Anaconda:
Thanks for your input, guys like you make valid the point that bonus points are indeed valuable in drawing Arizona tags, especially if you have accumulated a lot of them and are seeking a premium tag.
That being said, as we talked before in class, since AZ is on a bonus point system, NOT a preference point system, tags CAN be drawn by virtually anyone who is real lucky.
Case in point. A couple of years ago a guy from CA I know called and wanted to know what antelope unit to apply for. I told him that he virtually had no chance to draw since he had never applied for an AZ antelope tag before and would have just one chance to draw low number for the draw.
He said he wanted to try muzzleloader hunt, so he applied for a muzzleloader antelope tag in Unit 18A, which is in fact a premium hunt.
Remember, he had never applied for an antelope tag before, so he had 0 bonus points.
There were 10 tags for the hunt--so just one of them could go to a NR. When the 20% pass draw was done ( 2 tags available), no non-resident was drawn, so that meant in the general draw that one tag COULD still go to a NR who was lucky enough to have a low draw number.
As luck would have it, this guy got one of the 9 remaining tags!
So can it happen? Yes.
Will it normally happen that way? No.
But it can.
My advice would be to stay away from the most popular units and general rifle hunts (Units 9, 10 come to mind) and MAYBE you could get lucky and draw an antelope tag.
Hope this helps,
Don Martin
Chief Instructor
AZ Hunter Education
Kingman