Poll for changes to draw system, only 3 votes not 12.

[splitshot]

   up the cost.        not much diff between quality and buck and not much between bull and quality                combine them and charge more.            this will not be popular, charge west side residents out of state to hunt eastside.  lol.    a money maker but wont fly.     mike w

[bobcat]

I agree with notsosneaky that I'd rather there not be any changes. I think it's better to just leave it alone and let people get used to it. But I also agree with splitshot that there should only be one buck category and one bull category. There's no need for a separate quality category, other than so the state can sell more applications.

[grundy53]

   up the cost.        not much diff between quality and buck and not much between bull and quality                combine them and charge more.            this will not be popular, charge west side residents out of state to hunt eastside.  lol.    a money maker but wont fly.     mike w

Good luck with that...

[notsosneaky]

For the record by my count this year there are 1092 people with 15 or more points in quality elk and 484 for quality deer. There is sure to be more as this data comes from 2014 applicants so folks who ghost pointed are not included.

It really comes down to lots of hunters and few tags, but all the data suggests that the more points you have the better your odds. As unpopular as it will sound the system works.

[X-Force]

For the record by my count this year there are 1092 people with 15 or more points in quality elk and 484 for quality deer. There is sure to be more as this data comes from 2014 applicants so folks who ghost pointed are not included.

It really comes down to lots of hunters and few tags, but all the data suggests that the more points you have the better your odds. As unpopular as it will sound the system works.

I agree the system works. Is just sad to me that the meat hunters got screwed with the new category system. Before meat guys could draw every year or 2 but now everyone is putting in for those meat hunts because they have nothing to lose and vise versa with the quality guys having increased competition.

Its been said a bunch but there should be another poll option and that is to return back to the pre category system; just deer, elk, moose, goat, sheep... And increase the price of applications to fix the revenue problem.

[bobcat]

"Meat hunters" also got screwed because they gave everyone their current deer and elk points in every new category.

[grundy53]

For the record by my count this year there are 1092 people with 15 or more points in quality elk and 484 for quality deer. There is sure to be more as this data comes from 2014 applicants so folks who ghost pointed are not included.

It really comes down to lots of hunters and few tags, but all the data suggests that the more points you have the better your odds. As unpopular as it will sound the system works.

I agree the system works. Is just sad to me that the meat hunters got screwed with the new category system. Before meat guys could draw every year or 2 but now everyone is putting in for those meat hunts because they have nothing to lose and vise versa with the quality guys having increased competition.

Its been said a bunch but there should be another poll option and that is to return back to the pre category system; just deer, elk, moose, goat, sheep... And increase the price of applications to fix the revenue problem.

Agreed

[Curly]

I'm glad to hear more comments about wanting the old system back or at least combining bull/quality bull and buck/bull.  I brought up the idea in the other thread and got shot down immediately.

I also don't like the idea of giving a percentage of permits to high point holders. I am sure that the majority of high point holders have always applied for the hardest to draw permits.  That was their choice and a gamble to try for those permits. Then as bobcat pointed out, when the category system started, the guys with high points were practically gifted permits in the buck, bull, antlerless, over 65 categories (because of the point distribution into all categories).

Wdfw (Dave Ware in particular ) really screwed up with this "new" system. Sure it is a money maker, but they spent a ton of money creating and implementing it when it would have been better to just keep the old one and raise the application fees to gain more revenue.  It would have been much better than this current system.  Probably not a realistic option at this point to scrap this system but I don't think it's too late to eliminate some categories.

[grundy53]

[elk247]

Too many people, with too many points, putting in for too many hunts, with too few tags to go around. My suggestion would be to eliminate ghost points altogether, move the quality hunts into the buck/bull category. Increase the amount of permits given out. And lastly to make up for the revenue loss created by the removal of the ghost points, triple the prices of applications.  My thoughts are if you can speed up the process of getting drawn and at the same time restrict people from collecting so many points it will slowly get better over time once the high point holders get drawn. One problem with my plan is the OIL tags, I think there needs to be a limit on how many animals you can put in for but I don't know the best way to go about that. Meat hunts/antlerless/second deer and mulit season deer should all be OTC. Multi season elk need about 1,000 more tags.

[trophyhunt]

I think the only way to improve odds on the OIL tags unfortunately, is make people buy the tags before they put in.  You would see a huge drop in people putting in for all three tags, not including the tags for the female species and ewe's.  That or making you choose between one of those tags a year and letting you put in for all of them.   

[adamR]

What about a secondary draw?  If, and only if, a person is drawn in multiple categories give them the choice of their favorite, they give up the other choices, their points for those categories are returned and all these surplus tags go into another draw.  Have that other draw in like July and charge the permit application fee to apply for them.  Wdfw makes more money, hunters don't have to sacrifice points for something they aren't going to hunt, and there are more opportunities across the board.

[adamR]

I would be ok with only puttin in for one oil tag at a time as well.  I really only want a sheep tag but put in for the others because I might as well.

[trophyhunt]

I have had a very busy weekend, had plans yesterday to type out these questions with a brief explanation of each one and then show the percentage of support they received.  Then I planned to put it in letter from to take with me to the draw to give to someone of importance or if given the chance, talk to someone about the subject.  Yesterday didn't go as planned.  My dad moved from cowiche to graham and called in the morning for a last trip that I didn't know about, no big deal it's my dad so off we go.  Well, just past packwood my 06 duramax starts loosing diesel out from somewhere under my engine.  Had to sit and wait for a tow truck and a friend to come get the car dolly I was towing.  Finally got home at 7:30 at night, exhausted.  I will get this done if I have to, but, I was wondering if anyone on here is good at turning this info into a letter form and emailing it to me?  You never know, some people like doing this kind of stuff so I thought I'd ask. I need to get this done soon, the phone call could come any time I suspect.  Any takers?

[trophyhunt]

What about a secondary draw?  If, and only if, a person is drawn in multiple categories give them the choice of their favorite, they give up the other choices, their points for those categories are returned and all these surplus tags go into another draw.  Have that other draw in like July and charge the permit application fee to apply for them.  Wdfw makes more money, hunters don't have to sacrifice points for something they aren't going to hunt, and there are more opportunities across the board.

I talked to them about that last year, the guy I was talking to about it said it cost too much to run another draw.  But I disagreed with him saying the money would come back considering all the new applicant fee's.  It's a great Idea and I'm with you 100%, it's a great way for them to collect more revenue and it will help solve the wasted tag issue.