You might never draw that coveted tag with Utah's point system.
I know several hunters who took points to the grave.
Satisfaction
I like how the state posts the hunter satisfaction scores along with the harvest data. Ya, it's not perfect but I find it can be useful when looking at different choices going into the draw season. Since we have the new 2022 harvest data posted I decided to do some quick 10 key work last night. I am in the elk game so I only did this number crunch regarding elk. I did a simple average of the satisfaction per hunt per season type. All Units are weighted the same. These scores are on a scale of 1 to 5 with 1 being least satisfied with the hunt and 5 being most satisfied. Here is what I came up with:
Archery: 3.72
Muzzleloader: 4.02
Early Rifle: 4.09
Late Rifle: 3.96
Multi Season: 3.54
Mid Season: 3.60
September Archery: 3.39
HAMS: 3.70
CWMU: 4.52
These surprised me a little. Especially the Multi-season hunt. I think guys have such high expectations and put so much pressure on themselves it diminishes the hunt for them. The high satisfaction on the CWMU doesn't really surprise me as they are including guided paying clients in this so I can see that being skewed. I wish they would only list the satisfaction of the public hunter, I would bet those scores would drop.
Using this along with harvest stats I would say the best value for your points is Muzzleloader and Late Rifle. The success % is comparable on these hunts to early rifle. Maybe if I find some time I can add in average success % to the discussion.
Interesting stuff
Archery: 3.72
Muzzleloader: 4.02
Early Rifle: 4.09
Late Rifle: 3.96
Multi Season: 3.54
Mid Season: 3.60
September Archery: 3.39
HAMS: 3.70
CWMU: 4.52
These surprised me a little. Especially the Multi-season hunt. I think guys have such high expectations and put so much pressure on themselves it diminishes the hunt for them. The high satisfaction on the CWMU doesn't really surprise me as they are including guided paying clients in this so I can see that being skewed. I wish they would only list the satisfaction of the public hunter, I would bet those scores would drop.
Using this along with harvest stats I would say the best value for your points is Muzzleloader and Late Rifle. The success % is comparable on these hunts to early rifle. Maybe if I find some time I can add in average success % to the discussion.
Interesting stuff
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I know several hunters who took points to the grave.
Unless you are going after OIL tags.Much of that was a choice for people with a lot of points. If you have 15 points, you are definitely choosing to not hunt bulls if you all you want was just the opportunity and experience to chase a mature bull elk in your life time
On the LE hunt side, the vast majority of hunters in Utah will put in for one unit and one weapon only until the either draw the tag or stop hunting.
Could they draw a tag in another unit quicker, quite possibly. They could also change weapon choice, but they want that one unit and one weapon.
You can see that here on the forum when we get a new resident member asking about a unit that they have never step foot into.
My brother in law was almost like what I described. He only wanted to hunt with a rifle but he was willing to learn new places, as long as he could hunt deer with a rifle
Could they draw a tag in another unit quicker, quite possibly. They could also change weapon choice, but they want that one unit and one weapon.
You can see that here on the forum when we get a new resident member asking about a unit that they have never step foot into.
My brother in law was almost like what I described. He only wanted to hunt with a rifle but he was willing to learn new places, as long as he could hunt deer with a rifle
I might be able to agree with that if we didn't have the fiasco of the lifetime license still at play. That unequivocally alters the fairness of the system.
If you look at the data for the LL you will see that it has very little effect on the general deer draws.
The last time that I looked, there were less than 3500 active LL out there, and a number of them are also in the DH program that throws the LL out the window for those 3 years.
You can also look at the commitment to wildlife that those of us who purchased them made to wildlife at the time that we purchased them.
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The program was offered to every resident of the state of Utah until it was reended.
There wasn't any one group that it was offered to.
Eliminating the benefit is nothing different from eliminating any other benefit that the state offers for a period of time and then putting a hault to it. They do it all the time
There wasn't any one group that it was offered to.
Eliminating the benefit is nothing different from eliminating any other benefit that the state offers for a period of time and then putting a hault to it. They do it all the time
Sounds like sour grapes that if you were born before they discontinued them that your parents didn't have the foresight to purchase one for their kids.
But in reality since this discussion was about LE tags a LL has nothing to do with it.
But in reality since this discussion was about LE tags a LL has nothing to do with it.
1 - 6 of 97 Posts
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