When I didn't draw my deer/elk combo last years I called Helena headquarters to find out about the alternant list. She (licensing agent) told me that they had 17,000 deer/elk licenses that they give out in the draw. She said that they had 3500 more applicants then licenses. So if my math is correct, they had 20,500 applicants for 17,000 licenses. This is deer/elk combo only and NOT draw odds for deer only or elk only. On top of this she shared some VERY VERY valuable information with me in regards to the $50 preference point. I had in the past never bought a preference point because every year up until then they had more licenses than applications taken in so everyone that put in got drawn and they would sell the surplus licenses over the counter until they were gone. Last year was the first year they had more applicants then licenses.
Here is the valuable information, this is how she explained it to me, for example, if 10,000 people that applied bought the preference point then all 10,000 were guaranteed a license. the other (20,500-10,000=) 10,500 people would be put in a separate draw for the 7,000 licenses left over. She said that being that I didn't buy the preference point, I was one of the 3500 that didn't get lucky in the left over draw. If I would have bought a preference point last year she told me I would have been guaranteed a license. I was lucky enough to get one in the alternant drawing later in the year for those who turned their license back in.
This was shocking to me in that I figured the system was sort of like Wyoming where the preference point you bought this year helped out the following year if you didn't get drawn. Not so, the preference point helps you get the license the year that you buy it. This was how it was explained to me. There is a big difference in Montana between a preference point and a bonus point.
Now if all 20,500 people had bought the preference point, then it would have been a draw with everyone included but it is not that way.
I hope I have explained this in a way you can understand. Once again, this is just what the licensing lady explained to me last year when I didn't draw.
I would like to know if anyone on this forum bought a preference point for the deer/elk combo license last year and didn't get drawn??? I'm not interested in the deer only because they had way way more applicants then the 4000 plus licenses they give out and I don't know the number of applicants that did or didn't buy a preference point. The deer only license could have well had people get denied that did buy the preference point.