Idaho General Season Going to Draw for Nonresidents

[CarbonHunter]

So Idaho has the fewest nonresident hunter since 2014 and the residents are still complaining 

[kentrek]

So Idaho has the fewest nonresident hunter since 2014 and the residents are still complaining 

If you tell a lie enough it becomes true... hunters will never be happy until theres a 6 point bull standing next to the road and they havent seen a single other hunter in a week.....but you know it wasnt long ago it would have been a 7 point bull and no hunter in 2 weeks !!! No no no no...before that we had 8 point bulls and no sight of another human in 1 month !!! Aghhhhh we need change !!!

Honest this was a convo i had with a idaho resident just this last year ..he wanted big bulls next to the road all for just him and that was how he wanted it managed..he was going to make some calls !! Things HAVE to change ! 

Hunters will never be happy as 80-90% dont fill there tags...its  not the 10% that cry we need change...theyve adapted..

[pd]

@muleyslayer

Thanks for the fascinating information.

Where did you find that data?  I looked throughout IDF&G's website, and could not find hunter statistics.

[CarbonHunter]

So Idaho has the fewest nonresident hunter since 2014 and the residents are still complaining 

If you tell a lie enough it becomes true... hunters will never be happy until theres a 6 point bull standing next to the road and they havent seen a single other hunter in a week.....but you know it wasnt long ago it would have been a 7 point bull and no hunter in 2 weeks !!! No no no no...before that we had 8 point bulls and no sight of another human in 1 month !!! Aghhhhh we need change !!!

Honest this was a convo i had with a idaho resident just this last year ..he wanted big bulls next to the road all for just him and that was how he wanted it managed..he was going to make some calls !! Things HAVE to change ! 

Hunters will never be happy as 80-90% dont fill there tags...its  not the 10% that cry we need change...theyve adapted..

So much truth to this. The whole issue with Idaho is the hype and panic buying of the tags mostly caused by the residents complaining until they made you choose a unit for deer. And the dumb equation the state of Idaho chose to use actually puts more nonresident hunters into the most heavily hunted units of residents. Not into the units with the most public land and fewest residents hunters… 

[kentrek]

So Idaho has the fewest nonresident hunter since 2014 and the residents are still complaining 

If you tell a lie enough it becomes true... hunters will never be happy until theres a 6 point bull standing next to the road and they havent seen a single other hunter in a week.....but you know it wasnt long ago it would have been a 7 point bull and no hunter in 2 weeks !!! No no no no...before that we had 8 point bulls and no sight of another human in 1 month !!! Aghhhhh we need change !!!

Honest this was a convo i had with a idaho resident just this last year ..he wanted big bulls next to the road all for just him and that was how he wanted it managed..he was going to make some calls !! Things HAVE to change ! 

Hunters will never be happy as 80-90% dont fill there tags...its  not the 10% that cry we need change...theyve adapted..

So much truth to this. The whole issue with Idaho is the hype and panic buying of the tags mostly caused by the residents complaining until they made you choose a unit for deer. And the dumb equation the state of Idaho chose to use actually puts more nonresident hunters into the most heavily hunted units of residents. Not into the units with the most public land and fewest residents hunters… 

Prime example of how these new changss are not actually for management but for the percieved ideas of what hunting "should" be of those that fail... its a continously moving target... and thats somthing no system will ever solve

But hey... its fair 

[muleyslayer]

@muleyslayer

Thanks for the fascinating information.

Where did you find that data?  I looked throughout IDF&G's website, and could not find hunter statistics.

I just googled it, it stuff that Idaho puts out over the years. I’ve seen graphs that go back to the 80s, hunter numbers have been relatively stable over time, and non resident tags have always been capped from what I hear.

[muleyslayer]

So Idaho has the fewest nonresident hunter since 2014 and the residents are still complaining 

If you tell a lie enough it becomes true... hunters will never be happy until theres a 6 point bull standing next to the road and they havent seen a single other hunter in a week.....but you know it wasnt long ago it would have been a 7 point bull and no hunter in 2 weeks !!! No no no no...before that we had 8 point bulls and no sight of another human in 1 month !!! Aghhhhh we need change !!!

