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Wyoming 2018

There's the bigger picture here that it's not just WY and it's not just a fee increase. It's overall looking at how we manage hunting opportunities. I agree that it feels like NR tags are getting priced to the point where many can't afford them. I feel somewhat the same about some resident tags. WA is not a cheap place to hunt. But there's only so many critters, and despite the statistics it sure feels like there's more and more hunters every year. So there has to be a balance, either we limit tags via one of two ways (high prices or long odds; sometimes both), or we serious restrict the take opportunity. Here in WA the majority of the eastern half is still open for general elk seasons, but it's restricted to true-spike only. It's really REALLY not a fun experience, but everyone can still take a week off work and go elk hunting in the same locations as there grandparents. Or you could go with the WY method where everything (for elk) is a draw of some kind but then the actual regulations once you draw are pretty open. I would imagine it's quite fun, though I've never drawn. As our population grows we'll only see more suburban sprawl consuming more habitat, creating less animals, and more hunters applying for the same opportunities. While some prominent members of our hunting fraternity claim we are living in the good ole days, I would caveat that with only if you're in the middle and upper economic class, with reasonable amount of disposable income, or if you happen to be born in an area with hunting.
 
wllm1313 said:
but it left me curious; if you were to institute a system where residents had to apply for a license in Feb- Mar like non-residents, even with 100% guaranteed draw, would you see a massive drop in participation.
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A while back a marketing study showed that a majority of American drivers will chose the gas station on their current side of the street rather than take a left hand turn to an adjacent gas station even if it meant saving 10 cents a gallon or to stay with a preferred gas company -- right vs left hand turn was a bigger driver than price or brand loyalty. So, yes, I would guess some percentage of American's would be too lazy to go through the process.
 
neffa3 said:
...While some prominent members of our hunting fraternity claim we are living in the good ole days, I would caveat that with only if you're in the middle and upper economic class, with reasonable amount of disposable income, or if you happen to be born in an area with hunting.
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That seems reasonable, though I'm not sure that's a lot different than before. I would expect that lower economic class hunters have rarely been hunting big game out of state in the past. The quality of experience has a lot to do with hunter expectations as well. I wonder if 21st century information sharing has led to a change in expectations (for animal number, quality, non-resident opportunity, etc) that far exceeds the actual change in the cost or product at the state scale. The fact that ID/MT/CO/WY can often (currently) live up to what I perceive as generally high expectations might be evidence that this could be the good old days.

Growing up in western MT I knew a fair number of other families who hunted. I don't remember one that hunted a day in another state, maybe there were some acquaintances that did without my knowledge. You went to deer/elk/antelope camp, had a great time, maybe got some meat. Our family and most that we knew were lower middle to middle class, but the opportunity was there due to a relatively good resource. That and it was the family vacation that a lot of us took most years. I tend to think a lot of the hubbub and discontent with NR fees and opportunity is that many of us have gotten spoiled; I know I have. Not by money, but by opportunity. I have more great general tags to hunt than time, let alone stuff in other states that I might hunt now and then. Also a guy from one western state hunting another western state is operating on a whole different paradigm than everyone else. Just a reality of culture and proximity.

Things change and stuff costs money, this is life.
 
SnowyMountaineer said:
Things change and stuff costs money, this is life.
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Pretty much it, as hard and frustrating as that can be. My wife and I moved across the river from Oregon to Washington a couple years ago because houses were more affordable. I'm a public school teacher, and you know how rich we are... But so now I live in a state with pretty dismal hunting, so I save and budget and scheme to be able to hunt out of state. It's a trade-off. I'm currently trying to sell my driftboat (that I haven't used since my daughter was born last year) so I can finance future hunts and buy some needed hunting gear. It's a priority for me. I'll keep buying points in Wyoming, and hopefully hunt there in a couple years.
 
So common threads here are it's to expensive for NR. I see people talking about kids and getting more people involved. Teaching should begin at home. Big trips and hunting out of your state always seems liked something earned. I couldn't afford a hunt in Montana or Wyoming for years. Now that I've worked my ass off for years I can.

I guess what I'm kind and getting at is nothing is free. Some things need to be earned. Prices go up. In 15 years gas and milk prices in some states have tripled. Have tag prices for Residents or Non residents trippled? $1000 for a combo or $1200 for a elk tag in a premium unit where success is 25-30% is a deal. It's always been expensive to hunt out of state.
 
Part of our plan for down the road involves hunting on one tag. Whoever comes along works to fill it and shares in the rewards and failures.

The idea we will ever spend the money at their current rates to buy our sons and us tags in the same season would be irresponsible. There for, we shall teach them about hunting with one tag.

We get to hunt. Everyone wins. We keep most of our money.
 
WapitiBob said:
That'll work fine till you come out West.
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What do you mean? Why wouldn't we travel to Wyoming, Colorado or Montana to hunt one tag?

Randy takes a whole mess of people across the country to hunt a single tag, and they all seem to enjoy themselves.
 
Keeptrying said:
What do you mean? Why wouldn't we travel to Wyoming, Colorado or Montana to hunt one tag?

