BowHiker

I am not sure we can ever return to the quality from 40 years ago. Mother nature will win out in the end. Even if G&F shut down desert units, the drought has a larger affect than any hunting can have on a population of animals. I am of the opinion that moving all the OTC hunts to a draw or modified/separate draw, would not necessarily increase quality significantly in comparison to the drought conditions. The quota systems have largely dampened the amount of deer being killed that is for sure. Who knows how many archery deer were taken pre-quota system, it had to have been a lot. I see a lot of people on the archery hunts, but that does not necessarily detract from my experience. Most people I see don't put in much effort to hike 1000 yards off the road.

Am I officially in no man’s land? I have 16 mule deer points as a resident. Looking at GoHunt, the bonus pass odds have shifted from 17 pts to 22 pts in the last 5 years for the 12AW late hunt. The tags were a bit lower from 2022-2024, so that kept more people in line. Will I ever catch that point creep? Burn em on an early Kaibab hunt or keep riding the train?

I do like the data that the G&F now gains from the OTC quota system. It seems a bit premature to make any decisions with only 3 years of data, especially given an influx of people in the field from COVID. If they were to implement a draw, I think they should keep the current draw system using bonus points and implement an additional “general” draw system. This general draw would happen after the bonus point draw results are posted. General draw could be unit specific tags or a region (i.e. multiple units, say Region 1). This would give G&F a lot more insight into number of hunters vs their current, low response OTC self survey, while still keeping opportunity for hunters.