New Mid-season elk hunts

[txhunter58]

I knew there were going to be some new Mid-season hunts, but the number of them surprised me. Will this actually be an increase in total numbers of tags issued or just a shift from earlier seasons?

 

[middlefork]

For this year at least it will be a small increase in tags and a big shift to the mid season tags. I believe it is only 10% of the tags allocated to early season.

 

[D_Hoyt]

Middlefork is correct.

It will be interesting to see the data after the draw. With only 10% going to early rifle, we will all be in the dark this year.

I have 21 points and I doubt I'll ever see early rifle on the unit that I have been chasing. Personally, I'm going to apply for a mid- season permit on a top tier unit. I don't care if I draw elk this year, I'm hoping to pull my mountain goat permit. ?

 

[Airborne]

I am betting that mid season hunts on great units are going to be picked up for points in the mid to low teens this first year. I don't think most hunters are going to be aware of the huge shift of tags from early to mid.

If I was sitting on 12 points I would putting in for a mid season top tier unit. A lot of high teens and low 20's point holders are going to stay in the early rifle pool not knowing that they aren't going to have a snowballs chance in hell of drawing those now.

This year is the one to squeak by and pick up that San Juan/Boulder/Beaver/Monroe mid season tag with a dozen points. Maybe I will be wrong though--it's happened once before!

 

[txhunter58]

It certainly makes it harder to know what people are going to do. Last years info may be useless. And even after this year, I suspect it will be a couple years before we really know how it shakes out, esp for NR. Units like San Juan prob won’t have a bonus tag.

 

[txhunter58]

And to top that off, this will be the first year where tag numbers are posted before the end of the drawing app date. So many people may switch their app when numbers come out.

 

[JakeH]

If you are an out of state guy, bout your only shot at any number of bonus tags will be for the mid season hunt.

 

[BrowningRage]

I hope its what I've said for a long while... take those rifle tags out of the rut, and double them at a different time. Increase opportunity, help point creep, maintain a realistic age objective. ??