Glenn
Dunning is a member of New England Outdoor Writers Association
(NEOWA) and contributes monthly to Outdoors Magazine
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Outdoors Magazine, August ‘10 Issue, Traveling Outdoorsman col. Submitted by: Glenn Dunning |
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Like so many others, Dick Reardon put in for a preference point in Colorado’s annual elk license lottery each January. Most years he didn’t even have a hunt planned he was just accumulating points so when he did get ready to go he would be eligible to hunt a wildlife management unit with a trophy designation. When he finally called me earlier this year he had 10 points and he wanted to hunt the September muzzleloader season. We were able to get him hooked up with a great outfitter with access to both private and public land in unit #40 just west of Grand Junction. Trophy units are so designated because of the limited number of tags available. Limited tags mean less hunting pressure which in turn means more elk. What gets tricky is that theoretically, one could also surmise that hunting one of these units would provide a better opportunity at a trophy quality bull but I’ll get to that in a minute. Understanding the draw systems in the Rocky Mountain States is an oxymoron because they defy understanding and nothing can be counted on consistently. For example, it took Dick 10 years to acquire his 10 preference points; in 2009 it took only 9 points to draw a license in unit #40. We were confident he would draw for the 2010 season, but he didn’t. The state publishes lottery statistics and although they’re not out yet, it’s obvious that the magic number was greater than 10. How can that be? Pay attention, as this gets a little complicated. First, we have already discussed that as a trophy area the number of available licenses is severely limited, secondly; of those that are available 80% will go to Colorado residents making the pool for non-residents even more restrictive. Now let’s say that there were some really huge bulls shot in unit 40 last year and the word got around so more non-residents applied for tags. This is called “point creep” and it refers to the number of points required increasing because more people with more points are applying for a particular unit. Folks like Dick are not all that uncommon; in fact, there is a huge fraternity of hunters that apply for points in several states every year. You would think the process must be simple but it’s far from it. For starters, in Colorado even though you are only applying for a preference point which costs $28 you still have to send in the entire license cost of $354. The deadline for applications is around the first week in April. You will get your preference point but you will have to wait until June to get your money back. Most of the western states have similar systems where they collect millions of dollars from hunters, hold onto it for months earning interest and then refund it back less the cost of a preference point. Somehow it seems like it ought to be illegal but thousands of hunters play the game every year. Point accumulation is a long slow process especially when you consider that some trophy units can take as many as 20 points to draw. Sometimes point creep is influenced by applicants who run out of patience. Maybe you have 15 points and you have had your heart set on hunting unit #2 which is one of those 20 point areas. Fifteen years is a long time and you hear about those big bulls that got shot in unit 40 which only took 9 points to draw in 2009. So you and other like minded hunters with a lot of points put in for unit 40. What happens? Ask Dick; all of a sudden, the tags are awarded to the applicants with 11 or more preference points and your 10 points just weren’t enough. There is another issue regarding preference point accumulation that has little to do with draw results. In a word; Expectations. While it takes years to collect preference points, do they really increase a client’s opportunity to kill a monster bull? Outfitters, like Rooster Cogburn of Rooster’s Guide and Outfitting know that putting a good bull in front of a client is a challenge regardless of the unit you are hunting. “Just because a client has a bunch of points he automatically thinks he’s gonna shoot a B&C bull and it just doesn’t work that way.” These types of customers often present an impossible challenge for guides and if they are unsuccessful, it can get downright ugly. After all, it took a long time to earn those points and you don’t get them back just because you didn’t have the right kind of luck in your pocket. The lottery and preference point process is not exclusive to elk or Colorado. Nearly all states have similar tag allocation programs for certain species. Even here in northern New England we have lotteries for moose with most states also offering preference points for unsuccessful draw applicants. Fortunately, there are plenty of places and seasons, even in Colorado, with over the counter tags as well as units that only require a single preference point to draw. Look, if you are going to get into a good outfit you are probably going to have to book over a year in advance anyway so applying for and acquiring a single preference point is just part of the process. |
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