Proposal to State Game Commission to Eliminate NR Sheep Tags

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NM: Proposal to eliminate non-resident sheep tags​

At a recent public meeting in New Mexico, a preliminary review of the Bighorn Sheep Rules was heard by the State Game Commission. The biggest issue discussed was the allocation of resident and non-resident sheep draw permits. Proposals presented by some individuals and sportsman’s organizations sought to increase bighorn sheep hunting opportunities for residents. Of the 50 state-wide permits, the discussion centered around the 7 permits available for non-resident.
This discussion resulted in a push-pull debate over out-of-state hunters, outfitting, wild sheep conservation funding, and the historic success the state has seen in recovering its wild sheep resources.
The proposed rule changes, if adopted by the Commission, would eliminate all 7 non-resident draw allocations. WSF, B&C and NMWSF have submitted letters to the New Mexico Game Commissions.
 
As I’ve been saying all along, what Wyo is doing is creating a domino affect all across the Western US. Our nonres diy hunting heritage is disappearing as we know it. It’s sad to see Wyo being the first domino in line and watching others fall each year.

SS, Buzz, JM, and others… I wouldnt say this is something to boast, brag, and joke about! It truly is sad to see where hunting as we know it is headed! We can all thank Wyoming for being responsible for starting this off by closing nonres opportunity for the big 5. Wyo truly is one of the few western states that has been so kind to nonres and nonres opportunity over the years. Hopefully Wyo wakes up before it’s to late!

Which state is the next domino in line? If Wyo continues with 90/10 or 90/5/5 for e/d/a you can be guaranteed that it will speed up the dominos falling across the West! Mark my word, these are sad days for diy/oyo nonres hunters across the western US.
 
As I’ve been saying all along, what Wyo is doing is creating a domino affect all across the Western US. Our nonres diy hunting heritage is disappearing as we know it. It’s sad to see Wyo being the first domino in line and watching others fall each year.

SS, Buzz, JM, and others… I wouldnt say this is something to boast, brag, and joke about! It truly is sad to see where hunting as we know it is headed! We can all thank Wyoming for being responsible for starting this off by closing nonres opportunity for the big 5. Wyo truly is one of the few western states that has been so kind to nonres and nonres opportunity over the years. Hopefully Wyo wakes up before it’s to late!

Which state is the next domino in line? If Wyo continues with 90/10 or 90/5/5 for e/d/a you can be guaranteed that it will speed up the dominos falling across the West! Mark my word, these are sad days for diy/oyo nonres hunters across the western US.
New Mexico stared this trend a long time ago.
Wyoming is following New Mexico’s example.

I wish New Mexico and Wyoming would just issue NO nonresident tag at all and be done.
If these states don’t want or need nonresidents just shut us out altogether.
 
How many auction and governor tags does NM offer?
Big difference between loosing a chance at an opportunity and investing years of time, money, and planning for a future hunt.
I understand that residents want more and anyone living outside their boarder really has no say. That is no reason for residents to belittle others.
 
This is just going to accelerate the loss of hunting all together, maybe not in a state like Wyoming which is deeply red but in blue New Mexico, if non-residents cant hunt are they going to care when the proposition or law is proposed to eliminate hunting? They won't, the only concerned people will be residents.

There won't be any outside donations or efforts to stop it. It's coming sooner than you think. Efforts to ban hunting of certain species were defeated in several states this year already by team efforts of the hunting community. Won't happen if the only people that are concerned are residents.

It will happen in California first, then Oregon, then other blue states. The directed, concentrated efforts are not going away.

Proceed at your own peril New Mexico hunters.
 
These sorts of debates always leave me scratching my head. Sportsmen and women have so much in common and yet we readily sink to arguing over seven tags, ten percent, once in a lifetime, etc.

At the conclusion of each sheep tag draw, for each happy hunter there will be 30 to 3000 disappointed "unsuccessful" applicants. The fix for this situation has nothing to do with residents or nonresidents. The fix is MORE wild sheep.

