Preference or Bonus

[5yearcoueshunter]

On off range Oryx in New Mexico, this year they only allowed people with even year birthdates to apply, and last year was odd year birthdates. Theoretically, that should cut the applicants in half. I think that would be a pretty good system along with bonus points.

 

 

Travis

[AzHuntAtty]

I agree that it is very frustrating to live and pay taxes in a great hunting state like Arizona and yet go years without hunting. I, like many of you, have gone years without drawing anything here. And it is indeed frustrating to hear about people drawing premium tags year after year. Maybe their lucky or maybe something with the current system is causing it.

 

As for those of you who know people who are getting inside favors from F&G or their agents and drawing premium tags every year or more often than they should, if that is true, such conduct is a crime and should be exposed and prosecuted.

 

Finally, I agree with many of the ideas that have been raised relative to increasing our draw chances. For what its worth, I would like to see (1) waiting periods for successful applicants, (2) paper applications rather than internet, (3) a hunter safety requirement, (4) earlier application period/deadlines, and (5) a limit on species that one could apply for each year-something like the Utah system.

 

At the end of the day, I guess we have to realize that the population in Arizona is growing so fast that the odds will never be what we would like.

[coues addict]

To all members

 

I have been hunting in Arizona for over thirty years as a nonresident. My opinion carries no more weight than the next guy! I don`t like the ten percent cap, but I completeley understand and I do not think I would feel any different than all you residents about it if I were a resident. It is not fair to residents to have nonresidents get more tags in any hunt! on the other hand I have been paying some pretty big bucks for licence`s and tags for quite a few years. Maybe more actual money than some of you folks. In my humble opinion the biggest single thing you could do to cut down the number of applicants and (people) on the draw is to make everybody pay up front and 86 online applications. It`s just way to easy to apply for $5.00 per species. Rich guys are always going to have the money but the not so serious guys that are not sure about if they really want to apply will not if they have to pay up front. Come on guys everybody knows that Money Talks and Bullsh-t Walks. make the draw for serious hunters only! Not treehuggers! If you are not serious go Dove hunting! As far as bonus points I kinda have to agree with Lark, once a bunch of us have them than its not that big of an edge! I for one have hunted many western states and I think it makes you a better hunter to have to go somewhere you are not familiar with and try your best to harvest a good animal. All in all, I still like hunting Arizona a lot because it is an awesome state with awesome wildlife! Good luck to all the lucky tagholders.

 

Rich Thompson

[Rembrant]

Lark is right - there is no answer. There are just too many people these days.

Most of these posts are suggesting different ways to wait in line.

THE LINE IS TOO LONG!

The Dept quit making successful applicants wait 2 years after drawing an elk tag because statistically it did not make a hill of beans difference in anyone else's chances. TOO MANY PEOPLE!

So you guys want to have the unsuccessful people get drawn before a tag holder gets drawn again?

How many years you got left in your life?

The lottery sucks (because of too many people), but its better than the hard cold math. Get rid of the lottery and you won't like the guaranteed wait. At least now, we have a chance every year.

Mike

[hunt4horns]

I GOT IT FIGURED OUT. GO BACK TO OVER THE COUNTER TAGS FOR RESIDENCE AND THE TREE HUGGERS CAN'T RUIN IT ANYMORE. OR OVER THE COUNTER TAGS FOR OUR ELDERS THAT HAVE TAUGHT US HOW TO HUNT AND RESPECT THE LAND. DO SOMETHING SPECIAL FOR THEM GUYS......... VOTE ME FOR CONGRESS

[Rembrant]

I just looked at the stats for a quality hunt: Unit 10 archery bull.

150 tags and 2679 applicants. If nobody can get drawn again until everybody gets a tag (and the same people put in every year), then it will take 17 years for everybody to get a tag.

OR, if everybody that gets a tag has to sit out 2 years, then instaed of there being 2679 applicants there will be 2379 applicants for the 150 tags - whoopie!

The stats are public domain - do the math, and you won't like standing in line (preference) idea.

I don't like agreeing with Lark too much (gives him a big head) but he's right - there is no answer.

 

TOO MANY PEOPLE, FOLKS!

 

Mike

[m77]

I've made the suggestion in the past that Game $ Fish start the draw with the premium hunts and work down. As a hunter gets drawn in the premium hunts his name is removed from the rest of the draws. All odds go up. Anyone like that idea now that you haven't drawn and some guys have half a dozen tags?????

