I failed to draw a Colorado Moose for the 24th year in a row, damnit.

That was about the time when I drew my Idaho bull moose permit. It was the 1st time I applied. Drawing tags has changed dramatically since then.

I quit applying for bison up here after 40 years of failure to draw. ART/KG suck!

I feel your pain, Beanman... I've been donating for 14 years now, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'm 6 feet under before I draw.

Stick with it... maybe it'll happen next year.

After 17 years, I aged out. I knew I would never draw a bull moose tag, so I put in for a cow moose tag in a RFW program. I drew Sliver Spur ranch near Walden and had my 15 minute hunt.

Shot my one and only Idaho bull moose back in 1991. Fun hunt, would love to do it again but would have to be with a Super Tag (another IDF&G money grubbing scheme)

---I saved my $8----didn't even apply. If I'm got to hit the big one----make it PowerBall.

Don’t feel bad, 30 years for sheep goat and moose in Washington. Over 20 in Idaho for buck, bull antelope and spring bear!!🤦‍♂️😅

Hang in there. It took 35 years to pull a sheep tag.

I have also aged out on drawing a Maine Moose tag. 30+ years with purchased points and no luck. With my age and some joint problems and replacements I don't think I can do it anymore. Will have to make do hunting whitetails as long as I can.
Have a great day.
Jim

This is my 35th year applying for a Maine moose tag. I was 31 y/o when I started!

I got my Idaho bull sometime in the 90's, too. We were near Ashton, just outside the park boundary. On opening day, it was 92F. We said screw that and went home. 10 days later, I got mine in 10" of snow. The weather can change fast that time of year.

I'm feeling like such a fool after so many years of applying for tags in different states.
I could have gone to Alaska or Canada and hunted something.
19 points (years) in Arizona..
17 in Colorado.
17 in Wyoming.
10 in Utah.
14 in Nevada.
A schittton in California.
It's ridiculous.

Been trying for bighorn for 49 yrs in Oregon. Historically had to front tag cost of about $90 and odds were in the 1 in 20 or 30 range. They did away with fronting the money and odds are now 1 in 400 or 500.

Have had 12-year-old kids that did my Hunter Ed class draw on their first try. Damn little bastards.

I drew my once in my lifetime Bull tag this year! 27/28 pts, i probably applied for over 40 years. Im 61, and will put the time in this fall. I will get to know Southern WY!

You’re not a loser. You just didn’t win. 😊

30+ years trying for Mountain Goat! ☹️ memtb

Drew my Bull Moose tag after 23 years in CO. Got a really nice Shiras Bull with my 35 Whelen.
My wife has been applying for even longer and has not drawn yet.

35 unsuccessful years at moose here in Colorado for me.

Years ago it was fairly easy to draw a Calif bighorn tag in Idaho. In some units the odds were as good as 1 in 5. Then a bug hit the sheep and the numbers dropped dramatically. They've never come back. Of course they had to drop the number of tags accordingly and now the drawing odds are more like 1 in 50.

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.

Idaho has no point system. A non-resident simply pays his $185 for a license and then prays that he can get a tag. Non-res OTC tags all go on sale on Dec 1 for the following year. It's a total online madhouse for an hour and that's it for the year. 50% get a tag of some kind, the rest don't. Or, there's the lottery. Non-res are limited to 10% of the tags in each hunt. The odds of drawing are highly variable depending on the number of applicants but in general, few hunts offer odds better than 25%, most are lower, some a LOT lower.

There's no shortage of hunters willing to play the game and pay the price. This last year, there were 35,000 total deer and elk OTC tags offered for sale. When sales opened online, there were 64,000 non-res hunters on line at the same time trying to get them, so many that it overwhelmed and crashed the system. That's over $11 million in license sales and that's just for OTC tags. Many of those later applied for draw hunts but there were also a lot of additional non-res hunters who later bought a license to apply for a hunt.

Same crap in Washington with a Bonus Point system. Not playing that game.

23 years applying for AZ antelope. I see the darn things almost every day. In 23 years I have drawn 2 Bull Elk tags , filled one. My wife has drawn 7 Bull Elk tags in the same time frame.
My youngest boy had drawn a deer tag 5 years in a row for UT but turned 18 and struck out this year.
I drew absolutely nothing in AZ, NM, CO and UT this year. Looks like I will be out trying to lure call shy coyotes this year.

That's why I've gone to hunting cows and doe antelope in Idaho. I'd rather hunt girls than not hunt at all. I've shot cows 4 years in a row while the bull hunters aren't hunting. The average draw on either sex antelope is once in 25 years. I've drawn twice in my life. Last year I started applying for a doe/fawn tag and drew one the 2d try.

I feel your pain. I'm over 30 on moose, bighorn and mtn goat in MT. It took 27 years for me to get a breaks elk tag and then I was in the hospital the part of the season so didn't get it filled.

Here i sit, was going to go moose hunting then I decided ph uck that. I must be spoiled lol. Some guys love the 2 day day odyssey getting to moose camp, the unrelentless winching machine out of one mudhole after another. Granted where I was going would of been none of that, but would've been me and about 100 of my new best buds. Stay home work on duck boat blind.

It will happen for you. I finally drew last year and I shot a top 10 with my muzzleloader. Incredible experience and beautiful country.

I will never draw an Oregon moose tag.




P

Put in for the "Maine" Moose for several years. Realized that it was NEVER going to happen. Said to hell with it, went to Canada and shot a moose.

In Idaho, we're limited to 1 bull and 1 cow in a lifetime. About 20 years ago, my partner and I put in for bull tags just outside of Yellowstone and we drew the 1st time. The drawing odds were about 50%. Man, has that changed. The same area now has odds of 5 to 10%. Yes, we both got our moose.