2016 Saskatchewan Big Game Draw Assessment & Outlook

[umchorn2]

Skhunter,
I tallied the 2015 Big Game draw applicants by zone & priority as posted on sk environments website...

Draw moose quota: 5835 animals & 110,522 applicants
Draw elk quota: 3275 animals & 39,222 applicants
Draw mule deer: 7625 animals & 68,530 applicants
Draw pronghorn: 150 animals & 10,141 applicants

Does anyone else think these quotas are too high? They are only for the south of the province. When moose were at peak levels a few years ago it was said there were only 8000 in the south.

Remember each person can make 6 zone choices per draw so the total number of actual applicants is not really that high but cannot be lower than 1/6th the applicant number. From here we can determine the dollar value of each animal to the province.

It should be noted that your chances of being drawn for pronhorn are 1/68 and after adding all the application fees and adding the wildlife habitat license fee of $10.79 and the $40 ish tag, one pronghorn brings in $185.

Notice how the province does not post animal survey numbers from their counts...! They only post tags available and applicants by zone! The province does not have the survey data as they do not do yearly surveys for each zone but instead only do a brief hunter harvest survey post season.

And that is a good mature 150pt white tail you shot there. I would not have passed on that either, however the moose I would have let grow. They are probably close to half their mature body weight as calves...hardly an arguement that a meat hunter could make. One would think a meat hunter would maximize the meat by shooting a mature animal, which has at least 2x the meat by weight as a fawn.

Mr Rig Pig you are right it's $4 per application not zone.

 

[Mr.Rigpig]

From here we can determine the dollar value of each animal to the province.

It should be noted that your chances of being drawn for pronhorn are 1/68 and after adding all the application fees and adding the wildlife habitat license fee of $10.79 and the $40 ish tag, one pronghorn brings in $185.

How did you come up with $185/antelope?

 

[umchorn2]

How did you come up with $185/antelope?

150 pronghorn antelope animal quota & 10,141 applicants who can apply in only 2 zones. If each person applies in each zone we have 5,070 people @ $4/application = $135/animal. Now add the $11 FWDF fee & $40 tag = $185/antelope minimum. Province will have to pay the company who runs their online draw as they source this out.

If each person applied in only one of the 2 zones you would have 10,141 people @ $4/application = $40,564/150 tag (quota) = $270/pronhorn + $11+$40 = $330/pronghorn gross revenue.

So, $27,750 - $49,500 in gross revenue just for pronghorn. Thats why the province wants the highest possible quota allocation with the lowest possible hunter success. They want to maximize their revenue without actually delivering an animal. You are being sold an opportunity to hunt...thats the product they sell.

Hunters are simply content for the chance to be drawn...we haven't even got our tags yet but are willing to pay...many principles here mirror how provincial lotteries and casinos bring in revenue. In this case the "game" is wildlife.

 

[skhunter]

Skhunter,
I tallied the 2015 Big Game draw applicants by zone & priority as posted on sk environments website...

Draw moose quota: 5835 animals & 110,522 applicants
Draw elk quota: 3275 animals & 39,222 applicants
Draw mule deer: 7625 animals & 68,530 applicants
Draw pronghorn: 150 animals & 10,141 applicants

Does anyone else think these quotas are too high? They are only for the south of the province. When moose were at peak levels a few years ago it was said there were only 8000 in the south.

Remember each person can make 6 zone choices per draw so the total number of actual applicants is not really that high but cannot be lower than 1/6th the applicant number. From here we can determine the dollar value of each animal to the province.

It should be noted that your chances of being drawn for pronhorn are 1/68 and after adding all the application fees and adding the wildlife habitat license fee of $10.79 and the $40 ish tag, one pronghorn brings in $185.

Notice how the province does not post animal survey numbers from their counts...! They only post tags available and applicants by zone! The province does not have the survey data as they do not do yearly surveys for each zone but instead only do a brief hunter harvest survey post season.

And that is a good mature 150pt white tail you shot there. I would not have passed on that either, however the moose I would have let grow. They are probably close to half their mature body weight as calves...hardly an arguement that a meat hunter could make. One would think a meat hunter would maximize the meat by shooting a mature animal, which has at least 2x the meat by weight as a fawn.

Mr Rig Pig you are right it's $4 per application not zone.

Again, applicant numbers have nothing to do with population numbers.

You come with real quota numbers but simply have no real population numbers, only speculation. I will ask again, show me your data concerning population numbers.

They post the pool quotas and applicant numbers to assist hunters in making their choices when applying for tags.

The two moose were full grown cows, each weighed just over 400lbs on the rail.

 

[skhunter]

150 pronghorn antelope animal quota & 10,141 applicants who can apply in only 2 zones. If each person applies in each zone we have 5,070 people @ $4/application = $135/animal. Now add the $11 FWDF fee & $40 tag = $185/antelope minimum. Province will have to pay the company who runs their online draw as they source this out.

If each person applied in only one of the 2 zones you would have 10,141 people @ $4/application = $40,564/150 tag (quota) = $270/pronhorn + $11+$40 = $330/pronghorn gross revenue.

So, $27,750 - $49,500 in gross revenue just for pronghorn. Thats why the province wants the highest possible quota allocation with the lowest possible hunter success. They want to maximize their revenue without actually delivering an animal. You are being sold an opportunity to hunt...thats the product they sell.

Hunters are simply content for the chance to be drawn...we haven't even got our tags yet but are willing to pay...many principles here mirror how provincial lotteries and casinos bring in revenue. In this case the "game" is wildlife.

