Nebraska to limit NonRes Deer tags

[cnelk]

I was reading through the 2022 Nebraska Game & Parks Hunting Regs and saw that they are limiting NonRes tags this year.
No more than 5000 archery tags, no more than 2000 ML tags will be sold.



And only 15,000 E/S or Buck Only tags will be sold.

 

[mossyoak52]

And it begins

 

[TheGrayRider]

Can a NR buy and hold bonus or preference points in Nebraska? Thanks.

 

[Laramie]

Can a NR buy and hold bonus or preference points in Nebraska? Thanks.

There was rumor that they would be able to either this year or next.

 

[Laramie]

The numbers they are limiting to are basically what they have been selling. It is kind of a feel good measure to tell the residents they are limiting tags. The reality is pretty much everyone who wanted a tag should have a very good chance of getting one save the MDCA areas.

One other change that not everyone knows about that is tremendously more impactful - Landowners and family can now hunt one week earlier than the general public. A good portion of the biggest deer will be dead before the average Joe gets a chance to hunt.

 

[wildwilderness]

The numbers they are limiting too are basically what they have been selling. It is kind of a feel good measure to tell the residents they are limiting tags. The reality is pretty much everyone who wanted a tag should have a very good chance of getting one save the MDCA areas.

One other change that not everyone knows about that is tremendously more impactful - Landowners and family can now hunt one week earlier than the general public. A good portion of the biggest deer will be dead before the average Joe gets a chance to hunt.

That’s what you see now, but as demand increases in the future they will sell out, and eventually a drawing system. Same old story across the west, now Midwest.

Just look at Kansas, many NR don’t draw a tag every year and no leftovers any more. Nebraska will be like that someday

 

[Laramie]

That’s what you see now, but as demand increases in the future they will sell out, and eventually a drawing system. Same old story across the west, now Midwest.

Just look at Kansas, many NR don’t draw a tag every year and no leftovers any more. Nebraska will be like that someday

I disagree simply because the hunting as a non resident sucks. It's really not that good as a resident unless you really get in good with the right landowners. 3rd lowest public land percentage of any US State doesn't leave many places to go. Plenty of people make one trip here to find out it really is over crowded on public and really tough to get private permission. Pretty rare people do it twice if they don't find permission.

 

[cnelk]

I’ve hunted Nebraska public land for over 15 years. Used to be much better hunting.

When I filled out my survey this year I mentioned that Nebraska needs to limit NonRes hunters, and that’s coming from a NonRes hunter - I guess they read that one lol

 

[Laramie]

I’ve hunted Nebraska public land for over 15 years. Used to be much better hunting.

When I filled out my survey this year I mentioned that Nebraska needs to limit NonRes hunters, and that’s coming from a NonRes hunter - I guess they read that one lol

15 years ago, or even 10 years ago it was a decent hunt. Last few years it's not worth a guy going imo. The landowner early hunt really hurts as well imo.

 

[Cedarsavage]

how many tags were they selling? is it a big difference?

 

[cnelk]

how many tags were they selling? is it a big difference?

Not really. The quotas were based on recent license sales

 

[Cedarsavage]

Not really. The quotas were based on recent license sales

so they're basically saying no more than last year? hate to see it, haven't hunted there in 5 years but I cant blame them

 

[cnelk]

EITHER SEX OR BUCK-ONLY PERMIT CHANGES A sales quota of 15,000 Either Sex or Buck Only (ES/BO) permits has been set for nonresidents. This includes Archery, Muzzleloader and November firearm permits. Once 15,000 permits that allow the harvest of a buck is met, no more either sex or buck only permits will be sold to nonresidents. All landowner and youth permits are exempted from this quota. Nonresident sales of ES/BO permits has increased 50% over the past 10 years; the cap will ensure sales do not increase beyond the levels of 2020 and 2021.
Within that quota, Nonresident Statewide Archery is capped at 5,000 permits and Nonresident Statewide Muzzleloader is capped at 2,000 to ensure permit sales do not shift drastically from previous years. Both quotas are equivalent to 2021 sales numbers, when 5,032 and 2,018 sold respectively.

Resident archery and muzzleloader permits are not affected and still have an “unlimited” quota.

The caps on ES/BO permits that previously had “unlimited” permit quotas are aimed at maintaining the current distribution of hunters throughout the seasons, including Archery, Muzzleloader, Statewide Whitetail Buck and Restricted Statewide Buck.

