Leftover Hunting Licenses Available in Wyoming At Automated License Agents
September 2, 2008
CHEYENNE– Sales of leftover big game licenses at automated license agents have been very steady, according to Game and Fish license section manager Jean Cole.
“More than 5,000 licenses were sold on Aug. 15, the first day reduced price licenses were available,” said Cole. “And while this volume put some strain on the system, we are working out the glitches and sales are progressing smoothly.”
Leftover license sales have been averaging more than 700 per day since Aug. 15.
In previous years, regular price licenses left over after the drawings were only sold at Game and Fish offices and leftover reduced price licenses were only sold at license agents. The Game and Fish would send books of reduced price licenses to agents near the hunt areas where the licenses were valid. “This gave people in those areas an advantage of obtaining the licenses, ” Cole said, “But it made it difficult for someone who lived a distance from that area to obtain a license.”Â
Cole said with the new automated system, all hunters have to do is go to any Game and Fish office or one of the 100 fully automated agents in the state and they can obtain a license from that location.  “For example, if a hunter from Cheyenne wanted to obtain a doe antelope license in the Gillette area, a visit to an automated agent in Cheyenne can take care of the licensing.” A listing of automated agents can be found on the Game and Fish Web site.
Licenses are printed out at the license agent, which saves mailing time and expense, and when a license is sold, the automated system deducts that license from the remaining quota in that hunt area. This information is also reflected on the Game and Fish Web site and makes it easy for hunters to determine the number of licenses remaining in a given hunt area.
Licenses can still be purchased through traditional paper applications from the license section in Cheyenne and those licenses are still being mailed to hunters. Residents are reminded they must be physically present to purchase licenses from license agents. Resident applications signed and submitted by another person are only accepted at Game and Fish offices.
Hunters with questions on applying for licenses can contact the Game and Fish at (307) 777-4600.
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Apply for Special-opportunity Spring Turkey Hunts in Florida Sept. 9 – Oct. 14
August 18, 2008
The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) will begin accepting 2009 special-opportunity spring turkey hunt applications at 10 a.m. (EDT) Sept. 9. The deadline for submitting applications is midnight (EDT) Oct. 14.
Applications may be submitted at www.wildlifelicense.com
, county tax collectors’ offices or at any license agent. A random drawing decides who will receive the coveted permits. To apply, hunters can obtain application worksheets at MyFWC.com/hunting and at all FWC regional offices.
Demand for these hunts is typically greater than the number of available permits, but hunters can increase their chances of being selected by submitting as many $5 nonrefundable applications as they like. Successful applicants pay a permit fee of $50 - $175, depending on the special-opportunity hunt area selected.
Participation rules limit out-of-state hunters to one permit per hunt.
The FWC created special-opportunity spring turkey hunts for sportsmen looking to take an Osceola, the “crown jewel” of the turkey hunter’s Grand Slam. The FWC designs special-opportunity turkey hunts to take place on large tracts of land, with great habitat, healthy turkey populations and a limited number of hunters.
The Osceola is a highly prized subspecies of wild turkey, found only in peninsular Florida, south of and including Dixie, Gilchrist, Alachua, Union, Bradford, Clay and Duval counties. All hunts take place within the Osceola turkey’s home range.
For more information on special-opportunity Osceola turkey hunts, visit MyFWC.com/hunting.
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Cheyenne Archer Bags Near Record Black Bear
August 5, 2008
CHEYENNE– Cheyenne archer Steve Perkins knew he was on to a big bear, but it took a year to find out exactly the size of the bear that eventually ended up scoring no. 2 in the record book for archery kills in Wyoming.
Perkins’ bear scored 20 6/16 inches on the Pope and Young scoring scale, putting it just behind a bear taken in Carbon County in 1985 that scored 20 12/16. Pope and Young is an organization that maintains records for archery trophies taken in North America. Scoring on bears is determined by measuring the length and width of the skull in 1/16 increments and adding the two measurements together. The world record archery black bear scored 23 3/16 and was taken in California in 1993.
Perkins bagged the bear on May 19 in the Laramie Peak area in hunt area 7 located west of Wheatland. During the 2007 season he had noticed bite marks on his bait station and knew the marks came from a larger bear than any of the five he had previously taken. As luck would have it, the season closed a few days later, before he was able to see the bear, much less get a shot. He was back in the area this year and once again the large boar responded to his baits. “I had up to six bears on my bait station this year,” Perkins said. “There was a sow with two cubs that kept fighting with the boar. It appeared the boar was trying to get to the cubs, and the female would drive him away.”
The large boar eventually presented him with a shot at 23 yards. Perkins said the bear weighed between 450-500 pounds. He said the bear was the black color phase, which pleased him as his other bears had been the chocolate brown and blond color phase of black bear.
Perkins, who owns Sunlight Taxidermy in Cheyenne, has already mounted the bear and it is on display in his shop.
Black bears in Wyoming are managed on a female mortality quota basis for both spring and fall hunting seasons. When the female quota in a given hunt area is reached, the season in that area is closed to hunting.
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Game and Fish Commission Sets Seasons For 2008
May 6, 2008
CHEYENNE– The proposed 2008 hunting seasons were a major topic of discussion at the April 24-25 annual season setting meeting of the Wyoming Game and Fish Commission in Casper.
In addition to discussion about big game license changes for 2008, the Commission also discussed continued challenges to obtain access for hunters in order to meet harvest objectives and the ongoing concern for habitat conditions in many parts of the state.