In one generation we could have hundreds more wild sheep hunting opportunities if we would stop being distracted by things like 90/10 and instead focus efforts where they would make an appreciable difference. There are millions of acres of wild sheep habitat in the west that can't be occupied due to risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep.

County by county, state by state, force your policy makers to listen and make a decision...do they want a domestic sheep industry (if you can call it that) in wild sheep habitat or wild sheep?
 
These sorts of debates always leave me scratching my head. Sportsmen and women have so much in common and yet we readily sink to arguing over seven tags, ten percent, once in a lifetime, etc.

At the conclusion of each sheep tag draw, for each happy hunter there will be 30 to 3000 disappointed "unsuccessful" applicants. The fix for this situation has nothing to do with residents or nonresidents. The fix is MORE wild sheep.

In one generation we could have hundreds more wild sheep hunting opportunities if we would stop being distracted by things like 90/10 and instead focus efforts where they would make an appreciable difference. There are millions of acres of wild sheep habitat in the west that can't be occupied due to risk of disease transmission from domestic sheep.

County by county, state by state, force your policy makers to listen and make a decision...do they want a domestic sheep industry (if you can call it that) in wild sheep habitat or wild sheep?
 
Don't the majority of the NR tags that actually get drawn go in the outfitter pool, with 1 tag in the random draw(anyone follow this/have stats)?

With the system in NM, they combine many of the units otherwise outfitters/NR can't draw with the % limits.
 
Discriminatory state laws are tit-for-tat.

New Mexico might be the first to counter-punch after WY 90/10 on the Big 5. Which is perhaps really more like 95/5 or 97/3 when accounting for the discriminatory nature of the WY Wilderness rule.

Meanwhile, Nevada isn’t even strictly enforcing their 10% NR cap on Desert BHS. NDOW was to issue 30 Nelson Ram tags in 2021 (10%). But then, NDOW issued another 5 ram tags to NRs in FCFS (bots?) for 35 NR nelson rams total. So, 14.3% of NV ram tags went to NRs – in violation of the NR cap.

Apply in Nevada – perhaps the last state to “catch on” and protect resident interests.

(really, you shouldn’t bother applying in NV at all – just sneak in and snipe the tag last minute on FCFS – it’s a lot cheaper that way).
 
This is just going to accelerate the loss of hunting all together, maybe not in a state like Wyoming which is deeply red but in blue New Mexico, if non-residents cant hunt are they going to care when the proposition or law is proposed to eliminate hunting? They won't, the only concerned people will be residents.

There won't be any outside donations or efforts to stop it. It's coming sooner than you think. Efforts to ban hunting of certain species were defeated in several states this year already by team efforts of the hunting community. Won't happen if the only people that are concerned are residents.

It will happen in California first, then Oregon, then other blue states. The directed, concentrated efforts are not going away.

Proceed at your own peril New Mexico hunters.
I’m a New Mexico resident, I don’t agree with this. National Forrest belongs to everybody, you’re paying just like I am for it’s upkeep and maintenance. You should have every right to hunt on that land. As far as a blue state, right now it is for sure. The problem with NM is the vast majority of the two million people who live here live in the few big democrat controlled cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe and they get to decide for all of us. I would venture to say over 80% of this state is Conservative but the population is not enough to swing the votes. It’s like a map of the U.S. where you see all the counties in red but the population centers in blue, you just shake your head. As much as I love to hunt and removing people from the draw process would increase my odds this is not right in my book.
 
I’m a New Mexico resident, I don’t agree with this. National Forrest belongs to everybody, you’re paying just like I am for it’s upkeep and maintenance. You should have every right to hunt on that land. As far as a blue state, right now it is for sure. The problem with NM is the vast majority of the two million people who live here live in the few big democrat controlled cities like Albuquerque and Santa Fe and they get to decide for all of us. I would venture to say over 80% of this state is Conservative but the population is not enough to swing the votes. It’s like a map of the U.S. where you see all the counties in red but the population centers in blue, you just shake your head. As much as I love to hunt and removing people from the draw process would increase my odds this is not right in my book.
many many states have the same problem with the big population centers winning all they want….as a nation…thank God for the electoral college…..
 
