AHHH makes sense. Unfortunately I don't think at 10 pts it will make sense to save even one more point. We had a unit in mind that took 9 pts in 21, last year it took 15, this year should be 16. Most units are looking like this, almost impossible to catch them. Ill likely burn mine on a general just to start building up for a second general tag
Remember the good old days??? First year, apply for a kill tag in unit XYZ, got kill tag. Several subsequent years, drew a general tag as a second choice?! Oh, how things have changed....
It’s hard to keep up with everything. Last time I hunted WY was 2020 and I drew a general tag with 2 points.
one would think that, however its just not the case at least not for the units I've compared so far. Most guys who have put in 10-12yrs worth of building points are willing to go special and the odds are barely better. I looked at 15 or so units on Friday and built a spreadsheet to compare the special to the regular draw and most of those units were 2-3% better odds on the special.
Those were last year’s odds. You can add about a half point to that.
Wyoming general was always a great option, its soon going to be a once every 7-8yrs, hell I can draw Arizona every 7-8yrs. They need to do something about the creep.
less and less are staying on the sidelines, Hence the creep. Guys all yell that the covid affect has driven guys to western hunting. Id agree slightly however no one that started in the points game during covid has enough to draw a general tag, its the guys that are holding and deciding to jump in when they have more points than needed. Not sure there is any way to fix the issue but dam it sure is frustrating
At a glance it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I’d have to think it through. I probably like it just because I want to see point creep go away. But if you forced everyone to use them or lose them the first year would probably be a nightmare. On the bright side a huge number of people who sit on points don’t know much if anything about elk hunting so not many elk would die and hunting the following season would be pretty good!
Think of it this way, Montana forces you to enter the draw or lose your points, once you draw you cannot return the tag and keep your points. So its use them or lose them, and creep is almost non existent. there's also 25% of the tags to zero point holders which allows those that do not plan to play in the point game to have a decent chance at drawing a tag at random. I just cannot justify a general tag taking 7 points for a non resident and a resident can buy it at the gas station. Seems like something has to give. I think residents should always get most of the limited tags, but there also I no reason a non resident should have to purchase points for 7 years, to get the same tag and then when they get it they cannot hunt any of the wilderness areas.At a glance it doesn’t sound like a bad idea. I’d have to think it through. I probably like it just because I want to see point creep go away. But if you forced everyone to use them or lose them the first year would probably be a nightmare. On the bright side a huge number of people who sit on points don’t know much if anything about elk hunting so not many elk would die and hunting the following season would be pretty good!
Montana and Idaho aren’t doing too bad of a job at getting a grip on things. It will sure be interesting to see what happens in Colorado after the new system kicks in.
Interestingly a lot of people who do have points don’t pay attention to upcoming changes like we do and have no clue that their points are about to plummet in value n Colorado. If people lost their points for not applying some would just wake up one day and say where the heck did my points go!
