Just checked GoHunt. Archery hunts varied from tenths of a percent to fairly high. Assuming that you don’t want to travel and spend time on the sidelines for the easiest to draw hunts I chose one that had 2.2% odds with 0 points and multiplied it out by CURRENT odds as points increased and if you APPLIED AND RECIEVED A POINT each year rather than just buying a point, you’d have an 86% percent chance of drawing within six years. For rifle with a similar method of choosing units you’d have a 52% chance of drawing within eight years. So that’s roughly $1020 in apps for archery, and $1360 in apps for deer. That does not include tag price.
A) There are easier to draw hunts, as well as MUCH harder to draw hunts than either of the two that I looked at. To decide which hunt you’d be willing wait for and spend money on would require a lot of research into each hunt to determine why the difference in draw odds is what it is, and what that means to you, but there is always a reason.
B) I did not account for the change in odds at each point level that occurs from year to year. 4.4% odds at one point this year, does not equal 4.4% odds at one point next year.
C) You can see that if you paid a few extra bucks for another species, and drew each one once over 15-20years that you could basically cut your applications cost per species in half thus making he price a little more bearable.
Practically speaking hunting NV is a once in lifetime opportunity for anything other than archery deer. It’s not much more expensive than other states on a year to year basis, but you could hunt Montana or Wyoming ten times in the same time period for a similar price, or AZ 3-5 times.
All that said, NV could well be the best hunt you ever go on. CO and AZ have crappy deer.
If you’re worried about money, apply somewhere else. If you already apply everywhere else and have $170ish to throw down, then I say do it, don’t worry about the total long term cost, and if you ever draw you won’t regret it.