[Switchback]

Square the bonus point system! That way everyone still has a chance to draw even the lucky ones who do get great tags year after year. So someone like me 8 bonus points now will have 64 and so on. This would be a fair solution

[rimhunter]

coues krazy

I havent had a elk tag for 7 years and im not complaining . I just put my name in and hope for the best

 

Desertbull I like the way you think

[AzHuntAtty]

Responding to M77's post, I have a question, how does the draw actually work in terms of being drawn for each species. Is there just one draw and when an applicant's name is drawn he/she will draw for any applied for hunt that is not already filled? Or is there a separate drawing for each hunt and all those that have applied for the particular hunt are drawn from that specific pool? It seems to me that it is the former. A couple years ago a friend drew the Aravaipa bighorn and an Unit 10 early rifle in the same year. There must be some relationship since it would be almost statisically impossible to draw both independent of the other in the same year.

[Switchback]

coues krazy

I havent had a elk tag for 7 years and im not complaining . I just put my name in and hope for the best

 

Desertbull I like the way you think

 

 

RimHunter did you not have a good hunt? When i killed my bull 7 years ago with my bow that was the biggest rush i have ever had! Hope to have more hunts like it

[Noel Arnold]

I have got the the answer.Take over Mexico,move have of our population to mexico.Then we will have plenty of area's to hunt.(Just kidding)

Noel

 

Have (half)

[drgonzales]

I drew an antelope tag in 2C a couple of years ago. There were only 10 tags available in this unit and I drew one with no bonus points. Lucky me!! That's not the point. Since there only a few of us hunting in a small unit I had the opportunity to meet all 10 I thought. On the second day of the hunt I downed a buck and took him to the trappers den in Show low and found that there were quite a few other fresh antelope heads on the ground, I started looking at the tags for no particular reason and saw that there were 3 tags on that said DIRECTOR ISSUE 1, 2, and 3.

 

Maybe those were some of the people that had mess ups on the applications due to the G and F.

[DesertBull]

Responding to M77's post, I have a question, how does the draw actually work in terms of being drawn for each species. Is there just one draw and when an applicant's name is drawn he/she will draw for any applied for hunt that is not already filled? Or is there a separate drawing for each hunt and all those that have applied for the particular hunt are drawn from that specific pool? It seems to me that it is the former. A couple years ago a friend drew the Aravaipa bighorn and an Unit 10 early rifle in the same year. There must be some relationship since it would be almost statisically impossible to draw both independent of the other in the same year.

 

 

Ok, that's funny, sort of.

 

Here is what I have suspected, at least half heartedly, for the past several years, but have never mentioned it to anyone for fear of being laughed out of the building, but here goes.

 

You hear of alot of people that draw more than one very hard to get tags every year. What if, by mistake, the program used to assign all the random numbers in the drawing was giving some people the same random number for every species? You are supposed to get a new number for every species, in essence a seperate drawing for deer, sheep, elk, etc.

 

So, say Joe Hunter gets a real low number in the elk draw, then when it's time for drawing the sheep tags, instead of being given him a new number, the computer lets him keep the original? As complicated as all the rules are now witht he bonus points, percentages, etc, it would not be that unfeasible to think the program had a bug or two.

 

I've heard of too many people that have drawn antelope and late Kaibab or sheep and early elk, to think that it is pure luck. I myself once drew a rifle antelope tag (1 bonus point), a 7W rifle bull tag (2 bonus points) and a unit 33 Coues tag (1 bonus point) in the same year.

 

Ok, Im going back in the basement now, putting my tin foil hat back on and waiting for the black helicopters to swarm my house.

[.270]

responding to muleskinner, if i'm not mistaken, the "director" can issue a permit for anything to anyone he wants. outside the draw, over and above what the biologists say is ok for the unit. a couple years ago, supposedly an old man who could never get an elk tag wrote the azgfd and told em to jump in the lake, he was going elk hunting and he didn't care if they arrested him and so on. he then got a tag in mail from the "director". i always assumed it was an urban myth. maybe it wasn't. but this is the first time i've ever really heard of it happening. too bad you didn't note the names. wonder if there is a way to see how many "director issue" permits go out every year? maybe i oughta quit bashin' shroufe and get me a sheep tag. this is a really interesting thing here. someone with some investigative skills oughta look into it. Lark.