There are actually quite a few factors that come into play with point creep. The first is actually how many tags are issued in each particular unit. This obviously varies from year to year and unit to unit. High demand units that offer few tags and have a high percentage of public land generally take more pts to draw. Units with high percentage of private land and lots of tags can be super easy to draw just about every year. Total tag numbers fluctuate with antelope numbers. Winterkill, drought, predators, fawn recruitment, etc are all factors in determining tag numbers one year to the next. In any given year, one region of the state may have horrible winter losses vs a few counties over may be ok. These can fluctuate dramatically from one year to the next.
On the bright side most Wyo antelope units have seen a slow increase in tags the past year or 2. That obviously cycles more hunters through the system so point creep has slowly but surely decreasing in all but the high demand units in Wyo. A recent complication is the WG&F increased the price for applying for pref pts. More hunters seem to be trying to draw tags rather than just applying for pref pts because it's getting so darn expensive to apply. Even though tags may be increasing there may be more hunters applying for tags rather than applying for pref pts.
It's hard to say what will happen in future years. Obviously mild winters and high fawn survival will help pt creep. If there is back to back harsh winters or drought it will mean a drop in tags and higher pt creep. As other big game tags across the Western US become tougher and tougher to draw there tends to be more interest in hunting Wyo antelope.....which doesn't help point creep. Another thing that could potentially happen is as big game tags in Wyo become tougher and tougher for Wyo residents to draw....Wyo residents may complain and try to get a larger percent of the total antelope and other big game tags issued. My guess is that Wyo antelope tags will continue to be tough to draw in future years for both res and nonres.
