I didn't say a guy had no chance without a bunch of points, I merely stated that points just add you to the draw more times (i.e. 75% of the tags don't go to the guys with the most points like many of the other states do). And yes, the roughly $4,500 was in reference to playing as a non-resident, which I thought I included in the post? Anyways, unless you just got piles of money to burn it's much cheaper to build points in several of the other states that are more noted for great elk hunting! I think, unless I'm missing one, WA is the most expensive state of the 11 western states to build up points in! But play it some people do, we have a handfull of non-residents draw tags for most of the different species each year... go figure?