Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Big Game Points System 101

I have been itching to hunt out west all my life. I am at a place in my life where I have the time and the money to do it. My bad joints will limit the number of years I'll be able to do it though. I need to move this dream forward. In the reading that I have done, I have read about preference points, but have yet to read anything that demystified that for me. Hunting in the southeast is simple. You buy the license and you go hunting. Out west it doesn't seem so simple. Even reading various websites and government links hasn't helped me understand the process. Maybe I haven't found the right link.

Let's say I want to hunt Pronghorn on public land in Wyoming. Please walk me through the steps I would need to take to be eligible to do that. I obviously have zero points. Is it different if I hire a guide? If there is any reading you'd recommend, please do. Thanks!

Paul, I would tune up Randy Newbergs (BigFins) podcasts. He breaks stuff down pretty easily and you can come up with a hunting plan for the species you'd like to hunt.

I like hunt elk, pretty much any elk so I apply accordingly

I buy elk preference points in Wyoming and also put in for New Mexico's draw yearly. I also put in for spike elk in Oregon. I can usually draw a bull tag every other year in Wyoming and the spike tag in Oregon yearly. I also use Idaho as my over the counter state for elk. You can walk into a grocery store in Idaho and get an elk and deer tag.

My plan keeps me with 2 tags a year for elk. I also apply for Wyoming deer and moose.

Each state does it a little differently but the basic idea is, different game management units (GMUs) are managed differently in terms of how many tags are allotted annually, and the objective. Some GMUs are managed for quantity with lots of tags issued and some are managed for quality with good numbers of doe and cow tags but limited numbers of bull/buck tags with the objective of producing big horns. You need to know which units you're applying for, what the objective is, and what your chances of drawing are, i..e, how many tags are normally issued (varies by year) and how many people typically apply for those tags. Colorado DOW publishes that data so you can get a GMU-by-GMU idea of your odds. The harder it is to draw (some units might take 20 years) the more limited the number of tags and the better the hunting will be. You may only get to hunt a particular unit once in a lifetime but you're pretty much guaranteed to see good bucks or bulls.

In CO, every time you apply for a first choice tag and don't draw, you get a point for that species, including elk, deer, pronghorn, bear, and turkey. For Sheep, Goats, and moose, that's a different system that gives most everyone a chance at drawing a tag every year, it's a lottery.

The concept of buying points is foreign to me. Let's use your example of buying elk preference points in Wyoming. How do you buy them? How do you apply them? Is there a limit to how many you can buy?

I assume there is an application fee for each time you apply whether you are drawn or not, is that correct?

I just found this, and it answers many questions.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/elsapplication/docs/preferencepoint.htm

If you go to the web site wapititalk.com in the center of the first page is horizontal line of forums ,go to the far left and click on the square that has state elk regulations,you can get all the info there of different states.

A few states do not offer preference points, some you can buy a point each year without participating in a drawing.Some you apply with the full license fee and receive a point if you do not draw our first choice.

It would be impossible to enumerate all the differences of each individual state without typing about 5 pages

A few years ago (maybe 2012) we would walk into any place that sold hunting licenses in WY and buy 2 non-res leftover pronghorn tags for any unit that was available. Almost all of the units were available and I think they were even at reduced price. Buck pronghorn tags were a little less available and cost a little more but still plenty to be had. About the only other thing you needed was a BLM map.
I haven't been recently but I've seen the changes in CO and I think WY has tightened up also.

Oregon: One has to purchase a license before applying. One garners a preference point if he's unsuccessful for his first choice. One still gets a point if he draws his second choice. Rare for any eastern Or unit to have tags left for second choice applicants. Highest point holders will get tags with 75% of tags going to point holders. The remaining 25% of tags for a unit go into a completely random draw of all first choice applicants. That being, a non point holder always has some chance of drawing. One can also simply buy a point each year if he does not have time to do a hunt.

The points system is relevant to deer, elk, pronghorn, and spring bear. The point system is not applied to bighorn or mt goat hunts. A random draw for those each year, and I've been unsuccessful for 42 seasons.

There are some auction tags if one has deep pockets.

It sounds like in some states I have to buy the license, but may not get drawn. Is that correct?

Paul:
That is correct, but I don't have an inclusive list of those states at hand. I live in Oregon, but I would not hunt here as a non-resident.

Thank Goodness I don't live in a state that uses a point system is all I have to say though I suspect the Ky Elk system might be headed that way at some point.

It's about the only option when applications far exceed the carrying capacity of the landscape. When I moved to Oregon in 1974, one simply purchased a tag and went where ever. With three days of effort and finding hunters at every turn, I gave up elk hunting. The bull/cow ratio was down to about 3/97 in some units. With our limited entry system now, one has a much better chance at scoring a decent animal and opportunities to do spot and stalk hunts. Venture into rugged terrain, and one may be alone for days.

I'm pretty much happy if I can hunt something somewhere each year. Typically means going out of state about 1 out of every three years.

If one is willing to do archery, he can do both deer and elk on an annual basis in Oregon. Archery deer for me locally this season and doing Wy for elk.

With what has been posted here and reading a bit on the net, I am starting to understand the basics. I guess it really gets tough to make things work out when you want a bud or two to come along.

Don t know how other states do it but in CO you can apply as a group and you eitber all draw tags or all don't.

Idaho has no point system. A few years ago, the IDFG polled hunters to see if they wanted one and their answer was an overwhelming NO. We'd rather take our chances every year. It does make it very hard to draw for some species, like antelope, sheep, and goat, but we like having an equal chance every year. If we don't draw for deer or elk, no problem. Just drive farther to an open hunt.

