Looking for Wyoming Archery Only Area Support

wyobiggamer

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Dear Elk Hunting Supporter,

With the 2006 Hunting Season and Regulation Public Meetings quickly approaching starting March 27, now is the time to generate support to increase much needed Archery Only Elk areas in Wyoming. This letter, intended to allow hunters to express their feelings to increase the number of archery only (Type 9) elk areas in the state of Wyoming, will outline an initial proposal to expand Type 9 permits to Black Hills areas 1 and 117. The expansion of Type 9 permits in these areas not only affects these units, but will also influence drawing statistics for other preferred Type 9 and Type 1 units. Preferred areas in this proposal pertain to elk units in which drawing odds are well below 100 percent for First Choice and have steadily declined in recent years. Therefore, ALL hunters should be encouraged to support this proposal.

The inclusion of Type 9 (archery only) permits to hunt areas 1 and 117 will provide the following benefits for hunters in the state of Wyoming.

1. Increase revenue generated from licenses sold.
2. Increase drawing odds for Area 1 Type 1 permits and Area 117 Type 1 permits.
3. Increase drawing odds for other preferred elk areas.

An increase in revenue will result from an increase in licenses. Obviously the success rate for archery hunters is much lower than rifle hunters; therefore, more successful applications will be available under the proposed plan. This includes resident and the higher priced non-resident applications.

Area 1 Type 1 permits have historically been hard to draw. Success rates have typically been between 10 ? 15 percent since 2002. Many of the hunters applying for Area 1 Type 1 permits are archery hunters and would apply for Type 9 permits which would in turn raise the success rate of Area 1 Type 1 permits. Area 1 Type 1 hunters would then not have to statistically wait every 9 ? 10 years to hunt their preferred area.

Area 117 Type 1 permits have historically had a 30 ? 40 drawing success rate. Many hunters applying for this area are archery hunters and would apply for the Type 9 permit which, in turn, would raise the success rate of Area 117 Type 1 permits.

Many preferred elk areas have seen a steady decline in drawing odds. Many Bighorn Mountain Type 9 permits have seen a decrease in drawing odds over the last four years. The Laramie Peak units are another example of units that would benefit with Type 9 elk permits due to declining odds of Type 1 permits. Bow hunters applying for these preferred areas are becoming more frustrated at the decreasing drawing odds while there is an increase in archery hunters with no additional archery only areas.

By opening up more archery only units, drawing odds should increase for both archery and rifle hunters or at least stabilize. Areas of Wyoming, especially the Northeast Corner have shown an influx in population which would increase the number of resident hunters specifically to the Bighorn Mountains and Black Hills areas. As the popularity of archery hunting grows, the Wyoming Game and Fish Department needs to take steps now to find proactive solutions to address the decreasing opportunities for preferred hunting areas.

If you're an archery or rifle elk hunter and support this proactive solution that is a win for both types of hunters, please show your support by e-mailing this address by March 20:

[email protected]

When you do, please include the following information in your e-mail.

1. First and Last Name.
2. City and State of Residence.
3. A couple sentences on what you would like to see the
Wyoming Game and Fish Department do about increasing elk archery only Type 9 permits.
4. Do you want to be kept up to date on any information concerning this proposal that comes from the Wyoming Game & Fish Department or Wyoming Wildlife Biologists via e-mail?

Please forward this e-mail to any hunters that may be interested or have expressed interest in this subject area.

All information coming from this survey will be compiled and submitted to the Wyoming Game & Fish Department at the 2006 Hunting Season and Regulation Public Meeting on April 4, 2006, at 7:00 PM in Casper, WY. Your name and comments will be compiled along with a formal cover letter to be presented on April 4.

If successful in communicating this proposal to the Wyoming Game and Fish, the e-mail address and type of approach communicating wide support for common sense solutions can be used for other types of initiatives. Thank you for your support!

Sincerely,

Wyoming Elk Archery Only Support
 
LAST EDITED ON Feb-22-06 AT 07:24PM (MST)[p]I have always enjoyed drawing tags in Wyo because if you draw you can first hunt the archery season and if unsuccessful you can continue hunting the rifle season.

Unfortunately limited tags have become increasingly hard to draw in Wyoming and it doesn't seem like it is getting any easier. Fortunately the new pref pt system for nonresidents should allow applicants that continue to apply a better chance of drawing tags and hunters that have drawn a tag will have to start at square one in the next draw.

I haven't drawn a Wyoming elk tag for 22 years (since I moved from the state) and I am no closer this year than I was 22 years ago. At least with the pref pt system a guy has a better chance of drawing if he continues to apply. I'm not exactly sure if the new pref pt system is going to help units that currently have 1 to 5% draw odds since it could still take 20 to 100 years to draw these tags if the same people continue to apply? What it will do is make it somewhat easier to draw units that currently have fair to good draw odds.

With that said, it may be a good idea to have separate archery draws set aside in units with horrible draw odds. There are a few units that haven't been listed in the post above that may want to be considered. 30, 31, 32, and 100 come to mind and I'm sure there are others.

