I got selected for 2 Portland landing hunts.

So, a girl who I know that works for the Dnr explained the preference system to me. More points equal a “better chance” of being selected. They are doing it similarly to the gator tags where some hunters will draw regularly and some will never get drawn. What she did not specify is how much each preference point is weighted.

Leave it to Alabama to come up with this system.

Common sense says if you put in three years and accrue three points or four years (4 points) or whatever, then you should have "preference" over someone applying for the first time or with fewer points. That's the entire point of a "preference points" system.

If this is not how it's done in Alabama that's crazy.

Yet another reason I have not, and will never, apply for any preference point hunt here.

Common sense says if you put in three years and accrue three points or four years (4 points) or whatever, then you should have "preference" over someone applying for the first time or with fewer points. That's the entire point of a "preference points" system.

If this is not how it's done in Alabama that's crazy.

Yet another reason I have not, and will never, apply for any preference point hunt here.

Clem, the DNR employee I was talking to earlier responded. She said that she assumed it was done like the gator draw, but was not 100%. According to her, the gator draw works like this. There are around 5500 applicants every year. There are 260 tags. 85% of tags are reserved for participants with preference points, 15% are reserved for people with no preference points. Everyone who draws a tag loses their points.

Does anyone else see the stupidity in that? Let’s assume there are 500 applicants a year with no preference points. That would include the hunters who drew a tag the year before and the hunters who’ve never signed up before. That’s a 8% chance of being drawn.

The remaining 5000 with preference points, battle it out over the other 221 tags. That’s a 4.5% chance of drawing.

Smdh

Clem, the DNR employee I was talking to earlier responded. She said that she assumed it was done like the gator draw, but was not 100%. According to her, the gator draw works like this. There are around 5500 applicants every year. There are 260 tags. 85% of tags are reserved for participants with preference points, 15% are reserved for people with no preference points. Everyone who draws a tag loses their points.

Does anyone else see the stupidity in that? Let’s assume there are 500 applicants a year with no preference points. That would include the hunters who drew a tag the year before and the hunters who’ve never signed up before. That’s a 8% chance of being drawn.

The remaining 5000 with preference points, battle it out over the other 221 tags. That’s a 4.5% chance of drawing.

Smdh

I wonder how many have applied so far for the sandhill crane hunt, which is $10 to register/apply.

Since they're migratory birds, the same regs are applying as for waterfowl -- must have state license, state and federal waterfowl stamps, HIP permit, and WMA permit if you're hunting on a WMA. Legal arms and ammo (non-toxic) also the same as for waterfowl.

I get it that you are pissed off about the preference points, however, in your above assumption you can make the gator numbers what ever you want. Change to 1500 and 4000 and your %'s of getting picked go up and down to 2.3 and 5.5. so what's your solution?

Just quoting the numbers of applicants I was told...

But to answer your question, here is my solution. Do it like every other state. If there are 260 tags, the tier with the most points get tags. The tier with the 2nd most points get what’s left over. The tier with the 3rd most points get any that are left over from the first two, and so on. There should never be a system where some people have tried for 10 years to get drawn and people who have no time invested have a chance to draw before them.