Question on specific unit tag allocations in WY

[npaden]

Okay. I drew my general elk tag so I'll be going to Wyoming again this year and I'm starting to think about my Wyoming pronghorn application and am still scratching my head over last years draw results and would like to try to figure it out so I don't have to rely so much on getting lucky with my first choice like I did last year.

When preparing for the 2012 draw, I used the 2011 draw results and applied for unit 73 as my 2nd choice because it looked like there was a tiny bit of a chance I could draw it with my 2nd choice and put unit 72 as my 3rd choice because it looked like a lock and had leftover license that year.

When the results for 2012 came out I was lucky and drew my 1st choice, and it's a good thing because I wouldn't have drawn either 72 or 73 with my 2nd choice.

In 2011 there were 994 resident tags and 203 tags allocated to the nonresident special pool for unit 72. There were only 67 1st choice applicant so there were plenty left for 2nd choice applicants.

In 2012 there were only 713 resident tags (a 28% reduction), but the nonresident special tags were cut all the way down to 64 (a 68% reduction). Applicants were actually up from 67 in 2011 to 135 in 2012 so obviously there would have been no tags left for 2nd choice applicants.

Unit 73 had a similar reduction in resident tags, but the nonresident special tags were reduced by the same % on it so that made sense and it just turned out that the applications for that unit on the special nonresident tag doubled for some reason.

My big question is what in the heck happened with unit 72? Resident tags go down 28% and Nonresident tags go down 68%? There were a similar number of nonresident tags in 2010 as there were in 2011, just a massive drop in 2012. It looks like there may have been an overallocation in prior years and they just evened it up in 2012?

How do they go about calculating this and how would I have been able to figure out the big change after my application was submitted when I could have still modified it?

Lots of questions and I think I confused myself in there, but hopefully someone can make some sense out of it and help me on this.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[Topgun 30-06]

Some of the units like 72 were really cut because of the bad winter a year ago along with the continuing drought, so a number of people were surprised they didn't get drawn based on previous year's odds. I believe WapitiBob stated you can get the final tag numbers that are alotted to a unit before the modify/withdraw date is up by contacting G&F for that information.

 

[WapitiBob]

Yeppers, I got the tentative numbers for all species in March. They were printed out for the meetings on March 19 last year and emailed to me shortly after.

 

[npaden]

Thanks. I understand that the overall tags for a unit will be adjusted based on population counts and stuff like that.

But why were the nonresident tags on 72 cut by 68% and the resident tags only cut by 28%? That's the confusing part to me. It looks like 72 had an overallocation of nonresident tags in the past or something and then put them back in line in 2012.

i.e. in unit 73 the nonresident special tags were 7.6% of the total resident tags in 2011 and 2012 The % of resident to nonresident tags stayed rock solid. They cut the resident tags down, and the nonresident special tags went down, but by the same % as the resident tags.

In unit 72 the nonresident special tags were 19.5% of the total resident tags in 2010, 20.4% of the total resident tags in 2011 and then dropped all the way down to just 8.9% of the resident tags in 2012. Not only were the overall tag numbers cut, somehow an allocation between resident and nonresident changed in 2012. There was still a higher % in 72 than in 73, but it really dropped.

Is there some type of high demand type feature that caused it to change in 2012? That's the part I'm not understanding.

Thanks, Nathan

 

[npaden]

Anyone know how they go about allocating the nonresident vs. resident % on these?

Is there a chance they will go back up to where they were at in prior years on unit 72 as far as the split between residents and nonresidents or will it stay like it is?

Thanks, Nathan

 

[boutdoors]

Last year North Dakota suspended its Antelope season due to the severe winter 0f 2011. South Dakota suspended its Antelope season for non residents also. That put a lot of pressure on WY. Last year the leftover doe tags in the area I wanted to hunt sold out online in about 3 hours (226 tags). It looks to a repeat of last year so be prepared.
Robert