Hi fellas, sorry for the long post from a newbie.
I'm new to the group but am very interested in this discussion. I have some considerations that may not affect the other members of Zero Guide Fees. First off, both my wife and I joined earlier this month. We live in Idaho (great hunting here) so our cost was $554 each for and Elk hunt because we are non-residents of Arizona. We just spent $1,108 hoping to get drawn this season. We are both retired and on a fixed income, of course, meaning that could be a strain if we have to do that for a several years. And more than likely, we may only take 1 Elk between us ... maybe not?
Now, we are both turning 69 this year, so waiting several years to get drawn could be bad because of our advance age, and getting older. We feel we're in good enough shape right now to be on an easy or moderate difficult Elk hunt, but probably not as the years go by. It may prove a bad investment for us. God forbid one of us (or both) die before we get drawn, and what would we do about that? That possibility is in play for all, but the odds increase dramatically at out age.
You're probably wondering why we even signed up to hunt Arizona when we live not 10 miles from a terrific Elk hunt hunt opportunity at no more cost than a senior resident license for $11.75 and tag for $16.50. In fact, we get Elk right on our small ranch or neighboring property. The reason for the Arizona Elk hunt is because my oldest brother asked to hunt with him one last time (his words).
He is 81 now and will be 82 before Elk season! If he doesn't get drawn this year his chances of never using the service are really high! But that is the reason we joined. I hope we didn't just make a contribution for nothing in return. Chances of us joining year after year are slim to none if my brother is not there to hunt. I need to contact Travis to ask him to change our hunt category to "getting drawn sooner and we don't care what the Elk size is".
I am providing a link of the resident herd no more than 10 miles from our home. We filmed it a few weeks ago while driving around to different hunting opportunities where we live. I hope Travis will view it so he sees what kind of hunting opportunity we have versus the financial commitment we've made to hunt Arizona in his program.
