Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game WY application deadline?

Am I reading the Regs right - elk apply by Jan 31, antelope/deer May 31?

I thought elk, deer, antelope were all the same date.

Thanks.

That is correct. Elk is still due by January 31st. You can modify your app until May 8th. Results will be out before May 31st.
It’s definitely better than previous years but WYOGA can be blamed for the January 31st deadline.

Thanks.

Not a fan of the WY Guide Ass. Somehow I've been able to hunt in wilderness areas without getting hopelessly lost and needing rescued.

The deer / antelope draw dates have been later than the elk dates for long time. This worked out nicely because you could plan your deer or antelope hunt after finding out if you drew your elk tag. The movement of the elk draw date to May with the ability to modify your choice or opt out gives you the chance to access better information that won't be made available until April. I hate the suspense of not knowing the results until May but it makes sense to me.

I much preferred their earlier draw date. Left one with plenty of time to explore other options if he was unsuccessful.

Right!. I for one will no longer apply to Wyoming for Elk. I will likely have drawn other state draws by May so will have no need to hunt Wyoming by then.

Good deal Lefty, pass the word around!!!

Not only that, but Wyoming now gets to hang on to our expensive non-resident application fees for months...racking up expensive interest on credit cards. I much prefer Idaho or Colorado.

If you're using credit, and racking up interest, to buy your applications then you have no business going on hunts anyway.

Get your finances in order.

-Jake

I'm fine. Just fighting for a lot of my buddies and people that I would like to hunt with who just can't afford to not float hunt tag costs on their credit cards. It used to be that money would be returned before needing to be paid out, no longer.

Plus, Wyoming keeps 2.5% or some such of total charges for credit card processing. That amounts to a lot of you are applying to units with only a random chance to draw.

I hope that Wyoming uses the extra funds to improve habitat and reduce the increasing amount of CWD spreading all over the state's Elk and Deer populations.

In WY, you also cannot return an elk license for a refund or get preference points back.

In any case, good luck, but my buddies have a better chance at drawing good hunts in other states and NOT Wyoming and with much lower frequency of CWD than in Wyoming.

I’m fine with WY charging 2.5% on credit cards if you want to pay with a card. What I don’t understand is why can’t you pay with a check if you want to avoid the 2.5% fee.

The 2.5 percent credit card charge is to offset the 3 percent that the credit card companies charge merchants to run the card. WY ate that charge for a lot of years. They just started charging for it last year.

Consider that you aren't really floating it, pay off the credit card immediately, then months later if it's refunded, you get a credit on the card. In effect it lowers your monthly bill in May/June if you don't draw.

I'll second that Idea WCH, Tell every hunter you meet Lefty.

I’ve have hunted Wyoming off and on since 1984. Never had a guided, also did a lot of research and figured it. Lots input from mostly helpful game dept people. My friends and I usually always punched our tags. Land owners were always very accommodating, and I got to me some really great people. Had a buddy retire to Colorado, so started going out there. Was a little easier, just buy a tag over the counter when you get there, so if something came up you weren’t out a bunch of money. And life does happen, twice I had to let my tags go to waste over the years, no hard feelings.

The thing that is messed is the cornholin you get when you pay for the tags. Just you drop them pants, squeal boy!
Now I can see a difference between a resident and non-resident, but 10 times the amount, just plain gouging. Non residents pay about 3/4 of the F&G budget, I think the last time I looked. Especially if your hunting on Federal National Forest, equal ownership. Then you can’t go to certain wilderness areas, because they’re set aside for the outfitters to gouge more out of staters. So even though you pay the fee your restricted on property that you’re part owner and pay to maintain.. when you complain you always get, you out of staters might get lost. With modern GPS that’s damn near impossible unless your IQ is below 80. When you discuss it on an open forum you always the residents, like above, hey don’t come. I wish every out of stater would stay away for a year and let them feel the pinch, more than just a loss of game dept revenue. Hotels, restaurants, stores, bars, gas stations, etc.

Use to always work two jobs so I could save up and do the trips. But most non residents think why if you can afford you must be rich. Kinda like when I put both my daughters through college. My wife and I worked two jobs and always payed their education cash. No debt, no college loans. But also never qualified for education credit on tax returns, as we applied ourselves. Love the State of Wyoming but doubtful I’ll ever hunt there again. Unless of course that crazy black rapper invites me to his ranch up in the Bighorns. Don’t think it will happen though.