Non-Res Deer tags sold out

[Speedy]

Arizona pulled a fast one on us non-residents, after implemented a quota system earlier this year (OK IMO) then at the last minute the legislature added a cap of 2890 non-resident archery deer over-the-counter nonpermit-tags only available online.  They went on sale 12/1 with little notice and sold out in 3 days.  That's hard to believe as they only sold just over 3000 all of last year.

There are going to be a lot of unhappy out of state hunters who show up expecting to buy a tag in person to find out there aren't any.  I was "lucky" enough to find out by accident on Christmas day and told a buddy in CO who was going to leave next week too.  We heard of the quota but not this new cap and issuing method that was added later.  I'm not too upset at the changes, just them being made 1 month prior to the season.  What a great Christmas present Arizona. 

What's even worse is I still have a valid 2022 tag but found out too late to make use of it.  Is it worth driving 1300 miles for just javelina?  That is the question. 

[azcouesandelk]

This was not unexpected. This has been known information for close to 9 months.

[dustin25]

Should probably pay closer attention. No sympathy here 

[trphyhntr]

29 minutes ago, Speedy said:

Arizona pulled a fast one on us non-residents, after implemented a quota system earlier this year (OK IMO) then at the last minute the legislature added a cap of 2890 non-resident archery deer over-the-counter nonpermit-tags only available online.  They went on sale 12/1 with little notice and sold out in 3 days.  That's hard to believe as they only sold just over 3000 all of last year.

There are going to be a lot of unhappy out of state hunters who show up expecting to buy a tag in person to find out there aren't any.  I was "lucky" enough to find out by accident on Christmas day and told a buddy in CO who was going to leave next week too.  We heard of the quota but not this new cap and issuing method that was added later.  I'm not too upset at the changes, just them being made 1 month prior to the season.  What a great Christmas present Arizona. 

What's even worse is I still have a valid 2022 tag but found out too late to make use of it.  Is it worth driving 1300 miles for just javelina?  That is the question. 

1. You have only yourself to blame 

2. yeah they sold out that fast, idaho sold so many tags they crashed the system the first day. More people are hunting now, also when you take something away, a lot of times it triggers people to buy. 

3. Thirteen miles is too far for a javelina. 

[zslayer]

I’m a non resident and knew of the sale/quota well in advance.  Received emails and all.    With social media now a days I don’t know how anything can be missed. 🤷🏼‍♂️

[Speedy]

Myself and others thought the quota system was the change they were talking about for years.  I guess those who are tired of keeping up on social media and junk email got burned.  Tags going on sale 1 month before a season starts is last minute so they could have waited until 2024, but they really sold out fast because they were online only which is yet another change.   However the AZGFD person I spoke to blamed residents.  Apparently you all are complaining that the 3000 (~12%) of non-resident hunters are too successful and filling up the quotas before resident hunters can get out.  That makes no sense.  We all have the same vacation time so this sounds like weekend warriors complaining.    

To be clear I don't have an issue with the changes, just the timing. The AZGFD has been promoting these hunts for years so they got what they wanted, more $.  But I've run into non-resident hunters before too so it's getting crowded but this won't stop that as unrestricted resident sales keep climbing too.  Despite having a valid hunting license in 2023 and buying deer archery tags for the past 8 years the AZGFD never told me that there are no longer over the counter deer licenses.   Folks drive a long way to hunt in AZ so screwing them with changes is one thing, letting them find out the hard way is pretty crappy.  Speaking of crappy I found out on my phone while taking my morning constitutional on Christmas day.  That was so fitting.

[CATERPILLAR]

Were not complaining that your to successful, we are complaining because there's is just to many people hunting. we have seen the deterioration of hunting in AZ as a direct result of the numbers of people that come here to hunt. Nobody got screwed either, if I was driving 1300 miles to hunt I would have done some kind of research before I left months in advance. I wish they would only allow 500 non resident tags and have a separate quota limit for non residents.

[EarlyBronco]

Hopefully out of states tags get cut more in the years to come 👍

[dustin25]

Full of whining and entitlement…What part of California  are you from?

[JSR]

 

[yotebuster]

As a NR I will say I was well aware of the change.  I received multiple emails and saw it on social media many times.  This will without question go to a draw in the near future as all OTC quotas eventually do.  It’s gonna put a lot of pressure on mid tier (4-12 point draw) tags when it does as NR that are accustomed to buying OTC and building points will burn their points and then start drawing the easy to draw OTC archery tags once they have.  

[PRDATR]

Rough Crowd. SPEEDY, AZG&FD has never been known to have their act together and is always making blunders. You should see some of the whining and carrying on that goes on around here during the regular draws.

[Ghostbird]

Sounds like now is a good time for o.p. to start thanking the likes of Randy Newberg,the Hush idiots,Gritty bowman etc. For all of their shameless promotional videos that they got paid hundreds of thousands of our dollars to make.

[Newbie2012]

1 hour ago, Speedy said:

 However the AZGFD person I spoke to blamed residents.  Apparently you all are complaining that the 3000 (~12%) of non-resident hunters are too successful and filling up the quotas before resident hunters can get out.  

There was no quota prior to August 2022, so there’s no data to support the “filling up quotas before resident hunters can get out” argument because we didn’t have a quota system to even know if NR’s were “too successful”. 
 

Me thinks the AZGFD “person” was telling you what you wanted to hear to get you off the phone. 

 

[HUNTnTAT2]

AZ OTC should only be for residents. NR should have to draw at a VERY limited tag allocation. The mandatory harvest reporting should be for across the board, not just for archery hunters. How can we not mandatory harvest report for unit x that has 750 rifle deer tags for the general hunt?? That's a ton of lost data. The quota system is arbitrary. I hunt areas within a unit that Is already closed that I don't see people in. Multiple bucks running that country right now.

I may get strung up on the forum gallows here for this next one but I would love to see a ruling put in place for only harvesting one buck during the archery deer rut hunts. Not the calendar year deal we currently have where you can kill 2 bucks. One in December and one in January when the year rolls over.