Originally posted by Felix40
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Last edited by bossbowman; 07-07-2017, 10:08 AM.
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Originally posted by Felix40 View PostI went ahead and sent an email to the director of public hunting. I don't know that it will do any good but they need to hear how dissatisfied we are about the way they are managing hunts on OUR land. I had been pretty much silent up until now because I assumed they would be working on fixing problems for the first few years. Im pretty patient but its been several years and it seems like it gets worse every year. By now I had hoped they would have some kind of decent system in place.
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Here's the deal: It's a drawing, and the vast majority of the applicants aren't gonna get drawn. If folks complain about not being drawn for one reason or another, but they continue to send in their applications and money each year then there is no reason for TPWD to change much. The purpose of the system is not to provide hunting opportunities for everyone that would like to hunt. The purpose is to provide a means of killing enough animals off the state-owned lands to keep the game populations in balance while also providing some much-needed revenue for TPWD to continue to be able to manage all the wildlife resources for the state.
Rather than having a draw system to allow a few lucky folks the opportunity to hunt, they could choose to let TPWD employees go out and shoot all the deer that need to be taken off of every place each year and donate the meat to the needy. That would solve the game management issue, but it wouldn't provide any funding for TPWD. They'd have to go up on hunting license fees or something to make up for that.
There are valid criticisms of the current system, of course. Felix40's ideas are good, in my opinion. But, no matter how they set it up, the vast majority of the people who apply for hunts are not gonna get drawn. There are more people now than there used to be, but there is not more land to hunt on. There's nothing TPWD or anybody else can do about that. A few years ago, there were no private land drawings in the TPWD system. Now there are. Not many, but there are a few. Hopefully they'll be able to add more here and there. But it's hard to compete for private land hunting rights and keep it cost effective when landowners can get a lot of money in lease fees from individual and corporate hunters.
Texas is never going to be the best state for public land hunting, because there isn't a lot of public land to begin with here. But we have a ton of private land available to lease. I prefer that to public land hunting personally. Yes, it costs money. But having exclusive access is very nice. To me, it's a good trade off.
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Originally posted by Shane View PostHere's the deal: It's a drawing, and the vast majority of the applicants aren't gonna get drawn. If folks complain about not being drawn for one reason or another, but they continue to send in their applications and money each year then there is no reason for TPWD to change much. The purpose of the system is not to provide hunting opportunities for everyone that would like to hunt. The purpose is to provide a means of killing enough animals off the state-owned lands to keep the game populations in balance while also providing some much-needed revenue for TPWD to continue to be able to manage all the wildlife resources for the state.
Rather than having a draw system to allow a few lucky folks the opportunity to hunt, they could choose to let TPWD employees go out and shoot all the deer that need to be taken off of every place each year and donate the meat to the needy. That would solve the game management issue, but it wouldn't provide any funding for TPWD. They'd have to go up on hunting license fees or something to make up for that.
There are valid criticisms of the current system, of course. Felix40's ideas are good, in my opinion. But, no matter how they set it up, the vast majority of the people who apply for hunts are not gonna get drawn. There are more people now than there used to be, but there is not more land to hunt on. There's nothing TPWD or anybody else can do about that. A few years ago, there were no private land drawings in the TPWD system. Now there are. Not many, but there are a few. Hopefully they'll be able to add more here and there. But it's hard to compete for private land hunting rights and keep it cost effective when landowners can get a lot of money in lease fees from individual and corporate hunters.
Texas is never going to be the best state for public land hunting, because there isn't a lot of public land to begin with here. But we have a ton of private land available to lease. I prefer that to public land hunting personally. Yes, it costs money. But having exclusive access is very nice. To me, it's a good trade off.
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Originally posted by ultrastealth View PostIt's true that most hunting for some species in Texas takes place on private land, but there are exceptions like alligator, where the only way most people will ever get a chance to hunt them is through a public drawing. I think they should implement all of the above suggestions. I have hunted in several western states and Alaska, and I can tell you that they suck out of state hunters dry. Texas should reciprocate.
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Originally posted by Shane View PostHere's the deal: It's a drawing, and the vast majority of the applicants aren't gonna get drawn. If folks complain about not being drawn for one reason or another, but they continue to send in their applications and money each year then there is no reason for TPWD to change much. The purpose of the system is not to provide hunting opportunities for everyone that would like to hunt. The purpose is to provide a means of killing enough animals off the state-owned lands to keep the game populations in balance while also providing some much-needed revenue for TPWD to continue to be able to manage all the wildlife resources for the state.
Rather than having a draw system to allow a few lucky folks the opportunity to hunt, they could choose to let TPWD employees go out and shoot all the deer that need to be taken off of every place each year and donate the meat to the needy. That would solve the game management issue, but it wouldn't provide any funding for TPWD. They'd have to go up on hunting license fees or something to make up for that.
There are valid criticisms of the current system, of course. Felix40's ideas are good, in my opinion. But, no matter how they set it up, the vast majority of the people who apply for hunts are not gonna get drawn. There are more people now than there used to be, but there is not more land to hunt on. There's nothing TPWD or anybody else can do about that. A few years ago, there were no private land drawings in the TPWD system. Now there are. Not many, but there are a few. Hopefully they'll be able to add more here and there. But it's hard to compete for private land hunting rights and keep it cost effective when landowners can get a lot of money in lease fees from individual and corporate hunters.
