More Price Increases in Wyoming

More Price Increases in Wyoming

By Guy Eastman

A new year has brought an ugly surprise for non-resident big game applicants in Wyoming. A very steep price increase is on the very near horizon for the “Special Draw” applications for non-resident deer, elk and antelope licenses. In addition, the prices on sheep, moose, goat and bison were also hiked for the new year as well. 

The news is not all bad however, the “Regular Draw” prices for non-resident applicants where held steady as well as all resident license and preference point pricing. 

As sure as time itself, a price increase was bound to happen at some point. Particularly considering the fact that the regular versus special draw has grown into parity, and in some cases the regular, cheaper draw actually had better odds over the past few years for a few hunts, which had the opposite of the intended effect on applicant behaviors, the logical decision was to increase the price of the special in an effort to push more applicants in to the cheaper draw and out of the special drawing. 

The net effect is non-resident special elk went from $1,283 to now $1,965, a 53% net increase, while the special deer application went from $677 to $1,216, a net increase of 79%, and the special antelope license saw the steepest increase of more than 93%, from $629 to now $1,215. Needless to say, this will surely generate a substantial increase in revenue for the department from desperate non-resident hunters. 

While these price increases might seem logical to some, the increase in non-resident prices for sheep, moose, goat and bison is more suspicious. In an interesting twist, last year the Wyoming Legislature decreased the non-resident allocation for these tags by about 35% on average. This year the state increased the price for these tags by about 50%, what a coincidence some might say. 

In the end, the price for a non-resident sheep tag in Wyoming will rise by about 30% from $2,335 to $3,017. The non-resident moose license saw the largest increase from $1,997 to now a whopping $2,767, an increase of nearly 40%. The goat and bison licenses increased by 27% and 36% respectively. At these rates, every non-resident sheep tag sold equals nearly 20 resident sheep tags in revenue, not bad for the Department’s budget. I guess that 90/10 cut doesn’t hurt too bad after all. 

The fact remains, this sport is getting ever more expensive no matter how you cut it. As more and more states continue to struggle with big game management more and more pressure is put on the Wyoming draw system, and I don’t see any end in sight for this trend. Buckle up, this is going to be a very rough year for draws and costs and it could just be the beginning. 

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