Quote:
Originally Posted by Deer Hunter
I have seen wait times go from 2yrs, to 4 yrs, to 10 yrs, to impossible on trophy antelope.
I have not seen one single trophy type draw opportunity become easier to draw. Ever.
So a "long wait time" draw is a moving target. Most trophy draw that arent there already, will get there, eventually.
If your looking for my opinion
Remove all outfitter allocations on any hunt that a resident has to draw
Restrict landowner tags to antler less
Remove the ability to hunter host trophy species, replace it with partner tags.
Restrict the number of draws a resident can apply for
After a few years of this ^^^, review the draws and any left that are mathematically impossible for new hunters, change to once in a lifetime lotto
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I have to agree with your assessment of long wait times being a moving target. You have just moved it from 5 years to 0 years for outfitter allocations.
Not that I am a fan of outfitters , but I do not see where this will make much of a statistical difference to resident draw wait times. However, it sure will put a hurt on some resident individuals who have made outfitting their career. How about putting a 5% cap on non res allocations and suspending non res tags when resident tags fall below 100 tags per zone?
Obviously my past posts show my opinion on taking away landowner mule deer buck tags for landowners. I do believe that resident landowners should get some benefit for providing room and board for the queen's deer. Letting landowners only get tags most hunters don't want anyways (antlerless mule deer) is hardly a concession to landowners. Again I do not see how eliminating land owner mule buck tags will significantly shorten resident draw wait times.
That said, I would support a system that gives landowners who live in the zone a better chance of getting drawn every two to three years either through an accelerated priority system or a separate draw rather than the current landowner tag system.
I would like to see priority built up by WMU rather than by draw code. You can still apply for up to three zones each year and build priority in multiple zones. That way we would have much better idea of the real demand for tags in each WMU and when a new hunting season opens in a zone all hunters have equal access to the tags, rather than the just rewarding the 999 priority hoarders.
I would also like to see all resident hunters have the opportunity to have a "local resident zone" or a "favourite zone" for which they have some connection (ie they live in proximity of the zone, or have friends or family who own land in the zone) and be able to get a one point priority boost for that zone. (similar concept to the non res family tags in Sask for whitetails)
Even though I use 999 extensively, I would just as soon get rid of the 999 option or perhaps limit its use to only a couple times per draw. This would eliminate the priority hoarding of multiple special draws, If you have no intention of hunting that year do not apply.
I like your idea of replacing hunter host tags with partner licences.
I also support restricting the number of draw applications a resident can make in any one year. ie, Only one application from antlered mule, antlered whitetail, and camp wainwright,,, one application from the list of elk and moose tags,,, one antelope application etc