Most states require hunters to have completed a hunter's education course in one of the 50 states prior to applying for a tag or purchasing a tag. Most states exempt people born before a certain year but in CO I think that is 1949 so if you want to hunt out west you might as well take a hunter's ed class right away. If you want to hunt with a bow, several states require you also take a bow hunting education class or show a recent archery tag from 1 of the 50 states.

THE DRAWING SYSTEM IN COLORADO: Learning how the drawing process works is an important part of learning how to hunt elk in Colorado. The state is divided into game management units (GMU). Each year the game managers determine a quota for each species in each GMU and from that determine how many licenses of each species they will issue in order to manage each population. It's a very complicated system. Here's a simplified (maybe over-simplified) summary.

Over-the-counter bull elk tags can be purchased at sporting goods stores, some department stores, gun shops, Parks & Wildlife offices, etc. The number of those licenses is unlimited and they are valid in about half of the GMUs west of I-25. Low probability of success on OTC bull tags but each year a few tags are filled that way. Sometimes it just takes luck.

Cow elk tags are issued only through the draw (there are some exceptions but let's keep it simple for this introductory narrative). There are many GMUs where there are more cow tags offered than there are applicants. The extra tags are called leftover tags and they are offered first-come first-serve at Parks & Wildlife offices in early August. You have a much better chance of bagging a cow elk than you do of tagging out on a bull. A lot of people will hunt for cow elk in a unit where they eventually hope to hunt for bulls and in the process they learn the unit and are ready for the day that they get a bull tag. It probably makes most sense for a nonresident to apply for an either-sex tag.

If you apply for the draw and if you don't get what you applied for you get a preference point. You can also apply for a preference point. Each time that you are unsuccessful you get another point. People with the most points are awarded licenses before people with fewer points.

There are several GMUs where the OTC bull tags are not valid and bull tags are issued through the draw. You can draw a bull tag in some of those units with only a few preference points and some have pretty good success for representative bulls. These units are where a lot of elk hunters get their bulls.

There are a hand full of premium units that are managed to produce trophy bulls and there are only a few tags issued each year. Success rates are very high and quality is very high. In those units it now takes a couple of decades worth of points to draw a license and the number of points required increases slowly. It will eventually get to the point where it takes so many points that those units will be de-facto once-in-a-lifetime units.

You can apply for up to four choices on the application. Each year I apply for a preference point as my first choice. Second and subsequent choices do not use up your points. My second choice is a cow tag in a unit that has historically had leftover cow tags so I'm pretty sure I'll get that tag and it's also in a unit where OTC bull tags are valid. So each year I get another preference point and I go into the field with a cow tag and a bull tag. I shoot the first cow that I see and spend the rest of the season looking for a bull. I now have 18 preference points for elk. I've shot 32 elk since 1978, although only eight of them have been bulls and they are all big five point (5x5) or small six point (6x6) bulls.

Pronghorn and deer tags are issued only through the draw and the system is similar to that for elk.

Colorado issues very few licenses for moose, rocky mountain bighorn sheep, mountain goats and desert bighorns. You have to apply for three years just to get into the draw and start collecting points. One should consider any license for any of those species as a once-in-a-lifetime tag although if you were to start applying for and gathering points when young it's conceivable that you could hunt those species two or three times in a lifetime.

Internet is the easiest way to apply. Here's the home page for CO Parks & Wildlife.
http://cpw.state.co.us/

There are so many options that there is no easy answer for just how and what you should apply for. There is a lot of info on the CO P&W web site and you need to spend mucho, mucho hours studying all that's available. Concentrate on big game statistics.
http://cpw.state.co.us/thingstodo/Pages/Statistics.aspx

When you're ready to apply, start here.
http://cpw.state.co.us/BuyApply/pages/hunting.aspx
In Colorado there is no separate big game hunting license. Your elk tag is your hunting license. They will send your license/tag in the mail.

You must have completed a hunter education course if you were born after January 1, 1949. You also need to buy a $10 habitat stamp. If you don't draw any tag, everything but a small application fee is refunded.

I'm not familiar with the systems in other states, but I'm guessing that each state has a similar system with unique differences.

KC

I'll ask another couple of questions. so I live in a state with a point system is one generally able to accumulate enough points in two or three years to have a good chance at having enough points to get into good elk area, or does it take 10-20 points. I understand it's a bit different for rare anaimals like sheep where it may be one CE in a lifetime. Also where do all these stories of I've killed 30-40 elk and hundreds of deer in my life come from. Are landowners exempt from the points system and eligible for a special tag?

I am 74, and I started hunting deer when I was 14 and elk when I was 20. I hunted both mule deer and whitetails just about every year when I was in college and all through six years of graduate school. I hunted elk at least three of those years. Since then, I have hunted deer in Texas, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado and Arizona, sometimes in two or occasionally in three states in the same year. Starting at about age 37, I hunted elk somewhere every year, and for the next 25 years or so, I usually hunted elk in at least two western states and occasionally three. I also killed more than 1,100 white tailed deer and about 40 mule deer while collecting animals for research projects over the years.

I have had friends and coworkers over the years that were not involved in scientific collecting, but they were better situated financially and work-wise. They hunted and killed way more big game on licenses that were purchased through the normal channels than I did during that time. There are, relatively speaking, more than a few here on the campfire who would fit that description, as well.

It is a lot harder to do that today in the public draws, especially if you are a nonresident, but I know more than a handful of people personally who still manage to hunt multiple states for deer and elk each year. It just takes seriously studying the regs in each state, having enough money to apply and and pay for the the tags you draw, and the time--both to apply and to actually do the hunts.