamp will be mailed to
each E-stamp purchaser between March 10-June 30 of this year.

In recent years, if a hunter bought his or her federal duck stamp through the AGFC website, they had 45 days from the date of purchase before an actual stamp arrived in the mail in which they did not need to have a stamp in their possession and signed in ink across the front of the stamp. That law was changed by the Duck Stamp Modernization Act, signed by President Biden in December 2023 that went into effect for this season.

Still, some annual stamp purchasers don’t seem aware this year of that change and have called both the AGFC and other sources wondering, “Where is my stamp?” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service decided to send the actual purchased stamps to buyers after the season so as to limit confusion over properly purchased E-stamps and the physical stamps also floating around during the season.

The cost of the E-stamp through the AGFC’s licensing site online is $30. The stamp itself costs $25, with $4 going to federal processing and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s convenience fee, plus $1 to the AGFC for its online fee. Traditional methods of purchasing the federal duck stamp – from a consignee, through a local post office, through Amplex, and online through the U.S. Postal Services Postal Store – will continue, according to the USFWS.