Honest this was a convo i had with a idaho resident just this last year ..he wanted big bulls next to the road all for just him and that was how he wanted it managed..he was going to make some calls !! Things HAVE to change ! 

Hunters will never be happy as 80-90% dont fill there tags...its  not the 10% that cry we need change...theyve adapted..

So much truth to this. The whole issue with Idaho is the hype and panic buying of the tags mostly caused by the residents complaining until they made you choose a unit for deer. And the dumb equation the state of Idaho chose to use actually puts more nonresident hunters into the most heavily hunted units of residents. Not into the units with the most public land and fewest residents hunters… 

Prime example of how these new changss are not actually for management but for the percieved ideas of what hunting "should" be of those that fail... its a continously moving target... and thats somthing no system will ever solve

But hey... its fair 

[luvmystang67]

Some things I DO think:

1) Wolves have changed elk patterns and hunter patterns.  There are many units that used to house hunting camps that are now devoid of hunters and elk.  You can look back on harvest reports to see it.  Has nothing to do with residents vs non-residents and everything to do with concentrating animals in fewer units.

2) Non-residents are no longer weekend warriors from WA and OR.  They now include people from the east coast that spend 2 weeks hunting hard.  Its a more obvious incursion to the woods as they spend more time and more money than those in the past.

3) While the hunters and harvest totals for the state are fairly stable, going back to #1, a lot of patterns have changed.  If you hunted in a place where there were elk in the past, and now there are still elk, you observe more hunting pressure.  If you moved from a now elk-light unit to a new one, you're probably sitting quietly and enjoying your new, more crowded, area.

[Rob]

Too bad WA can't fix their game mgt techniques-so much potential for the State.  Then WA residents would not need to complain about Idaho non-res rules.

Probably not a popular opinion, but personally I support every state making it easier/better for residents to hunt than non-residents.  If the resident population is growing and putting pressure on the quality of the hunting, I support a State putting more squeeze on non-residents.  Be that Utah, Wyoming, or Idaho.  Good hunting should be one of the benefits of paying taxes in your home State.

(Spoken as someone who left WA as a political refugee and was banished to the paradise of Idaho...)

[Rob]

What I am thankful for as an ID Resident, is that if my buddies from WA want to come hunt with me, they can now put in as a group and potentially get drawn.  Before, one person might get one region, another might get another region, and the third would not get anything. 

Not sure if they want to put out 185 for just the chance to draw, but at least now we could potentially put a group hunt together.

The process used the past few years has been just crazy and stupid.

[Sitka_Blacktail]

The process used the past few years has been just crazy and stupid.

They could have fixed the current system by limiting buying tags for others to kids and spouses. People buying for a bunch of their friends clogged up the the lines.

[Rob]

Potentially.   But it would still have been tricky for a party of 2 or 3 to get tags together and be able to hunt together.

[CarbonHunter]

Some things I DO think:

1) Wolves have changed elk patterns and hunter patterns.  There are many units that used to house hunting camps that are now devoid of hunters and elk.  You can look back on harvest reports to see it.  Has nothing to do with residents vs non-residents and everything to do with concentrating animals in fewer units.

2) Non-residents are no longer weekend warriors from WA and OR.  They now include people from the east coast that spend 2 weeks hunting hard.  Its a more obvious incursion to the woods as they spend more time and more money than those in the past.

3) While the hunters and harvest totals for the state are fairly stable, going back to #1, a lot of patterns have changed.  If you hunted in a place where there were elk in the past, and now there are still elk, you observe more hunting pressure.  If you moved from a now elk-light unit to a new one, you're probably sitting quietly and enjoying your new, more crowded, area.

There are several units that are high public ground units with low resident hunting pressure that used to be hunted heavily by nonresidents. Those nonresidents are now being forced into units where resident hunters are more concentrated due to the way Idaho sets quotas.

If Idaho just went back to statewide tags for deer for nonresident hunters and stopped listening to the complaints the whole tag debacle would be over. They would still go faster than they used to but it wouldn’t be the issue of the last few years. 

[huntnnw]

I was reading a article in the past year on the ID rise in population and where are these people coming from. One interesting fact was WA. I dont remember the exact numbers, but something like 12,000 people in 2022 moved to Idaho from washington yet 11,000 people moved from ID to WA.

[2MANY]

Lol.