I’ve been buying preference points for WY for a bit now. They have a preference point system. I’m planning on hunting public ground when I do pull the trigger 5-7 years from now. They have two separate draws you can apply for and from what I understand the “special” draws went up a considerable amount. You front the money and get refunded if you don’t draw. Special elk draw fee is close to 2K if I remember right. Normal draw fee is 7-800, again going from memory here. There might be some units you can draw with very few preference points but from what I can tell most places with supposedly decent numbers will take nearly a decade worth of points. Just what I’ve noticed in my research and why I’m planning so far out. Point creep is bad from what I’m hearing and likely to get worse with folks not applying for tags due to last winter’s die off. My advice for WY is start buying points and if you want to go with an outfitter, start asking about openings now.

If opportunity to hunt is what you are looking for, Montana has general tags that I think there’s a 40% ish chance to draw with no points. New Mexico is completely random with no point system (thinking of applying for one of these tags in a couple of years). Colorado is OTC unless they change the regs.

*Edited based on OP’s second post*

Last edited by CeeHawk37; 01/05/24 03:17 PM.