So pronghorn fees don't even pay the salary of one game warden.

Of course they are selling you an opportunity to hunt.

Like I said before take your license fees to the grocery store where you are guaranteed to bring meat home if you feel the gov't is swindling you.

With the price of meat at the grocery store, good luck filling your freezer for $60.00.

 

[umchorn2]

My 2015 fall survey observation numbers based on 15 trips (65 hrs in field). Locations: Wolverine, Montrose, Asquith, Aberdeen, Ducks Unlimited, FWDL x 6 each once. I'm not breaking it down by location for you although I have done so for my own results. Also no deer were included in the count during travel. Total sightings below. Possibilty exists for duplicate count however I don't believe there are any duplicate observations.

Mule deer: Doe: 10 Fawn: 5 Buck: 6 (2 mature 5x5) note that mature will mean 3.5 yr or older as estimated by me.
White tail: Doe: 10. Fawn: 4. Buck:7 (2 mature: 4x4 & 5x5)
Elk: Cow: 7
Moose: Cow:2. Calf:4. Bull: 1 (mature 40" spread)
Ruffed grouse: 5. Sharp tailed: 3. Coyote:1

Spring 2016. 10 trips. Locations include Wolverine, Aberdeen, Purdue, Rudy, Montrose, Dundurn, Macdonald Creek.

Moose: Cow: 1. Calf:2
Elk: Cow:1. Calf:1
Mule deer: Doe: 28. Fawn: 22. Buck:1
White tail: Doe: 15 Fawn: 15
Ruffed grouse: 7

Thats it. That's all I saw. Happy now? To me thats not a lot of game in my opinion and to be honest I think quotas are too high. If I used an atv a d drove around 10,000 km instead of walking I probably would have a different survey result. Those look like small cows to me. You do realize a mature cow moose is about 3 or 4 years old?

 

[rral22]

150 pronghorn antelope animal quota & 10,141 applicants who can apply in only 2 zones. If each person applies in each zone we have 5,070 people @ $4/application = $135/animal. Now add the $11 FWDF fee & $40 tag = $185/antelope minimum. Province will have to pay the company who runs their online draw as they source this out.

If each person applied in only one of the 2 zones you would have 10,141 people @ $4/application = $40,564/150 tag (quota) = $270/pronhorn + $11+$40 = $330/pronghorn gross revenue.

So, $27,750 - $49,500 in gross revenue just for pronghorn. Thats why the province wants the highest possible quota allocation with the lowest possible hunter success. They want to maximize their revenue without actually delivering an animal. You are being sold an opportunity to hunt...thats the product they sell.

Hunters are simply content for the chance to be drawn...we haven't even got our tags yet but are willing to pay...many principles here mirror how provincial lotteries and casinos bring in revenue. In this case the "game" is wildlife.

So don't hunt for anything that requires a draw tag. One more tag I might win. Thanks.

I know perfectly well I'm buying an opportunity to hunt. I'm not the least bit angry about that. Why are you?

 

[skhunter]

My 2015 fall survey observation numbers based on 15 trips (65 hrs in field). Locations: Wolverine, Montrose, Asquith, Aberdeen, Ducks Unlimited, FWDL x 6 each once. I'm not breaking it down by location for you although I have done so for my own results. Also no deer were included in the count during travel. Total sightings below. Possibilty exists for duplicate count however I don't believe there are any duplicate observations.

Mule deer: Doe: 10 Fawn: 5 Buck: 6 (2 mature 5x5) note that mature will mean 3.5 yr or older as estimated by me.
White tail: Doe: 10. Fawn: 4. Buck:7 (2 mature: 4x4 & 5x5)
Elk: Cow: 7
Moose: Cow:2. Calf:4. Bull: 1 (mature 40" spread)
Ruffed grouse: 5. Sharp tailed: 3. Coyote:1

Spring 2016. 10 trips. Locations include Wolverine, Aberdeen, Purdue, Rudy, Montrose, Dundurn, Macdonald Creek.

Moose: Cow: 1. Calf:2
Elk: Cow:1. Calf:1
Mule deer: Doe: 28. Fawn: 22. Buck:1
White tail: Doe: 15 Fawn: 15
Ruffed grouse: 7

Thats it. That's all I saw. Happy now? To me thats not a lot of game in my opinion and to be honest I think quotas are too high. If I used an atv a d drove around 10,000 km instead of walking I probably would have a different survey result. Those look like small cows to me. You do realize a mature cow moose is about 3 or 4 years old?

So near as I can tell you were in 4 zones on foot.

You saw 72 mule deer which is over 10% of the number of tags handed out.
You saw 10 moose which is over 2% of the number of tags handed out.
You saw 9 elk which is 5% of the tags handed out.

Considering that you probably covered maybe 2% of the total area of those zones, those sightings seem pretty on par with healthy populations of game.

BTW both those moose had calves with them, but you go ahead and keep on disparaging other's success.

I would wish you luck hunting, but obviously you won't be this fall. So enjoy whatever you decide to do instead.

 

[KRJ]

Coyotes are high in number. Down from the last 2 years but still stupidly high. If you want some come to my place and shoot all of them. They just eat my cats any how. As for mule deer counted a herd of a 130 below my house a while ago. Not as high as they have been some years but not low either. Number of Elk/moose are never very high and don't see them that often so can't really say up or down. Goats are around and busy running under fences. I put in for Elk & Pronghorn this year. Kind of hoping for Pronghorn but only 15 or so tags in my zones.