Official Montana 2025 Draw Thread

What season will you be hunting this year?


  • Total voters
    143
So the question is do you think they will allow those of us that drew that shouldn’t have (assuming that’s what happened) a 100% refund and points restored or will they tell us to kick rocks?
 
Those of you who went in with one point and didn’t want to draw. Why did you even apply? You could have just bought your point later this year.
I don’t think anyone here has said they went in with one point alone and drew. There have been several of us that went in on a group app with 1.5 (2 points for one guy and 1 point for the other). The guy with two points, at least in our case, had to apply because he only bought a point last year.
 
My buddy and I applied as a party both with 2PP and we did not draw. It’s wild to read this thread and hear that people with less points drew.

I’ve unfortunately never had success with Montana’s draw tag system.
Did you apply for the Elk Combo or Big Game Combo? We specifically applied for the Elk Combo.
 
Those of you who went in with one point and didn’t want to draw. Why did you even apply? You could have just bought your point later this year.

I believe that is incorrect. If you are holding a point, you have to apply or you lose that point. You can't skip the application period and then buy a point later in the year. 10:33 in this video.

 
I don’t think anyone here has said they went in with one point alone and drew. There have been several of us that went in on a group app with 1.5 (2 points for one guy and 1 point for the other). The guy with two points, at least in our case, had to apply because he only bought a point last year.
Says I got my deer combo. Third year in a row with only one preference point. Better to be lucky than good!!
 
I believe that is incorrect. If you are holding a point, you have to apply or you lose that point. You can't skip the application period and then buy a point later in the year. 10:33 in this video.

If you went in with 1 point the assumption is you had 0 points before this year so you could have bought the point later but sounds like actually people with 1 point didn’t actually draw anyways, their party partner was the one with one point which all makes sense.
 
So, if everyone in your party checked box to turn back in the elk combo general tag if you didn't draw your limited entry permit, does anyone know if there is a way to know if you drew the elk combo general tag first but didn't draw the limited or will it just show the same on your profile as if you didn't draw the elk combo general?

I'm trying to decypher if we didn't draw the general with 2 pps for our party.
 
If you went in with 1 point the assumption is you had 0 points before this year so you could have bought the point later

Not necessarily. I didn't apply for Montana last year so I just went ahead and bought a point in December. Because of that, I had to apply this year or I would lose my point from last year. You are correct that after that I could've bought a point in December, but it would've put me at 1 point again.

I was actually going to apply and not buy a point at the time of application, but then realized that if I buy the point and my partner buys his 1st point, we would average 1.5 for our group, and the last several years .2-1.8 has been 0% chance of drawing.
 
But it does have to do with how you fill out your app.

This is what I'm curious about so I'm hoping your explanation clears it up..

And either I'm missing something, or option 2 is a bit of a typo. If I'm successful in the combo license but dont draw my elk permit, I just keep my combo license and its good for a general area - why would I need to be entered into the released drawing?

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And maybe this forum represents a higher percentage of applicants, but it sure seems like a lot of people drew released tags.. If I extrapolate those numbers to represent the total amount of applicants, are there that many people that draw and release their tags each year?
 
Not necessarily. I didn't apply for Montana last year so I just went ahead and bought a point in December. Because of that, I had to apply this year or I would lose my point from last year. You are correct that after that I could've bought a point in December, but it would've put me at 1 point again.

I was actually going to apply and not buy a point at the time of application, but then realized that if I buy the point and my partner buys his 1st point, we would average 1.5 for our group, and the last several years .2-1.8 has been 0% chance of drawing.
If you apply without buying a point you cannot buy the point later in the year. If you bought a point in December then you must apply this year and it would only make sense to buy another point, putting you at 2 points for this years draw.
 
This is what I'm curious about so I'm hoping your explanation clears it up..

And either I'm missing something, or option 2 is a bit of a typo. If I'm successful in the combo license but dont draw my elk permit, I just keep my combo license and its good for a general area - why would I need to be entered into the released drawing?

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And maybe this forum represents a higher percentage of applicants, but it sure seems like a lot of people drew released tags.. If I extrapolate those numbers to represent the total amount of applicants, are there that many people that draw and release their tags each year?
😂 I don’t think my explanation clears it up exactly 100%. But if you pick #1 you can only get a released tag from someone who selected #1. That’s where they start skipping around in points. It has to do with “which refund option” selected. This is the same issue that can mess up a group app also is my understanding.
 
If you apply without buying a point you cannot buy the point later in the year. If you bought a point in December then you must apply this year and it would only make sense to buy another point, putting you at 2 points for this years draw.

You're right. I should've said I could have not applied this year and then bought a point in December.. but either way, I would've lost my point from last year and been at 1 point again. I didn't want to draw this year. When I bought the point last December, I jumped the gun and thought I could buy a 2nd point this year without applying and then have 3 points for next year.

Once I was in that situation, my only option in order to not lose that point was a) apply and not buy a point, don't draw, then buy my 2nd point next spring with my application and have 2 for the 2026 drawing, or b) buy the point and apply with my buddy who only had 1 and then we'd average 1.5 and should also not draw..

I cant speak for everyone that ended up with the same point values as I had, but thats just how I got into that situation.

But now I get what you were saying earlier.. MT FWP assumes everyone with 1 point bought it at the time of application, so had they not applied at all, they could've just bought that point the following December.
 
I drew a released elk combo with 0 points. Released tags can’t be preference point based unless the system screwed it up this year (in which case, no takebacks!). Or is someone going to contend that 25% of released tags go to 0pp holders also?
 
That doesn't make sense either tho.. someone who selected #1 wouldn't have a tag to release since they aren't trying for a permit area.
"it will be issued to someone who also had preference points and who A) chose those same refund options or B ) was next in line from the initial drawing based on their number of points"

That is a quote from the licensing department. Makes sense right?
 
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