Preference/Bonus points Montana

[Riplip]

GO Hunt posted similar allocation/draw stats. I actually inquired as to how they got the information as it has not been made public.

 

[brownbear932008]

Montana’s entire system is a complete disaster. point system, website, harvest stats; all junk and all confusing to new hunters.

I could not have said it better a complete mess and that's being nice. I

 

[brownbear932008]

It's not pathetic. It's a wise use of limited resource - money. Montana sells 10,000's of OTC and NR elk tags. There is no point to surveying all elk hunters. As you are never going to get 100% a response rate with the survey, you would still have to use a randomly selected set of the responses to avoid bias. Surveying all hunters would end up costing a lot more money and result in the same data. Harvest success is useful for setting permit numbers, but with OTC tags, there is not a specific number of permits per unit and hunters are free to move from unit to unit at will. With OTC tags, percent success is only useful for providing hunters with an estimate of previous hunters success. Aerial surveys are used to estimate the number of animals in the unit, as hunters, predators, weather(affects survival through winter), etc are all part of the equation when determining population trends, not just hunter harvest rate. In hunting, you either filled your tag or you didn't. With only two outcomes, you don't need to survey a very high percentage of the hunters to get an accurate estimate of success.

I totally disagree seems like a total waste of money to me. Do like Several other states require online mandatory harvest reports.

 

[homers]

How many NR points does it take for a good to great unit in Montana. Seems like you can draw every year or every other year but I assume that is a general tag and not in the prime units?

 

[8andcounting]

How many NR points does it take for a good to great unit in Montana. Seems like you can draw every year or every other year but I assume that is a general tag and not in the prime units?

The general tag has been fairly easy . For elk , a special permit for a good unit (410 as example) is probably going to take you 15 years to draw

 

[Grundy53]

Yep. The first year I applied in Montana I bought the preference point for $50. Then I didn't apply for a general tag the next year and that preference point went away. Unless you plan on hunting the general tag next year I wouldn't buy a preference point.

Same here

 

[Grundy53]

Straight from page 19 of the 2019 regs:

That's weird. 2017 I bought a point during the summer after the draws were over but forgot to buy one last year. This year when I went to apply my point was gone. It said I had zero preference points. I applied this year and purchased the preference point now it says I have 1 which I imagine is the one I bought this year. Wouldn't this be the second year? Since I bought the point after the draws?

 

[huntin' lunatic]

Guess my son and I were the lucky ones. We drew a combo tag with no points last year in Montana. Wyoming 2020 and I Have 4 points. if you don't buy a point in Wyoming every other year, you lose the ones you have. They send you a friendly reminder. There is money to be made from the NR.

 

[8andcounting]

That's weird. 2017 I bought a point during the summer after the draws were over but forgot to buy one last year. This year when I went to apply my point was gone. It said I had zero preference points. I applied this year and purchased the preference point now it says I have 1 which I imagine is the one I bought this year. Wouldn't this be the second year? Since I bought the point after the draws?

Did u apply in 2018 ? If no then yes u should have 2

 

[LCH]

That's weird. 2017 I bought a point during the summer after the draws were over but forgot to buy one last year. This year when I went to apply my point was gone. It said I had zero preference points. I applied this year and purchased the preference point now it says I have 1 which I imagine is the one I bought this year. Wouldn't this be the second year? Since I bought the point after the draws?

Yeah that is weird, because I also bought a point late summer/early fall of 2017 after failing to draw a deer combo that year. I haven't bought any points or applied for a tag since then, and I still have that one point going into the 2019 draw.

Now if you bought a point before you applied in 2017, then it makes sense that you would have lost it because you then went through the 2017 and 2018 draw cycles and are now on your 3rd draw cycle since buying a point. If you still have your confirmation on your email or somewhere else that you bought a point in the summer of 2017, it might be a good idea to call up FWP and see about getting that point reinstated. Have the quote posted above from the regs on hand.

 

[Schism]

How many NR points does it take for a good to great unit in Montana. Seems like you can draw every year or every other year but I assume that is a general tag and not in the prime units?

You can draw some good units in Montana with less than 5 points if you hunt with archery equipment.

 

[8andcounting]

You can draw some good units in Montana with less than 5 points if you hunt with archery equipment.

Yup . 900-20 , 410-21 , several others too

 

[homers]

Yup . 900-20 , 410-21 , several others too

I’m a rifle only guy. Maybe my strategy should be to do general hunts every other year and not build up points if I don’t have a chance at a better unit worth waiting for. I currently have 2 and am planning on buying another this summer. First hunt is probably 2 - 3 years out

 

[8andcounting]

There’s rifle permits that can be drawn with 5 points too with some luck heck there’s people every year that draw with 0 .

 

[8andcounting]

It’s a random draw . So u always have a chance

 

[Wind Gypsy]

The general tag has been fairly easy . For elk , a special permit for a good unit (410 as example) is probably going to take you 15 years to draw

Should be interesting to see if the General tag goes from a "basically every year" tag to a "every other year" tag this year. General tag went from 100% to 54% last year with zero points, wonder how much lower it will go this year. Might have to get on a 3 or 4 year rotation with MT, CO, ID in the coming years..

 

[8andcounting]

Might get to point where you have better odds of drawing the combo without pref points .

 

[Riplip]

Might get to point where you have better odds of drawing the combo without pref points .

How?

 

[8andcounting]

How?

Guessing lots of people are buying a pref point . There’s 2 draws - one got people with pref points and one for people without . 70% of tags go to pref holders and 30 to those without . So it could get to point it’s easier to draw in the no pref point pool

 

[Riplip]

Guessing lots of people are buying a pref point . There’s 2 draws - one got people with pref points and one for people without . 70% of tags go to pref holders and 30 to those without . So it could get to point it’s easier to draw in the no pref point pool

I am not sure if this is still correct? I could not find anything in the regs other than whats stated below:

- Preference points are used for nonresident combination licenses and increase the likelihood of obtaining a combination license.
► Preference points essentially move you ahead in line. For instance, a person with two preference points is in front of the person with one, and so on.