Caribou Gear

WY 2021 deer/antelope results

I think we'll learn a lot by looking at how many people continue to buy and bank points over the next five years.

I don't expect NR demand in WY to go down significantly any time soon. I do think, however, that some of the point creep we're seeing now is a rush to burn antelope points before 90/10 or price increases. So I guess in other words I'd say I think enough people will jump ship to slow down the rate at which pressure increases, but pressure will remain relatively high overall for the near future.
 
I hunted pronghorn does in 31 the last 2 years, live and work very closeby. The late April snow storm whacked them HARD after what would have been a decent winter for them. Scary how few fawns there are running around compared to this time last year. I'm debating even going out for my doe tag this year (unit 32)
We drew in 32. Are you seeing fawns there or no. Also have buck tag. With river and irrigation I think it would make it easier to survive and grow. We hunted does last year and were done in 45 min. Really going back to trout fish. 4000 fish per mile.
 
I think we'll learn a lot by looking at how many people continue to buy and bank points over the next five years.

I don't expect NR demand in WY to go down significantly any time soon. I do think, however, that some of the point creep we're seeing now is a rush to burn antelope points before 90/10 or price increases. So I guess in other words I'd say I think enough people will jump ship to slow down the rate at which pressure increases, but pressure will remain relatively high overall for the near future.
I burned points this year because of the fear of 90/10 or worse price increase to special price for an antelope. Very pricy meat if you calculate the price per pound the way my wife does. She doesn't buy the well you were going to eat anyway so food shouldn't count argument. I was so worried I hunted a different unit to be a little more sure I would draw instead of 47. Looks like with 6 points I would have drawn oh well. At least know the area from hunting 32 for doe last year.
 
I burned points this year because of the fear of 90/10 or worse price increase to special price for an antelope. Very pricy meat if you calculate the price per pound the way my wife does. She doesn't buy the well you were going to eat anyway so food shouldn't count argument. I was so worried I hunted a different unit to be a little more sure I would draw instead of 47. Looks like with 6 points I would have drawn oh well. At least know the area from hunting 32 for doe last year.
I've had time to wade through a lot of the results and I think there are plenty of people like you. Lots of units jumped by a point, point and a half.

I think what will happen is an increase of all tags to the current special tag price. High point holders who don't burn points before then may then hold out for a better unit for their money. Lesser units may see a slight decrease in pressure as the 0-1 point crowd backs off on spending 600 bucks to hunt lesser units. Time will tell. Still don't expect much improvement in the near term. And I'm mostly just spitballing anyways.
 
We drew in 32. Are you seeing fawns there or no. Also have buck tag. With river and irrigation I think it would make it easier to survive and grow. We hunted does last year and were done in 45 min. Really going back to trout fish. 4000 fish per mile.
They're still there, but not as many. They might have faired a bit better but hard to say. I haven't been in there very much the last couple weeks and the ones that did, all seemed to drop fawns late this year. If you've got some spots you want checked let me know. Good chance I'll be in there in August for archery and my buck tag is right next door in 70.

They have been pulling some monsters off of the mile and reef the last few weeks, one record breaker I think.
 
They're still there, but not as many. They might have faired a bit better but hard to say. I haven't been in there very much the last couple weeks and the ones that did, all seemed to drop fawns late this year. If you've got some spots you want checked let me know. Good chance I'll be in there in August for archery and my buck tag is right next door in 70.

They have been pulling some monsters off of the mile and reef the last few weeks, one record breaker I think.
Ok thanks. Yea let's talk closer to season.. Dad also drew a doe tag in 70. This will probably be his last hunt as dementia is starting to get worse.
 
My group pulled doe antelope tags. Pretty busy year but it is a close drive and I love hunting those things.
 
Lots of interesting things going on in the draw data. Some serious point holders jumped on general deer tags.
They want there points to be worth something and not get devalued with some of the proposals floating around. Also threat of price increase doesn't help either.
 
You also taking bets on hell freezing over?
If you want to bet that the rate of year over year app growth in the West will be the same 10 years from now as we saw over the last couple of years, I’ll take that bet.

Honest question, have app numbers never declined before?

Everyone acts like this spike in demand is here to stay and that it is inevitable that we keep seeing record numbers of apps indefinitely.

I don’t get why.
 
You also taking bets on hell freezing over?
You don't think demand will eventually level off?

We're never going back to 2005, let alone 1985. But I'm certain there are NR hunts today that aren't nearly as sought after as they were in the past.

One day, a lot of these western hunts will settle down, for one reason or the other. Opportunities will change and hunting media will point people in new directions, and they will follow.

It's just going to take about a decade, lol.
 
Something to take into consideration are the hoards of people moving to WY. Wyoming has been able to be generous with NR tags because of low resident population. That’s all about to change. NR hunting pressure is quickly becoming resident hunting pressure and NR opportunity is going to have to decrease as a result. So yeah, NR apps will eventually decrease, but that doesn’t mean there will be enough quality NR tags to go around
 
Something to take into consideration are the hoards of people moving to WY. Wyoming has been able to be generous with NR tags because of low resident population. That’s all about to change. NR hunting pressure is quickly becoming resident hunting pressure and NR opportunity is going to have to decrease as a result. So yeah, NR apps will eventually decrease, but that doesn’t mean there will be enough quality NR tags to go around
Sorry, but Census data paints a different picture.

Over the last decade, Wyoming has grown:
-Slower than the nat'l average
-Slower than every state it shares a border with
-Slower than all but six other states.

And a growth of 2ish percent isn't much when you're starting with half a million people.

And I actually support most of the 90/10 stuff pretty thoroughly, but I think it's necessitated on principle, not because the resident hunter population of Wyoming is growing.
 
I don’t get into conspiracies, like at all, but I have to wonder if some of this current push toward cutting NR opportunities and raising NR prices doesn’t go back to the old adages of “never let a crisis go to waste” or “make hay while the sun shines”, at least on some folks’ parts.
 
I think we'll learn a lot by looking at how many people continue to buy and bank points over the next five years.

I don't expect NR demand in WY to go down significantly any time soon. I do think, however, that some of the point creep we're seeing now is a rush to burn antelope points before 90/10 or price increases. So I guess in other words I'd say I think enough people will jump ship to slow down the rate at which pressure increases, but pressure will remain relatively high overall for the near future.
I wonder how many NR PPs would be purchased at $75 a pop.
 
The current spike won't last forever. Seems like trends, like western big game hunting has become, take longer to fade away than they do to heat up, but they do cool off. Not all the new hunters will still be putting in ten years from now, some will. There also may be less habitat, less access and lower populations thanks to many other factors we are fighting though.

With populations growing in every western state (some a hell of a lot faster than others) good RRR, the popularity of it currently, plus the risk of less access, loss of habitat, etc., I have a hard time believing supply will meet demand so much so that NR tags go up and prices go down.
Unless wildlife/habitat management somehow gets cheaper rather than more expensive, populations explode and people start moving out of the west rather than into it.
 
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