How long does it take to get a Wyoming nonresident elk tag?

[Scoutin' Wyo]

Again, sorry to the OP. I hope you have a great time regardless where you hunt. Honestly!

 

[BruinPoint]

Don't get your skirt all hiked up Bob. I'm obviously not as well versed on the subject of WY license draws as you are even though I'm quoting direct from the source.

I would gladly take you up on your offer to listen and learn, but since I work for the WY Game and Fish Department I will ask the people that actually know what they are talking about.

Sorry to the OP, but I'm done trying to help out folks that want to hunt in my home state when internet wannabes come in and try to push their weight around. Hilarious!

No question Bob has done his homework. A guy doesn't need to look too hard to find the evidence that what he's saying is fact.

 

[wapitibob]

For those that asked

Our draw process starts Dec/Jan when the dept establishes a base quota, used to determine the 16% NR allocations.

Even though the dept front office will tell you that quotas aren't established until approved by the Commission, they have to have quotas to conduct the NR draw, held months prior. Those quotas can and have been, different than the previous years numbers. They also can, and have been, different than the quotas approved later in the year.

Once the initial quota is established, they are split 84/16 res/nr. The Nr portion is split 75/25 for the NR land owner draw. The LO draw is then conducted. One point to mention, there is no limit for the LO draw. If enough LO's apply, they can and have, drawn every tag available for a hunt code. It only happened once but they could conceivably draw all tags.

After the LO draw, the remaining licenses are combined and held for the NR Special and Regular draw. They are split 40/60 Special/Regular.
The 40% Special is split 75/25 PP and Random. The Special PP draw is conducted, then the Special Random is conducted. Leftovers for both Special draws are held for the Regular draw.

The Special leftovers are then added to the original Regular draw 60% to create a new quota, and split 75/25 PP and Random. The Regular draws are conducted.

This is the point that the draw odds reports are created. If you have the information; quotas, LO licenses drawn, etc, you can follow the licenses moving from the special to the regular if some are leftover. You can also see thru LO's drawing licenses and rounding of license quotas, where some hunts will end up with zero random licenses.

Because the Dept is required to issue 7,250 full price licenses by legislation, the dept tallies the licenses drawn and and checks to see if more need to be issued. The dept then converts leftover NR licenses to GEN licenses. At this point the dept conducts another phase of the draw, going back thru the Special GEN applicants and issuing licenses until they hit the 7,250 or get thru all 1st choice apps. If tags remain after the 1st choices, they go thru the 2nd choice apps until they hit 7,250. If there are still licenses to be issued, they then go to the Regular GEN side.
Every year, thru 2014, there have been enough addl licenses issued to get thru all 1st and 2nd choice Special GEN apps. In 2015, they got thru all 1st choice but only 50% of the 2nd choice apps.

There is no report published on the dept website for this additional pass and most don't know it's conducted.

 

[weaver]

Thanks for clarifying that Bob. Makes sense.

 

[Jethro]

Great explanation of the draw. Quick somebody have a moderator sticky that at the top of the elk fourm!!

 

[MAT]

This makes no sense. In what units are any full price NR elk tags leftover after the 1-2-3 choice rounds? Or are you saying they convert the leftover full price antlerless tags to GEN? Even if they did that there can’t be more than a handful, way less to make up for 669 applicants who did not draw the special GEN tag in round 1 according to the demand index. And even if they did this why would they convert unit specific antlerless tags to GEN bull (or either sex archery)? That’s not managing the harvest very well. You also seem to suggest all the extra tags go to the special draw, thus not meeting the 40/60 split which is in statue? That means more than 40% of tags go to the special draw.

This also means that antlerless tags count towards the 7250 quota which is something I did not know, but it a crappy deal (in theory all the NR tags could be antlerless).

 

[NoWiser]

If there is one thing I've learned in my last 3 or 4 years of trying to learn how the western states' draws work, it's to NEVER question wapitibob. If you do, you will only end up looking like a fool in the end. I don't think there is anyone on the forums that has been as helpful as him, if you are willing to listen to him.

Thanks for all you do, Bob. Scoutin' Wyo....thanks for the laughs!

 

[weaver]

One question Bob. Are the leftover licenses that go on sale later in the year all leftover from the resident draw or were do those come from?

 

[BauseyBadger]

^great question! I have been trying to get a feel for how much and what zones and types of tags are available in the leftover sale.

 

[MAT]

I'm more than happy being wrong but I'll question anyone when it doesn't make sense. In fact it would be great if I was wrong, but while the methodology as described might be accurate the numbers still don't add up.

 

[Scoutin' Wyo]

I'm more than happy being wrong but I'll question anyone when it doesn't make sense. In fact it would be great if I was wrong, but while the methodology as described might be accurate the numbers still don't add up.

I was wrong when I broadly stated that the State Legislature never sets quotas. The more accurate statement is they do not set individual quotas based on herd trend counts, the Commission does that. The Legislature did set a maximum number of 7,250 for elk. I will eat crow on my early Legislature statement.
I spoke at length with Jennifer in Cheyenne today and she verified basically that Wapitibob and I were trying to say the same thing. I obviously was not very good at getting the facts across. MAT (and anybody else) I highly suggest that you call the Cheyenne office (307)777-4600 and ask to speak with the Supervisor of the license draw section. It is way deeper than one would be able to describe on a web forum.

 

[MAT]

Or read the actual statue:

(iv) Elk. A total license limit of 7,250 nonresident elk licenses shall be made available to nonresident applicants in the initial competitive drawing each year. Reduced price cow/ calf elk licenses, leftover limited quota elk licenses from the competitive drawings and issue-after limited quota elk licenses described in this Chapter may be made available to nonresidents in addition to the limit of 7,250. Sixteen percent (16%) of the total available limited quota elk licenses shall initially be offered to nonresidents in the nonresident elk drawing. The order of the nonresident elk drawings described in this section shall be Nonresident Landowner Licenses, Nonresident Special Licenses, then Nonresident Regular Licenses. Following the Nonresident Landowner Drawing, licenses available in the drawing from the initial 7,250 limit shall be allocated as follows: Forty percent (40%) to the Nonresident Special Drawing and sixty percent (60%) to the Nonresident Regular Drawing. If the 7,250 license quota is not issued in the initial nonresident drawings, the Department may achieve the 7,250 license quota by issuing general elk licenses. Licenses remaining for limited quota areas resulting from this procedure may be made available in the resident elk drawing.

The description of the drawing was accurate, but I question where the number of extra tags come from. Even if the demand index is off it would be on the high end, and I'm not seeing that many leftover full price antlerless tags so there would be GEN tags drawn as a 2nd choice.

 

[wapitibob]

Mat, the tag conversion process is more a "paper shuffling" exercise. I could post the unit by unit numbers but I choose not to. Both type 1 and type 4 licenses are converted. There were over 600 full price licenses remaining after the NR Regular draw.

Regarding your 669 app number, there was still a quota of 397 licenses that were issued to those 669 1st choice applicants in the Special Random draw. For 2015, 494 licenses were converted to GEN and issued to the remaining 1st choice Special GEN apps, then the remainder went to the 2nd choice.

 

[wapitibob]

One question Bob. Are the leftover licenses that go on sale later in the year all leftover from the resident draw or were do those come from?

They come from both.