150,000 Hunters Apply for New Mexico Licenses

[noharleyyet]

April 19, 2010.

The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish received about 150,000 applications for 62,475 licenses in this year's drawing for deer, elk, antelope, ibex, javelina, bighorn, and Barbary sheep hunts. Many applicants swarmed the Department Web site April 7, pushing the deadline all the way to the 5 p.m. cutoff.

The Web site held its own, barely breaking stride despite the pressure of more than 56,000 visits in the two days before the deadline. The site averages about 7,000 visits a day. The Department also expects about 39,000 paper applications, which had to be postmarked by April 7 to meet the deadline.

The drawing for the 2010-2011 licenses will be in June, and hunters can check their results in mid-June by logging on to their account at www.wildlife.state.nm.us.

 

[schmalts]

I wonder how that compared to last year before the pay up front fees.

 

[Moosie]

Thas like a 50% chance of drawing ... right

 

[Baerman]

Thas like a 50% chance of drawing ... right

Guess we'll see you down there!

 

[KingCrow]

How many people applied last year?

 

[IdahoBugler]

Sounds like it's going to hard to draw tags this year.

 

[Big Fin]

How many people applied last year?

Total apps last year were 171,090.

If they had 150,000 received by the deadline and expect another 39,000 after the postmark deadline, looks like the up front fee did little to deter anyone from applying. Maybe encouraged people to apply.

 

[jabber]

It would be interesting to see the Res. vs. NR breakdown of the 2 years. Total applications can be misleading.

 

[Big Fin]

It would be interesting to see the Res. vs. NR breakdown of the 2 years. Total applications can be misleading.

I agree. I have the breakdown for 2009, but I suspect the department can't provide that yet for 2010.