 

[Laramie]

EITHER SEX OR BUCK-ONLY PERMIT CHANGES A sales quota of 15,000 Either Sex or Buck Only (ES/BO) permits has been set for nonresidents. This includes Archery, Muzzleloader and November firearm permits. Once 15,000 permits that allow the harvest of a buck is met, no more either sex or buck only permits will be sold to nonresidents. All landowner and youth permits are exempted from this quota. Nonresident sales of ES/BO permits has increased 50% over the past 10 years; the cap will ensure sales do not increase beyond the levels of 2020 and 2021.
Within that quota, Nonresident Statewide Archery is capped at 5,000 permits and Nonresident Statewide Muzzleloader is capped at 2,000 to ensure permit sales do not shift drastically from previous years. Both quotas are equivalent to 2021 sales numbers, when 5,032 and 2,018 sold respectively.

Resident archery and muzzleloader permits are not affected and still have an “unlimited” quota.

The caps on ES/BO permits that previously had “unlimited” permit quotas are aimed at maintaining the current distribution of hunters throughout the seasons, including Archery, Muzzleloader, Statewide Whitetail Buck and Restricted Statewide Buck.

Nebraska was a pretty popular hunting destination during Covid's peak due to their lack of restrictions. I personally believe the spike in hunters had a lot to do with that and I doubt they sell all available permits this year. Again, to me this was just a feel good cap set to appease residents.

 

[Kurts86]

I don’t foresee much impact besides the pine ridge unit going into the MDCA. That tag was an immediate sellout before and now with the 15% resident cap it’s going in a few seconds/minutes. I can’t believe they didn’t roll Pine Ridge into the draw with Frenchman and Platte. My guess is that will happen in 2023 after the servers get crashed in 2022.

Being this is the whitetail subforum I don’t really see a whole lot of changes there. Most NE changes are mule deer related and whitetail tags are relatively flat and don’t sellout until weeks before the opener.

People can complain about Nebraska but I really enjoy hunting there even on public during rifle season. It’s a better opportunity for public land rifle deer than most any state east of it. Sure it’s not Colorado 3rd rifle or a Wyoming general unit hunt quality but it’s not bad if you level expectations.

 

[Cedarsavage]

I don’t foresee much impact besides the pine ridge unit going into the MDCA. That tag was an immediate sellout before and now with the 15% resident cap it’s going in a few seconds/minutes. I can’t believe they didn’t roll Pine Ridge into the draw with Frenchman and Platte. My guess is that will happen in 2023 after the servers get crashed in 2022.

Being this is the whitetail subforum I don’t really see a whole lot of changes there. Most NE changes are mule deer related and whitetail tags are relatively flat and don’t sellout until weeks before the opener.

People can complain about Nebraska but I really enjoy hunting there even on public during rifle season. It’s a better opportunity for public land rifle deer than most any state east of it. Sure it’s not Colorado 3rd rifle or a Wyoming general unit hunt quality but it’s not bad if you level expectations.

sellout before archery or rifle?

 

[MallardSX2]

Pine Ridge is now an MDCA unit as well.

It also means the Pine Ridge MDCA permit — which is valid for any deer, except antlerless mule deer — is valid for both the November Firearm and December Muzzleloader Seasons. Muzzleloaders wishing to hunt mule deer in the Pine Ridge will need the Pine Ridge MDCA permit to do so.

The Pine Ridge MDCA permit quota is set at 1,200; 85 percent of those will be allocated to residents and 15 percent to nonresidents, which is similar to the Platte at 15% and Frenchman at 8%. These quotas were set to ensure nonresident have opportunity to buy this high-demand permit; without allocations, the permit would sell out prior to the nonresident purchasing period.

There has always been high demand for permits that allow the harvest of a mule deer buck in the Pine Ridge, but this has been exacerbated by our reductions in the “Any Deer” permit over the past 10 years, going from 3,000 in 2010 and gradually decreasing to 1,200 in 2019. During that same time, the number of nonresidents buying the permit has remained relatively steady, declining from about 1,000 to 700, while residents have declined by 80%, from about 2,000 to 400. However, as recently as 2017, more than 1,300 resident permits sold, indicating resident demand exists, but the permit likely sold out before residents had an opportunity to purchase one in recent years.

As permits have declined in Pine Ridge Unit during the past 10 years, use of Statewide Muzzleloader and Restricted Statewide Buck have increased, making the MDCA designation and associated restrictions necessary to manage mule deer harvest.

 

[MallardSX2]

Killed a few deer over the years in Nebraska. I hope that this will improve things for everyone. If I can only hunt there once every 2-three years, then so be it. The way it stands now, its not sustainable.

 

[JLW66]

i hunted antelope in the pine ridge years ago. I want to say at least 7 years ago and at that time the game warden told me that the mule deer numbers were way down. I can see the reasons for putting it in the MDCA.

i thought the early landowner was the previous three days before regular firearm season. Maybe something changed.

Special Landowner: Nov. 5, 2022 – Nov. 7, 2022
November firearm: Nov. 12, 2022 – Nov. 20, 2022

 

[Kurts86]

sellout before archery or rifle?

Rifle whitetail mostly. The sellout dates are in the deer hunting brochure from the previous year.