Randy takes a whole mess of people across the country to hunt a single tag, and they all seem to enjoy themselves.
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I think he thought you were inferring you would be party hunting, which is illegal in many western states.

If that’s the case, it’s a big no no. Unfortunately, it still happens on a fairly routine basis.
 
Keeptrying said:
What do you mean? Why wouldn't we travel to Wyoming, Colorado or Montana to hunt one tag?

Randy takes a whole mess of people across the country to hunt a single tag, and they all seem to enjoy themselves.
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Bob meant that hunting out west is so different and fantastic that you won't be happy until you are all back out there with tags once you experience what you're talking about doing!
 
Not talking about party hunting, and we get plenty of chances to pull the trigger here in South Dakota.

Talking about a group of people traveling together, camping, and looking for game, so that one person can fill a really cool tag in a new place.
 
SnowyMountaineer said:
That seems reasonable, though I'm not sure that's a lot different than before. I would expect that lower economic class hunters have rarely been hunting big game out of state in the past. The quality of experience has a lot to do with hunter expectations as well. I wonder if 21st century information sharing has led to a change in expectations (for animal number, quality, non-resident opportunity, etc) that far exceeds the actual change in the cost or product at the state scale. The fact that ID/MT/CO/WY can often (currently) live up to what I perceive as generally high expectations might be evidence that this could be the good old days.

Growing up in western MT I knew a fair number of other families who hunted. I don't remember one that hunted a day in another state, maybe there were some acquaintances that did without my knowledge. You went to deer/elk/antelope camp, had a great time, maybe got some meat. Our family and most that we knew were lower middle to middle class, but the opportunity was there due to a relatively good resource. That and it was the family vacation that a lot of us took most years. I tend to think a lot of the hubbub and discontent with NR fees and opportunity is that many of us have gotten spoiled; I know I have. Not by money, but by opportunity. I have more great general tags to hunt than time, let alone stuff in other states that I might hunt now and then. Also a guy from one western state hunting another western state is operating on a whole different paradigm than everyone else. Just a reality of culture and proximity.

Things change and stuff costs money, this is life.
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There's a whole lot of truth in this post! I especially agree with the part about current day information sharing. It's opened alot of doors for me and others as well as colored my expectations when I do draw some hard to get tags. Well said.
 
By Gods grace and hard work I am at a point in my life where I can go on about one western hunt a year with my wife's blessing, before now it was one every 5 or 10 years. I brought my 15 y/o on his first western hunt with me this year for antelope and he loved it, I like the cheaper tags for youth. We are going to apply for elk this year and if we have no luck in the draw we will put in for mule deer. That being said I think some will not put in due to the increase as they have other priorities for their money. As for me it's in my blood and as long as I can, I will do at least one western hunt a year, it is hard for my wife to understand the addiction as she has never been west but she puts up with it the best she can and understands the need to a certain degree. At some point I will try to bring my other two sons out when they reach the age, because I want them to experience it, also getting it in their blood young should hopefully hook them for life.
 
I'm curious what it will do to draw odds, would really be nice to know if multiple people burned points this year. I'm really hoping to head to Wyoming next year with my wife for her first pronghorn hunt. We'll be in the draw with 4.5 points.

Anyone got any really good advice for running the go hunt or top rut draw odds calculators? Its easy enough for me to dump in our points and see what we can draw that requires less points than what we have, many of those I truly don't care about. I basically want to just know what units it takes our amount to draw (don't want to spend our points on units we could have drawn with less).
 
TheTone said:
I'm curious what it will do to draw odds, would really be nice to know if multiple people burned points this year. I'm really hoping to head to Wyoming next year with my wife for her first pronghorn hunt. We'll be in the draw with 4.5 points.

Anyone got any really good advice for running the go hunt or top rut draw odds calculators? Its easy enough for me to dump in our points and see what we can draw that requires less points than what we have, many of those I truly don't care about. I basically want to just know what units it takes our amount to draw (don't want to spend our points on units we could have drawn with less).
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Just go into the Draw Odds section of the G&F website and go down through all the Regular Draw odds and then the Special Draw odds if you think you'll be willing to enter that higher priced drawing next year to draw a more premium unit. Those two sections will tell you what you want to know IF the number of applicants in those units stays constant from this year. There is no way to know if the license increase for next year will cause less people to apply or if there will be an increase with many thinking that will be the case and they will have a better chance of drawing. In the past when there has been a license fee increase the number of applicants has dropped the year that increase takes place, but I wouldn't bet the house that will happen next season!
 
TheTone said:
I'm curious what it will do to draw odds, would really be nice to know if multiple people burned points this year. I'm really hoping to head to Wyoming next year with my wife for her first pronghorn hunt. We'll be in the draw with 4.5 points.

Anyone got any really good advice for running the go hunt or top rut draw odds calculators? Its easy enough for me to dump in our points and see what we can draw that requires less points than what we have, many of those I truly don't care about. I basically want to just know what units it takes our amount to draw (don't want to spend our points on units we could have drawn with less).
Click to expand...
You can never really know how many points it will take until after the draw. My son and I combined points for antelope this year as a party. I had nine and he had five. After it was all said and done, we probably left one point on the table. It was worth it to us to be sure we would draw this past year.
 
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