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This depends on the breed, and breeders involved Toe. Some breeds like the Shamo in Oriental gamefowl can take up to 16 months or so before they're fully game. Other breeds like the Asil, are less (not sure on the exact, but I know many are commonly fighting as early as 2 months old). Your typical Spanish and American game you see around in the US range from 4 to 10 months, any later than that and I question the pureness of them or poor breeding (no offense to anyone that has ones like that though).
The main thing to remember is they are addictive, and require a lot of space. You'll need at least a 4 foot square (most people make 3X3 dome pens) for every single stag, and say you only have two hens and let them set- average clutch is about 8-15 eggs, say most or all of them hatch which is pretty common and 50-60% are stags, you've got about 8-15 stags that require 4 feet each - and even more the next year as you get pullets and keep them.
I let all of my birds free range growing up, so they mature later and I don't have to pen them up until about 8-10 months on average if I have a older cock to police them. But you will still need to watch them, all it takes is for one to get hurt by something, for it to rain, for them to just have a ornery day and you will have a battle royal in your front yard. In a pen they typically mature faster due to less space.
-Daniel.
ETA: look up some forums, you can go to my website and find a few links (I think, I know at least one or two) that can help you with just about anything involving care, pen ideas (there are some pretty good ideas around on how to make pens cheap, one of my favorites are the 55 gal barrels and the pallet pens). As for owning a permit, you don't need one as of yet since they're chickens and not gamebirds/waterfowl, but you have to be careful of where you live as some places (the cities) are starting to crack down on people owning gamefowl due to stigmas and some just because they're poultry. They truly are the ultimate breeds though if you ask me, I've tried quite a few breeds and they only left me with disappointment and showed me how much I missed my games.
