Caribou Gear

Big Proposed Changes Ahead for South Dakota Deer Licensing

dcreiss

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The SD GFP commission had a very interesting licensing system evaluation provided to them from the GFP staff regarding suggested options for changing resident choices and eligibility for deer licenses. The GFP commissioners asked the agency to research different licensing systems to increase the number of hunters who draw their preferred deer license. Folks would be limited to receiving either an East River, a West River, or a Black Hills deer tag through the first two draws under the first proposal; the second proposal would only allow a resident to draw an East River, a West River, a Black Hills, a Custer State Park, a Wildlife Refuge, or a Muzzle loader license through the first two draw cycles. This is a drastic change from the current system where residents can apply for each of these licenses separately and concurrently, drawing more than one different license per season. There are more refinements to the system suggested within both proposals and warrant reading, non-resident licensing would be affected if adopted as well but less so. This movement follows last month's GFP commission decision to change preference points to a cubed system for all big game licensing; seems to be an interesting change that could benefit those holding points.


The proposal begins on page 29
https://gfp.sd.gov/userdocs/meetings/march2018book2.pdf
 
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Good luck to ya. With 7 pts you still aren't guaranteed because SD doesn't have a true preference or system but with 7 pts cubed your odds are gonna be pretty good.
 
They reduced cow elk tags by 1/3 as well.

Sounds fine to me. They cut back for years and all of a sudden they gave out over 1000 cow tags the last two years. The hills could handle more elk, they let a pile of cattle our there so why not let the elk flourish
 
Sounds fine to me. They cut back for years and all of a sudden they gave out over 1000 cow tags the last two years. The hills could handle more elk, they let a pile of cattle our there so why not let the elk flourish

Ya, just interesting to me that they never mentioned reducing tags when asking for public input on changing the draw.

Wonder what surprises they have in store once they institute this change.
 
Gonna ask for some advice here- could I hunt big game every year in SD as a resident if I moved to the Black Hills for work? Might have an opportunity this summer for permanent relocation.
 
Yes, as a resident there would be opportunity every year to hunt between archery, mz, and rifle licenses.
 
Gonna ask for some advice here- could I hunt big game every year in SD as a resident if I moved to the Black Hills for work? Might have an opportunity this summer for permanent relocation.

As dc mentions, there is always an opportunity to hunt big game somehow... Archery deer, antelope, turkey is guaranteed. Rifle tags and muzzle tags are a draw and depends on where you are trying to hunt - some tags are easier to draw some harder (as this thread mentions potential draw changes could have unknown impact on draws too)... Elk tags are extremely hard to get - normally taking many years to draw but you would be closer to western states with many more elk options....
 
Dang, I have a pile of both WRD and BHD points in anticipation of someday making a single trip for both.
 
I had planned to burn my BHD points this year, but drew a ND mule deer tag which has a majority of the season overlapping. I am hoping I will be able to use either my BHD (2) or WRD (7) next year and not be able to accrue a point but still retain my points for the other.
 
Does this have any impact on NR archery? I heard rumblings that changes were coming but haven’t had time to follow up. I’ll try to answer my own question onMonday if no one knows!
 
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