Great picture!!! I was one of the fortunate Selah Butte tagholders this year and saw a ram that was all scarred up on his nose like this one.
I've reflected on my permit application history as follows. I live in SW Washington and about 20 years ago the St Helens blast zone (Margaret unit) was opened to permit only hunting. I read about how good the hunting was the first year it was open and decided to apply the second year...I drew!! It was a fantastic experience, elk and branch antlered bulls everywhere for five days. I ended up not shooting a big bull due to a mistake, but that's another story. Anyway, I was hooked on the permit hunts. I had to wait the mandatory (back then) three years before applying again for elk but did so every year until 2011 when I drew a quality tag for a unit in the blue mountains. The result there was a 6X6 on opening day that scored 350 SCI.
In all of these years in between I've been applying to most of the other Western states, usually for many species per year. The result is that I have a lot of preference points in the states that allow them. I've drawn some great tags in the past few years, but can honestly say that some of my success has been simple luck...there's no other reason for it. The sheep tag here this year with 14 points is a good example-I guessed my odds were close to 450/1. Also, I drew a moose tag in Utah two years ago with only three points and guessed my odds were about the same.
I do, however, a lot of research in most of these states to determine which units may have the same general good hunt quality to determine which of these units may have the best draw odds, and it can be very surprising what you will find given enough time and effort. But again, luck surely helps.
