Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game 24 years a loser.

I have applied for an elk tag in Michigan in every drawing since 1968 and am still waiting. Maybe I can shoot one out of the nursing home window in 2037.

Mac:

The hybrid draw really sucks. I'm in the same shape as you except for goats.

AK has no preference system... everyone is on the same plane every year...

Same in Idaho.

I've been applying for sheep in AZ for 41 years. Still no tag. Maybe this current draw...

Happy Birthday!

😯

How many points do you have?!?!

There is hope as long as you are stubborn enough to stay in the game and live long enough.
Drew Arizona deer in 2012 with 15 points Unit 12A West Late
Drew Arizona Elk in 2017 with 23 points Unit 10 Early
Drew Wyoming Antelope in 2022 with 16 points Unit 61

I drew Bull Moose after 11 years, my buddy took 22 years for the same tag. But now, 5 years later, he drew a Cow Moose to supplement the once-in-a-lifetime Bull. Try applying for archery or muzzle; then you can trade it in for rifle later, unless they changed it. I hunted muzzle, he hunted archery (longbow and wooden arrows).

No moose for me either, after 17 years trying.

My hunting buddy and I have put in for most of the same tags since we met.

He drew his bull moose tag in Year 8 and a cow moose tag 6 years after that; he has had 3 Bighorn Ram tags in the time I took to get 1; he had 2 goat tags, and I am still waiting, and so on.

He is, shall we say, lucky in the draws, lol.

I pulled the plug on Washington draw tags 2 years ago. Just a revenue racket at best. And last year I pulled the plug on the STATE of Washington and moved south. I still have a new 1500 sf cabin on 20 acres that’s going on the market soon. Hint…

I've taken 36 bull moose in 36 years with free over the counter general hunt moose tags, a dozen were over 60" & another dozen just under 60"

Draw tags are bs, especially the point system tags, designed to make suckers believe they are in some sort of contest and winning a tag is an honored prize

stop applying and supporting the scams, draw tags were created to end the hunting of big game, at first they lead to diminished hunting opportunities, as you are experiencing now .... final results are no hunting at all ...

You could have shot a moose in Alaska or Canada with all that wasted money.

So what's your suggestion for replacing draws? Some draw hunts in Idaho have only 5% chances of drawing. There simply aren't enough animals to just sell OTC tags. Maybe AK has a moose behind every tree but the rest of the states sure don't. Some units in Idaho have enough moose to allow for 10 tags and there are nearly 400 applicants. If they just sold tags OTC, the moose would be extinct in a couple of seasons.
Idaho also has some OTC deer and elk hunts. They allot a certain % to non-res hunters. This year they allotted 35,000 total OTC tags to non-res hunters, 1st come, 1st served. When they put them on sale, they had 64,000 hunters online at the same time trying to get them. The demand was unprecedented and crashed the computer system.

Game numbers can't support the heavy demand for tags without some kind of controls. So what's your suggestion?

I drew a Wyoming area# 61 any antelope tag and an area #100 bull elk tag, had a heart attack and returned the licenses to G&F and they were given to disabled veterans. I waited a LONG time for that Red Desert Elk tag.

I gave up on that waste of money a very long time ago.

Go shoot a Wap in NZ.

I'm so sick of playing the points game.
Thousands of dollars in hunting licenses annually that I throw in the garbage.

I dunno about the states you mentioned but here in montana its a "bonus" point system....NOT a preference point system. Simply a way of raising revenue that doesnt up your odds in any way. Its a snare and a delusion.