Texas is never going to be the best state for public land hunting, because there isn't a lot of public land to begin with here. But we have a ton of private land available to lease. I prefer that to public land hunting personally. Yes, it costs money. But having exclusive access is very nice. To me, it's a good trade off.
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Originally posted by ultrastealth View PostIt's true that most hunting for some species in Texas takes place on private land, but there are exceptions like alligator, where the only way most people will ever get a chance to hunt them is through a public drawing. I think they should implement all of the above suggestions. I have hunted in several western states and Alaska, and I can tell you that they suck out of state hunters dry. Texas should reciprocate.
Just curious...
If you guys really want to go there, the state should also designate a certain percentage of permits as NR only, just like other states. Can't draw those now....think about it. Odds are now even lower with fewer tags. Careful what you with for.Last edited by Bowhuntamistad; 07-07-2017, 10:59 AM.
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Originally posted by SolocamShooter View PostWill you please post up his contact info?
Justin Dreibelbis
Private Lands and Public Hunting Program Director
(512) 389-4395
justin.dreibelbis@tpwd.texas.gov
For those of you saying the system can't be made better, you are incorrect. We had a system before that limited the number of entries substantially. The odds then were around 10-30% for all of the hunts I used to apply for. Now those odds are around 1-6%. So its not just some theory that we have about making draw odds better. IT USED TO BE THAT WAY. I don't know about you but I prefer to apply for 4-5 hunts that I REALLY want and have a decent chance of drawing one every other year. Currently people are applying for anything and everything even if they don't really want it just because they want to increase their odds.
Anyway, I will leave it alone because its a sore subject for me. I am VERY happy that we have the small amount of public land we do in this state that doesn't require a draw or any kind of permit to hunt. Those places are worth more than almost any of these WMAs so I hope we can hold onto them.Last edited by Felix40; 07-07-2017, 11:34 AM.
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Originally posted by Felix40 View PostI don't know if this is the guy who would care or be able to change anything but his title suggests that he might.
Justin Dreibelbis
Private Lands and Public Hunting Program Director
(512) 389-4395
justin.dreibelbis@tpwd.texas.gov
For those of you saying the system can't be made better, you are incorrect. We had a system before that limited the number of entries substantially. The odds then were around 10-30% for all of the hunts I used to apply for. Now those odds are around 1-6%. So its not just some theory that we have about making draw odds better. IT USED TO BE THAT WAY. I don't know about you but I prefer to apply for 4-5 hunts that I REALLY want and have a decent chance of drawing one every other year. Currently people are applying for anything and everything even if they don't really want it just because they want to increase their odds.
Anyway, I will leave it alone because its a sore subject for me. I am VERY happy that we have the small amount of public land we do in this state that doesn't require a draw or any kind of permit to hunt. Those places are worth more than almost any of these WMAs so I hope we can hold onto them.
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Originally posted by SolocamShooter View PostI don't think anybody expects to get drawn every year but the new system is rediculous. I wish I had saved the books over the years to post up the numbers. I know you've gotten lucky and had success through the system, other people are tired of it. The entire playing field needs to be leveled the way Felix posted. When you have one guy entering 28 times and another 3 or even 1 for whatever reason it screws over everybody once you multiply it by the number of all the people that do it. The drawing odds are through the roof in the wrong direction. It seems like everyone would be on board with being proactive and trying to get the system changed so they have a more reasonable chance at being drawn in the future. And they have the land and means to add a lot more hunts they just don't. There was a article in the paper here last season about how the USFS and TPWD were spot lighting and killing 100+ doe a year off the DCNF for research purposes. That's fine but why can't they incorporate that into a permit based deal where the hunter kills and donates the deer, gets the meat, and they get what they need for research. They don't because they don't want to manage it.
Regardless of the details, it's luck of the draw. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. The more hunters there are applying, the more difficult it will be to get drawn. If one guy is entering 28 times and I'm only entering 3, that's not unfair. I could enter 28 times just like him if I wanted to. And if I did, some guy that just entered 1 might get drawn while I didn't. That's just the way it goes. If they returned to being able to just enter 1 drawing per category, the odds would still be lower now than they were years ago, because there are more people entering the drawings now than there used to be. There are more categories and more hunts than there were 10-20 years ago, but the number of applicants has increased a lot more. Population growth....
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Originally posted by Shane View PostI've been entering the drawings since 1989, so I've drawn several hunts in almost 30 years of applying for everything in the book each year. But I've had several years along the way where I didn't draw anything at all. Some years it was only a doe/spike hunt or a turkey hunt or whatever. I got super lucky in drawing the bighorn.
Regardless of the details, it's luck of the draw. Sometimes you get lucky and sometimes you don't. The more hunters there are applying, the more difficult it will be to get drawn. If one guy is entering 28 times and I'm only entering 3, that's not unfair. I could enter 28 times just like him if I wanted to. And if I did, some guy that just entered 1 might get drawn while I didn't. That's just the way it goes. If they returned to being able to just enter 1 drawing per category, the odds would still be lower now than they were years ago, because there are more people entering the drawings now than there used to be. There are more categories and more hunts than there were 10-20 years ago, but the number of applicants has increased a lot more. Population growth....
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Originally posted by Shane View PostI absolutely agree with that. We roll out the red carpet for out of state hunters here, and we get treated like crap when we want to go to other states, especially western states.
I agree with most of what Felix is saying. I can't complain much because I have drawn at least one hunt every year for the last six or seven years. Hope I can continue the streak.
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