Ollin Magnetic Digiscoping System

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Doc7

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Just checking to make sure I am understanding draw dates right.

I am someone who lives and hunts on the east coast and have gotten fairly interested in WY antelope hunting. I am also interested in elk hunting but never been.

based on what I see on draw dates I can:
Apply for Wyoming elk tag in Jan and find out if I drew in Feb

If no draw, put in for New Mexico elk tags next. NM is nice because there are good units with highly varied dates and with my job some years I just can’t hunt a certain 4-6 week period and it will vary but I should know it by February. For instance this year I couldn’t hunt Nov 1 - nov 28. So I could apply to units and seasons that were October and December muzzleloader for instance.

Find out in March. By May 31 if no drawn tags yet, put in for Wyoming antelope tags.

in July buy points for antelope Mule deer and elk in WY.

Every year I can put in for decent (25 percent odds) units with 20-30 percent elk succes rates and high draw odds antelope but never end up with two tags worth of cash outlay at the same time. I’ll spend some money on fees.
Am I missing anything?
 
based on what I see on draw dates I can:
Apply for Wyoming elk tag in Jan and find out if I drew in Feb

Am I missing anything?
As I understand it, Wyoming is moving their elk drawing to May for 2020
 
Well, yeesh, that wouldn’t be as nice for my super plan to have two shots at elk tags and a backup pronghorn hunt. To be honest still trying to get my feet wet out west so I’ll probably just apply NM Elk and WY pronghorn in mean time but we’ll see. WY Elk is just over the edge of what I was wanting to really drive for, 28 hours is something I can do in an evening and two days, to get to the west side of WY is basically making driving almost 3 full days.
 
Am I understanding correctly that I can pick the 2nd or 3rd Rifle season in CO, buy that tag (it's just called 2nd Season OTC Bull Elk or 3rd Season OTC Bull Elk with no GMU #, etc?) and hunt any of these orange areas on this map? https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Maps/OTCRifleElk.pdf

Is there not a lot of public land in these areas or what? For example I could hunt Unit 43, 36, etc all on the same week? Seems strange that it's so easy to get a tag that covers so much land and elk. Are the elk really that different in the 1st Season (draw) that people spend years trying to get them in the points system rather than just hunt it 7 days later OTC?
 
W
Am I understanding correctly that I can pick the 2nd or 3rd Rifle season in CO, buy that tag (it's just called 2nd Season OTC Bull Elk or 3rd Season OTC Bull Elk with no GMU #, etc?) and hunt any of these orange areas on this map? https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Maps/OTCRifleElk.pdf

Is there not a lot of public land in these areas or what? For example I could hunt Unit 43, 36, etc all on the same week? Seems strange that it's so easy to get a tag that covers so much land and elk. Are the elk really that different in the 1st Season (draw) that people spend years trying to get them in the points system rather than just hunt it 7 days later OTC?
what u have said I’d correct. 2nd and third season are OTC and allows u to hunt a lot of diff units. The weather can be brutal by third season and where the elk are in first season could be much diff depending on weather. U have mentioned what states and deadlines etc also. In a timeline order, WY is first (Jan 31) deadline to apply and results have been moved to late May this yr, next up Is AZ which is second Tuesday in Feb deadline, then Utah in March and NM same timeframe. CO is first of April. And last state I apply in Is NV which I think is late May? I can’t remember it’s deadline exactly. I just started applying there so can recall it exactly. My point is, if u are serious about hunting the west, u will need more than one state to try to get tags in.
 
@Doc7

Am I understanding correctly that I can pick the 2nd or 3rd Rifle season in CO, buy that tag (it's just called 2nd Season OTC Bull Elk or 3rd Season OTC Bull Elk with no GMU #, etc?) and hunt any of these orange areas on this map? https://cpw.state.co.us/learn/Maps/OTCRifleElk.pdf
Yes, that is correct.

Is there not a lot of public land in these areas or what? For example I could hunt Unit 43, 36, etc all on the same week? Seems strange that it's so easy to get a tag that covers so much land and elk. Are the elk really that different in the 1st Season (draw) that people spend years trying to get them in the points system rather than just hunt it 7 days later OTC?

There is plenty of public land and animals in those units. All my CO elk were killed in "orange" units. 2nd and 3rd season do have more hunters, and lower harvest rates than the other seasons due to the fact that you are hunting post rut elk. If you look at the draw statistics, you will notice that if a unit is OTC in 2nd and 3rd season then it will mostly likely be 0-1pts to draw in Muzzy, 1st and 4th seasons. In effect you can hunt the OTC tags and build points to hunt a "trophy" unit at some later date, or you can apply in the draw, forgo your preferences points, and hunt during a less crowded season.

1576512639635.png

The Colorado tags people are waiting decades to draw are in 10, 201, 2, etc. These units only have 1 rifle season and do not have OTC tags or 2nd/3rd/4th seasons.

1576512689297.png
 
Plenty of those Colorado draw only tags are very easy to get. You can draw a tag with your 2nd, 3rd, or 4th choice and not burn any points.

Then, the tags that don't get drawn are sold as leftovers. First come first served. There are thousands of these leftover tags each year.

The two units that you tossed out can both be drawn with 0 points, so no folks aren't waiting years to hunt these same areas in 1st season. As wllm said, people do wait years for certain areas that aren't over the counter.
 
Thanks guys, you explained it very well!
I wish that WY was staying with the same draw dates, I liked that I could apply to a bunch of hunts consecutively and not be in multiple draws at the same time. Although I know many (most) people apply to several states in the hopes of securing just ONE tag.
 
Thanks guys, you explained it very well!
I wish that WY was staying with the same draw dates, I liked that I could apply to a bunch of hunts consecutively and not be in multiple draws at the same time. Although I know many (most) people apply to several states in the hopes of securing just ONE tag.
If u can afford to apply in multiple states u should. Most places u could turn the tag back in or u have time to withdraw a app if need be. Or just do two hunts if u draw. I did that this yr in one trip so it can planned where the dates time etc would work if u drew both
 
OP, your original plan may still work. As Thomas11 pointed out, in some states you can turn back a tag, and in some you have a long “grace period” after the application deadline where you can withdraw or change your application, prior to the draw results being posted. In reading about WYs new dates for elk, it seems that you need to apply in Jan, results in late May, but you can change/withdraw until early May. So if I’m understanding correctly, that should work for you.
 
OP, your original plan may still work. As Thomas11 pointed out, in some states you can turn back a tag, and in some you have a long “grace period” after the application deadline where you can withdraw or change your application, prior to the draw results being posted. In reading about WYs new dates for elk, it seems that you need to apply in Jan, results in late May, but you can change/withdraw until early May. So if I’m understanding correctly, that should work for you.
the withdrawal date was Feb 4 in 2019. We’ll have to see what they do with the new draw date.
 
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