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.
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
