Draw Newbie

[Dustee]

Hello!

My wife and I are new to Alberta, both having hunted in BC for quite a while. Looking over the draw system here there are quite a few notable differences. The biggest one that I'm not sure what to do with is the points. Should I be just doing points priority for the foreseeable future to try and get enough points in each category for draw hunts, while hunting the general seasons. Or are there still ways to get into hunts while not having/using priority points? Although I guess it doesn't matter if you put in for the draw and don't get it you still get points from what I understand? I'm not sure if I'm missing something.

CJ

[elkhunter11]

The draws, seasons, bag limits, are all wmu specific. In some wmus, you can hunt some species with an over the counter tag, with no draw required. Some species like pronghorn and turkey are all draw, regardless of the wmu. So pick the wmu that interests you, and look at the regulations to see what applies.

[philintheblank]

When you go to albertarelm, looks at the draw summary tab and it has the current year (which, right now is last years season) and previous years. You can check out the point creep on some of the draws so you don't waste any time or money digging into them more.

Some units you can get tags on 0 pri. So don't think you need to 999 everything just because you are new.

Triple check your draws before you hit purchase. There is limited editing that can be done once you have paid.

[freeride]

It's all based on priority points here. There are only very few draws that are solely based on random chance.

Your points are not doubled, square or anything else. A point is a point, you may only collect 1 point per draw per year, either by 999 it, or by applying and not drawing.

Some species you may only put in for one sex, or one wmu, and your points do not transfer over. Like the 408, 410 trophy sheep, select which one you want then your points stay in that wmu. Others like antelope you gain points for the trophy, non trophy, or archery and the wmu can change when you apply. Also some if you apply for cow elk, you can't apply for a bull elk in the same year. Some like antelope you can apply all 3 every year.

Confused yet? Lol

They draw all the highest priority points first and fill in the draw until the draw is filled. (Always hear of glitches every year however, might be true, might not)
So a P14 will be drawn before a P13 etc.

As stated have a good hard look at the numbers below those drawn last year too. For example if 10 tags were allotted and those at P4 all drew, but there are a total of 400 people total for P1, P2 and P3 it will take 40 years to draw at that rate.

Just look at the turkey draw rate for that... in reality your better going back to BC if you want a turkey hunt.

[Dubious]

Everything you need to know about the draws can be found here

https://albertaregulations.ca/hunting-draws-2022.html

You can cross reference the amount of points you need but take it with a grain of salt it can change year to year depending on how many people put in their pri and how many tags are available here.

https://www.albertarelm.com/cust.Dra...istorical.page

Because your new and your asking on a forum I would suggest you read the regs cover to cover including the trapping regs found here.

https://albertaregulations.ca/huntingregs/
https://albertaregulations.ca/trappingregs/

People love to bring rules and laws that don’t exist to Alberta from other jurisdictions and hunters love to not read the regs for them selves leading to some pretty egregious errors and completely false made up laws they promote and others follow a pretty common mistake is selective reading and then applying that to all hunting situations. this forum has had its share of well intended misinformation in the past so double check everything with the regs. If it’s not in the regs it’ll be in the act found here

https://open.alberta.ca/publications/w10

Best of luck with your draws I usually recommend new hunters in Alberta just build points for a few seasons and learn where their target species live vs trying to just cold call mass draw as many tags as they can get their hands on.burning pri and then not even seeing your target species can happen and if you burned 3 years of pri instead of waiting for 4 in a known area that can set a guy back.

[Dustee]

Appreciate all of the advice! I've been elbows deep in the regs to make sure I'm on top of the differences, and a few of you have reached out and offered advice via PM. I'm looking forward to my first year here!

[MountainTi]

There are a handful of draws that are a waste of $3 to put in for (although $3 isn't much to spend so why not) that a virtually unattainable if you are starting from scratch. There are parts of the Alberta draw system that are broken, but no one with the testicular fortitude to fix it.
You can figure out the draws I am referring to my looking up Alberta draw summaries

[ganderblaster]

IHunter is about the easiest. Hit the zone you want to
Hunt then the species and it will say if it’s draw season or regular over the counter. Of course check the regs too, but it’s a simple way.