This is just going to accelerate the loss of hunting all together, maybe not in a state like Wyoming which is deeply red but in blue New Mexico, if non-residents cant hunt are they going to care when the proposition or law is proposed to eliminate hunting? They won't, the only concerned people will be residents.

There won't be any outside donations or efforts to stop it. It's coming sooner than you think. Efforts to ban hunting of certain species were defeated in several states this year already by team efforts of the hunting community. Won't happen if the only people that are concerned are residents.

It will happen in California first, then Oregon, then other blue states. The directed, concentrated efforts are not going away.

Proceed at your own peril New Mexico hunters.
Washington is already first. Bear hunting already went bye-bye
 
I stopped applying in New Mexico a while ago due to changes they made. I don't plan to hunt there in the future.

Can't wait for some anti hunting legislation to come up, and hear people saying how we need to rally around to stop it.
I stopped applying then as well. I enjoyed hunting in New Mexico.

There was a post here awhile back from a New Mexico resident, asking for help when proposed trapping ban was happening. No help from me.
I sent the money I used to sent to New Mexico to the group that stopped trapping there. They don't want non-residents. They are free to exclude us. And we are free to work against them instead of with them.
 
I stopped applying then as well. I enjoyed hunting in New Mexico.

There was a post here awhile back from a New Mexico resident, asking for help when proposed trapping ban was happening. No help from me.
I sent the money I used to sent to New Mexico to the group that stopped trapping there. They don't want non-residents. They are free to exclude us. And we are free to work against them instead of with them.
Non-Residents hunt in New Mexico every year. You not applying for hunts or sending your money to tree huggers won’t change the way NM does business one bit. Your loss….
 
I stopped applying then as well. I enjoyed hunting in New Mexico.

There was a post here awhile back from a New Mexico resident, asking for help when proposed trapping ban was happening. No help from me.
I sent the money I used to sent to New Mexico to the group that stopped trapping there. They don't want non-residents. They are free to exclude us. And we are free to work against them instead of with them.
That's just ignorant in my opinion. No hunter or outdoorsman should support an anti group. They'll be at your doorstep next time around
 
NM is a state by itself as far as hunting draws. The outfitter welfare is the only thing I do not like. No points means if I don’t have enough money on a particular year I would not apply for sheep. License fee and application fees seemed reasonable. Odds suck for top demand hunts but that is everywhere. No bait and switch on points etc.
As far as supporting anti hunting groups and NM, I think that is a giant step in the wrong direction. You don’t have to support the trapping initiative, but don’t support the other side. NM may of change things against you , but at least you were not vested as in some other states.
 
Like many, I dropped NM when they put higher quotas to the NR’s booking with the outfitters. The small percentage of tags going to DIY NR in NM was not worth my investment for low draw odds. Money is tight so I put it into other states where odds of drawing tags are better. I doubt NM misses my annual contributions when applications increase each year with plenty of people willing to play the low odds with their money. No loss for me and no loss for them. I still hunt each year somewhere so life is good.
 
Like many, I dropped NM when they put higher quotas to the NR’s booking with the outfitters. The small percentage of tags going to DIY NR in NM was not worth my investment for low draw odds. Money is tight so I put it into other states where odds of drawing tags are better. I doubt NM misses my annual contributions when applications increase each year with plenty of people willing to play the low odds with their money. No loss for me and no loss for them. I still hunt each year somewhere so life is good.
I don’t habitually play the Lottery, but when the buzz is good and people start talking about the 500 million dollar payout or so I will invest a few dollars at a chance. Somebody’s got to win.

You are correct, life is good. God luck to you on your draws.
 

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