OIL elimination precedent?

[outdoorsdude]

So I was going over the Game & Fish agenda for the up coming Farmington meeting and this one aspect really jumped out at me.

AGENDA ITEM NO. 16: Proposed Amendments to the Bighorn Sheep Rule.
Presented by Darrel Weybright - The Department will present proposed amendments to the Bighorn Sheep
Rule (19.31.17 NMAC) to add two additional enhancement licenses approved by the 2012 Legislature, to
clarify licenses issued pursuant to private land authorizations are not ?once in a lifetime?, to modify language to
reflect current hunts and to adjust license numbers to reflect changes in populations.

Am I reading it correctly? If you have the money to purchase an enhancement and or private land tag you could shoot a big horn every year. Even though the wildlife held in trust in the rest of the state is a Once In a Lifetime?

 

[outdoorsdude]

In Gallup, my bad.

Council Chamber of Gallup City Hall, 110 West Aztec Avenue
Gallup, NM 87305
Thursday, April 5, 2012
9:00 a.m. ? 5:00 p.m.

 

[smarba]

Yeah I caught that also and have had time to mull it over.

Reality is private land authorizations are pretty much in control of the property owner, whether they be for deer, Barbary sheep, etc.

On the flip side what good does it do to make private bighorn sheep tags OIL? The average Joe won't be able to afford them anyway, and since it's all part of a way to 'repay' landowner for providing some sheep tags to the public draw, why not let the LO maximize his potential by letting the same guy pay big $ to hunt them every year if they so desire?

The more I've chewed on it, I don't see any problem with making the private bighorn tags not OIL.

 

[smarba]

Or to put it another way, if one has enough $ they ALREADY can hunt bighorn every year as there are many auction-type tags available in many states in addition to tags that can be purchased in Mexico, etc.

 

[nmhntr]

Doesn't make any sense to me to remove any tags out of the public draw. Eastmans Journal has a writeup in this months magazine. AZ pulled 350 of theirs states very best tags out for auction tags. We better watch out in NM.

 

[sagebrush]

nmhntr - Wrong, AZ did not pull any tags out. AZSFW and AZSFWC tried to sneak a bill through that would do just that, but we nipped it in the bud.

 

[delmag1942]

Throw out a couple of highest bidder sheep tags, coupled with the "lack o' funds" due to SB196.......SFW won't be far behind. Like blood in the water around a Great White!

 

[WapitiBob]

I don't see a lack of funds. If the app numbers hold up they should be fine even with the refund option.
The message to AZSFW was loud and clear. I also don't see any tag grab in NM on the horizon.

 

[delmag1942]

WB,

I could be wrong, but utilizing the NM draw odds spreadsheet on their website (all things the same in 2012 except %) yields the following for just elk.

1265 total tags going from NR @ $667.50 (avg of $780 and $555) to 1265 tags at $91 yields a deficit of $730,000 +/-???