“Balancing populations with declining habitat is a major concern to the Wyoming Game and Fish Department and our wildlife managers,” said assistant wildlife division chief, Bill Rudd. “We will be managing some herds below objective in select areas in order to try and rest some important habitats.”
Probably the most significant change of interest to hunters is for deer and pronghorn herds in hunt areas around Rawlins and Baggs in the south central portion of the state. Nonresident deer quotas have been reduced by 200 licenses in Region W, and seasons have been shortened in hunt areas 82 and 100, two of the more popular deer hunt areas in that region. In area 82, the season has been reduced from 14 to 10 days, and the season in area 100 was shortened from eight to five days. General license seasons in both areas will be for antlered deer only. Doe/fawn licenses were also reduced from 600 in area 82 in 2007 to 10 for the 2008 season.
In the same geographic area, pronghorn licenses in hunt area 53 were cut from 550 to 200 type 1 (any antelope licenses) and from 750 to 25 type 4 (doe/fawn licenses). In neighboring pronghorn area 55, type 1license quotas were reduced from 150 to 50 and doe/fawn licenses were cut from 100 to 25. Pronghorn areas 61 and 62 north of Rawlins also had their quotas reduced. Concern over winter loss was cited as the reason for reduced quotas and seasons in those hunt areas.
In other portions of the state, quotas for pronghorn remained similar to previous years and some areas had increases. Overall, there will be 3,000 more pronghorn licenses available statewide than there were in 2007.
While most deer seasons and quotas in other parts of the state are similar to 2007, there are changes that will affect nonresidents in Regions Y and C located on the eastern slope of the Big Horn mountains and east of Sheridan and Buffalo. This year, Region C was split into two regions, Y and C, which encompass the same geographical area as Region C in previous years. In 2007, Region C had a quota of 6,000 licenses. For 2008, the quota in the new region C was set at 3,100 licenses and the quota in the new Region Y was set at 2,200. This represents a reduction of 700 licenses from 2007.Â
Some of the hunt areas (78, 79, 80, 81) in Region D near Saratoga also had the any deer season shortened from 12 days last year to 3 days this year. The total length of the season will still be 14 days in those areas with the change reflecting the fewer days that does can be hunted on a general license.
In western Wyoming, the seasons and nonresident quotas are generally the same as in 2007 as those areas have been operating under reduced quotas for several years.
Most elk hunt areas remained liberal reflecting continued high populations in most areas of the state. As with most years, some areas had quota and season adjustments to accommodate changes in herd populations and bull/cow ratios.
Moose quotas remained fairly conservative with the biggest change coming in hunt area 26 north of Kemmerer. In that area, type 1 antlered moose licenses were reduced from 60 to 50 and the type 4 antlerless licenses were reduced from 25 to 5.
Bighorn sheep and mountain goat quotas and seasons will be similar to 2007 with a few sheep areas opening which have been closed (areas 12, 18, 21, 24) and small quota adjustments in a few others. There were no changes in the mountain goat seasons and quotas from 2007.
Rudd said that changes in seasons and quotas were proposed to hunters at public meetings in March and April and were met with general support from the state’s hunters in attendance.
“We had good attendance at our public meetings,” Rudd said. “Hunters who came to the meetings were mostly in agreement of our proposals and the steps we were taking to help compensate for the winter loss and effects of drought on big game habitats. Some adjustments were made to our original recommendations to accommodate suggestions from hunters attending our public meetings.”
In addition to setting seasons for big game, the commission also set seasons for small game, upland birds and wild turkey. Seasons will be similar to last year.
Big game summary maps listing season dates and quotas are now available at Game and Fish offices and license agencies.
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Controlled Hunt Application Period Coming Up
April 27, 2008
The application period for deer, elk, pronghorn, fall black bear and fall turkey starts May 1 and runs through June 5.
This year more fall turkey hunting opportunities will be available in the Southeast and Upper Snake regions.
Youths 15 or younger on September 15 may apply for one of the 100 fall controlled hunt permits available for Unit 71 in the Southeast region. In addition, any turkey hunter may apply for another 100 controlled hunt permits for Unit 71 where the fall controlled hunt runs from September 15 through December 31.
Youths also may apply for one of 25 permits for Hunt Area 950 in the Upper Snake region where the fall controlled hunt runs from September 15 through November 30.
A general tag or an extra tag can be used with the controlled hunt permit to participate in the fall controlled turkey hunts.
Hunters may apply for controlled hunts by phone, Internet or mail, or at any license vendor or Fish and Game office. To apply, residents and nonresidents must have a valid Idaho hunting license.
To apply with a credit card call 1-800-55HUNT5 or 1-800-824-3729, or go online to http://fishandgame.idaho.gov. An additional fee of 3 percent of the transaction plus $5.50 is charged for telephone, and 3 percent of the transaction plus $3.50 for Internet applications.
Application worksheets, available in the Fish and Game rules brochures and on the Website listed above may be mailed, with proper fees, to any Fish and Game office. The application fee is $6.25 per person, per application. Don’t send permit or tag fees.
Mail applications to Idaho Department of Fish and Game, P. O. Box 25, Boise, ID 83707.
Depredation hunt sign up also starts May 1 and runs through June 30. These hunts are held on short notice, involve small areas and are limited to a few hunters. Idaho residents with a valid hunting or combination license may apply through local Fish and Game offices, or by mailing in the application found in the rules brochure or on the Internet.
All applications received before June 30 will be placed in random order. All applications received after June 30 will be placed at the end of the list in the order received. The list will be valid from July 1 to the following June 30.
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