Time to buy points
 

Just a reminder: It is time to buy your Wyoming points. A few points can make a big difference if you are planning a hunt in the coming years.

https://wgfd.wyo.gov/web2011/home.aspx

Just got another pronghorn point. That brings me up to 5. Probably try and cash them in on a buck tag for over by Farson next season. Lots of big speedgoats out that way.

I got mine maybe next year I'll get out that way

just got one for pronghorn .

I have been hunting Colorado for around the past 10 years and have bought points. The way that state is dealing with the point creep leaves me kind of disappointed. They really need to allow banking to stop it. People with 17 points are getting fed up with not ever getting to the chosen trophy gmu and are settling for medium success areas and burning those points thus continually raising the points needed. It seems that every year you buy 1 point and see the bar raised by one therefore you don't get there. I have watched lots of GMU's go up one or more points every year especially the past 5 years.

the guides really suffer with this system because its very difficult to predict what a future hunter will need as far as points.

A great point. This year I had 3 elk points and a hunting partner had 10. We wanted to draw in a medium Colorado GMU that took 1 NR point for a cow and 9 for a bull during the muzzle loading season last year. We figured it would be a good hunt and after the drawing I got a tag and my partner did not. The end result is I had to cash in my tag and we are now going OTC bull tag 2nd rifle. They give you a choice to keep the points or get the refund. I was upset and decided I wasn't going to give them their hostage money and other than the deer points I have won't be buying anymore points.

I just bought 1 point each for bear and elk for Colorado, very disappointing to read how we just may be wasting time and money on this system trying to get into good areas. :hit:

I can't drum up much sympathy for the guides. As a CO resident I've never needed a guide. They depend on non-residents to stay in business and many guides would love to see tags taken from residents that don't use their services and have those tags issued to non-residents. One of the biggest issues facing hunting today is the commercialization of it.

Point creep is something I don't think they ever dreamed of. I'm sitting on 21 elk points and I still haven't been able to draw my unit 2 either sex (bull tag). I'll get it eventually. I'm also sitting on lots of points for everything except pronghorn since I drew a buck tag last year. But, how do you fix the point creep? You can't penalize guys like me that have played the game according to the rules they put in place!

Yup it has spun out of control. What they need to do is if a person has 10 points and puts in for an area that takes 5 he should be left with 5 not go back to zero. When enough people have more points than needed for a certain area and they draw it raises the bar. I believe they used to have banking which means you don't lose all your points only the amount needed to draw. I have 4 points for deer and it took 5 this year to draw. The way I feel now I won't bother to buy anymore.

as far as the first half of your statement, i understand you dont have much sympathy, but the guides are trying to make a living too. if the non residents cant draw tags due to the point system creep, they will choose other states where it will work. at that point the lost funds from the non residents will be pushed onto the residents

I have a good friend who lives in Alamosa and he has even more points built up than you do Flags. His dad was Colorado Commish of Fish and Wildlife years ago before he passed away. My friend is frustrated because he too wants to burn his points on a certain GMU and so far isn't able to draw. He would like the option if the need arose to burn a few points on another hunt in a lesser area. It is all or nothing and if he decided to draw a tag in say an area like 049 where I was headed for ML he would get the tag but it would be given at the 20 something level he was at. if both you and he decided to do the same that would be 2 out of the quota that went for 20+ points. Add in a few more long time point gatherers and it alters the GMU and you have more point creep. What they should do to end it is freeze the points needed to draw, allow banking where if you decided to go for that ML tag you would spend 10 and still have 11. Down the road after the dust settles they could allow the draw results to determine the level needed but it would gradually go down since they have banking and one by one the people with the 20 something points will use their points since they will get to draw since the threshold for draw was frozen. There are plenty of great units as you know and the points you have accumulated could be used for 3 or 4 great hunts rather than waiting for the chance of a lifetime and then be too old to do it properly.
That is a great point. There has to be a lot of competition between the states for the NR hunting dollars. Colorado makes huge money on points purchases and get to keep it for a few months interest free. If the system is starting to drive people away they need to do what is necessary to have sportsmen choose their state.

It is the period in which you may buy your WYOMING preference points. The point of this thread is to remind people that now is the time. It is easy to forget to buy your WYOMING points as it is done at a different time of year than when applying for licenses in WYOMING.

This expires at the end of September for WYOMING.

Sorry to hijack your thread Big Uncle. I was just unloading my displeasure for the way one state deals with it. You are right and i was wrong. Sorry...

with the little amount of traffic this forum sees, who cares where the threads really end up?

For newbies let the buyer beware. Points are becoming nothing but a legalized bait-n-switch money making snake oil scheme for all states. They are more than eager to peddle them, but when it comes to honoring them it's a totally different story. The most recent case in point Arizona, which is totally screwing point holders whom they sold points to the last 20 years. Stealing thousands of dollars in value. My suggestion is to not let your points build past 3 or 4 ANYWHERE for ANYTHING, as a safeguard against the white collar criminals residing in statehouses.

If you do that you're not going to hunt much in the Rocky Mountain states especially if you want good quality tags. But that's OK. If a bunch of people follow this misguided advice then it will make tags easier to get for me.

I HAVE drawn and hunted some of the best units out west, including NV unit 114 elk, AZ unit 1 elk, UT Book Cliffs elk, NM elk, CO deer, WY moose, etc., etc. But these hunts were all drawn prior to the new world philosophy of legislators screwing those deserving hunters who have applied the longest and paid the most. Times have definitely changed.

I'm going to go out on a limb and say you don't have 18-20 points in several states like I do. If you did, you would have had the experience of having those points cheapened time and again by thieves waving unethical legislation. In the eyes of legislators, the more points you have, the bigger the target you have on your back.

This is a documented fact..............definitely not an opinion.

Not in several states but I do have that many for many of the species in CO. Since I'm a CO resident I don't need to apply elsewhere since I can get all the species I want there except caribou and Roosevelt elk and neither of those is a deal breaker for me.

I find it odd that anyone claiming to be a meat hunter would have a lot of points built up.

Thought you had me on ignore Pete. BUSTED! Or do you think I wouldn't value the meat? You do know that hunting for primarily meat is an honorable thing right? But some of those "meats" like sheep, goat, moose take a lot of points. How long did you say you lived in CO?

If you think back to previous posts I clearly said I always put in for points when Uncle Sam sent me to the sand box to protect your rights. So I built up a lot of them over time. The only one I really want is a unit 2 bull tag which requires at least 20 points. I've got 21 right now so i can pull that tag when and if I want but lately mostly I've gone after females for meat but I did take a nice pronghorn buck last season. He as tasty too. But I still keep building points. maybe at some time I'll try for another sheep (great meat by the way) but maybe I won't. But I still keep my point count going up. I have to or one of those despised CA transplants will get the tag.:arms:

If you only have points built up in CO then I'm sure you are unaware of how all the western states (and even Maine) have thrown nonresident point holders under the bus during the last 25 years. It's simply no longer worth holding out for the premium hunting units. Your points will get screwed somewhere along the way before you get there.

That includes your state of Colorado, where rules were "changed" costing me my unit 61 elk tag, among others. The points were devalued long after they were sold to me. The best strategy now is to get some value out of your points by burning them for mid-tier units. You are highly vulnerable to being screwed by unethical legislators if you wait any longer than 3-5. That is just a fact nowadays. Attorneys/legislators have no morals nor ethics.