Archery hunts in most states are considered additional hunting opportunity rather than a means for obtaining harvest quotas. With that in mind additional archery draw units would offer more hunters the opportunity to hunt premier Wyoming elk units with less affect on harvest (than rifle hunters) since harvest success is usually lower during the archery seasons. Hunter days/harvest are generally much higher during the archery seasons and this would be an added bonus with draw archery hunts.

It would be interesting to see similar archery opportunities open up in Wyoming for some of the premier antelope and deer units as well!

Wyoming has a long history of being conservative to change in hunting seasons, weapon choice, and other systems but hopefully things will evolve to make things work better for both rifle and archery hunters in Wyoming. I am sure rifle hunters would be a lot happier knowing they have better odds of drawing rifle tags and the same would hold true with tried and true archery hunters.

Wyoming is one of only a couple states left that doesn't currently have archery and rifle tags separated in the draw. I really enjoy having the opportunity to hunt with both weapon when I draw a tag.....but I seldom draw a deer or elk tag to take advantage of it! I think it is a great idea, especially in the premier units that have horrible draw odds.
 
I am with Jim, here is the email I sent, also put a post for this on bowsite - you will get a TON of help/emails there. I can put the post there if you want.

My name is Donald Vargo and I live in Ohio and hunt out west every year. I mostly bowhunt and I am amazed at the lack of opportunities strictly for bowhunter. Long ago I realized that bowhunting is a great way to raise money from license sales and applications, get hunters into the field and have few elk harvested. Many hunters are getting tired of waiting for rifle tags. Even for die hard rifle hunters allowing more bow tags will get them more tags. The reason for this is bowhunters will go for these tags, thus reducing competition for rifle tags. Bowhunters, on average, fill tags far less, therefore more tags can be issued without increasing the number of elk harvested. Bottom line is there are more hunters in the field enjoying a hunt without adversely affecting elk populations. It is a win win.

I hope you will consider drastically increasing type 9 license, you should have them in EVERY unit - separate tags not rifle tags converted with an archery stamp.
 
I would love to see WY go this route. It would open up so many more options for us bowhunters. This year I applied for one of the few units that allow archery hunting with a type 9 tag only (unit 38). It would have been great to have a few more choices with decent draw odds.

The email I sent was short and sweet:

"I am writing to support the idea of increasing type 9 elk tags in Wyoming. I feel doing so is a win-win situation for everyone. Drawing odds for archers will increase, drawing odds for rifle hunters will increase, and Wyoming will take in additional revenues. Please consider this idea. Adopting it would not be radical whatsoever, considering this option is available in all the other western states. "
 
I did a quick'n dirty survey of archery vs rifle draw odds for Wyo residents vs nores in the Bighorn units and this is what I came up with:

Archery hunters provided 1/3 to 1/2 as high of % harvest and hunted on average 2 to 3x more days/harvest. On average the type 9 resident archery tags were twice as easy to draw as resident rifle tags. Most units had 20% of the total applicants apply for archery tags and 80% of applicants apply for bull rifle tags. In the most popular archery unit a stunning 40% of the applicants applied for the type 9 hunt. This meant that between 20 and 40% of the applicants applied for archery tags rather than the tougher draw rifle hunt and made the rifle tags that much easier to draw in those units. Approximately 40% of the bull tags were type 9 archery and 60% were type 1 rifle in these units.

As far as nonres go there weren't as dramatic of differences between archery vs rifle draw odds. In many cases the draw odds were identical (between archery and rifle) and in 1 instance the odds were actually better for drawing a rifle tag. This still spread out the applicants so possibly increased the overall odds for drawing a tag in these units by having type 9 tags available.

I have a feeling if more archery type 9 hunts were available the draw odds would actually improve even more since applicants would be distributed into more hunts and have so many more options.

There are quite a few type 9 hunts available near Cody but these hunts are quite a bit different than the Bighorn Mtn hunts since that area depends somewhat on migration and there aren't as many bulls available in those units during the archery seasons. Draw odds for the type 9 tags in these units are close to 100% compared to 5 to 15% for the late rifle hunts.

It appears that the type 9 hunts in the Bighorns have done exactly what they were intended to do...provide additional hunting opportunity with more hunters in the field and similar harvest quotas to those found prior to type 9 tags being available. The draw odds are also significantly better for Wyo residents while nonres it has helped distribute applicants and possibly helped draw odds somewhat. An added benefit to rifle hunters is there are likely fewer rifle hunters in the field during the rifle hunts since part of the tags go to type 9 tags. This would make the rifle hunts that much more of a quality experience.
 
Well, since my area of choice (area 1 type 1) is mentioned along with the benefit of better draw odds to me and my group of rifle hunters, I will send a letter of support. In many ways, the way WY allows refle hunters to bowhunt earlier is nice but to increase opportunitieshey really should end that practice IMO.
 

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