2013 Leftover Permits

[charlie elk]

Leftover spring turkey permits go on sale March 18
I just received WDNR press release regarding leftover permits for this spring.
There are 99,612 OTC permits for the 2013 spring turkey. Sales start March 18 at 10 a.m.

The following zones have leftover permits
•Zone 1 – Monday, March 18
• Zone 2 – Tuesday, March 19
• Zone 3 – Wednesday, March 20
• Zone 4 – Thursday, March 21
• Zones 5, 6 & 7 – Friday, March 22 (due to the low number of permits left in these units, sales have been combined into one day)

There are no leftover permits for time periods A or B. Which means, I think there are OTC permits for season C,D,E, & F available in all units? Apparently it has become a race among the remaining resident turkey hunters to compete for the first 2 weeks.
As I write this the leftover permit page has not been updated yet, it is still showing 2012 unsold permits, it will be updated later today. Numbers are being double checked.

[Treerooster]

Laftover perimt availability is up.

http://dnr.wi.gov/permits/springturkey.html

Pretty fast really, the WDNR must be getting the hang of it.

Now if they would just move the leftover sale dates up into Feb,

[charlie elk]

Now if they would just move the leftover sale dates up into Feb,

That would be nice.
And put all those permits that are drawn and not purchased up for sale too.

I'm a little surprised there are no unit 4 C left. Looks like I'll be doing a lot of hunting in units 1&3 - so many tags so little time.

[ticklishtompro]

Surprised by the number left in unit 2. Not surprised that it is only the last 2 seasons.

Should be able to get a few extra tags this year.

[charlie elk]

Does anyone have a record of left over tags for 2012. If my memory is correct there were about 80,000 and this year there is 99,612.

[Treerooster]

Does anyone have a record of left over tags for 2012. If my memory is correct there were about 80,000 and this year there is 99,612.

I was wondering the same thing. I would really like a break down of the zones and seasons too.

I thought there were a lot less zone 4 season 4 tags left last year.

[putt]

Does anyone have a record of left over tags for 2012. If my memory is correct there were about 80,000 and this year there is 99,612.

Here you go, Charlie. It's a complete snapshot of all 2012 zone tags leftover after the initial permit draw. You'll have to add them up to get your total.

I confess that I've been a bit anal about saving some permit data the last few years to monitor the changes.

I agree with Treerooster's wish that the DNR would move the leftover tag sales into February. It would help greatly when making spring plans.

[charlie elk]

Thanks Putt I thought you might have this. I keep the screen shots too but they are lost somewhere between my old and new computer.

2012 & 2013 are pretty close; 2013 has 2587 more mostly in the later seasons. Those participating in the drawing are choosing earlier seasons.
In unit 4, I speculate, more of our NR friends are drawing season 3 &4.

One of these days, when time allows I plan to spread sheet and graph all of these numbers.

Have you done that yet Putt?
If so, feel free to post your results.

In the turkey hunting survey last year WDNR had proposed extending the spring season through Memorial Day weekend but the vast majority of turkey hunters opposed it!? So it is no longer being considered for the new management plan. We could have had a season G with more than 7 days.

[Treerooster]

Thank you putt, much appreciated.

Looks like in zones 1 thru 5 every zone and every season except season C in zones 1 & 3 have more tags leftover this year. Zones 6 & 7 have less tags available. Wonder if turkey hunting is getting more popular in those zones and they are behind the curve from the rest of the state which has seen a decrease in popularity overall.

Zone 4 has seen an increase of leftover tags in season D, E, & F of 702, 213, & 155 respectively.

[putt]

One of these days, when time allows I plan to spread sheet and graph all of these numbers.

Have you done that yet Putt?

Nope, I haven't spread sheeted anything Charlie, just kept some screenshots.

You & I seem to share a fascination with Wisconsin turkey permit numbers. Thanks for doing the addition on last year's leftovers. I note that the total initial number of initial available permits this year increased very slightly (635) over 2012. 234,420 versus 233,785. Every zone stayed the same, except that my Zone2 hogged all the 2013 increase (+1200). ;) The totals are skewed somewhat by Fort McCoy zone becoming independent of the state hunt this year, thereby dropping its 565 permits from this year's total. Here's the 2012/2013 numbers website for those who are interested (page 2 of 2 has the goodies):
http://dnr.wi.gov/topic/hunt/documents/spring.pdf

There is also some confusion of totals when adding the State Parks with main zone totals, some parks with only 1-3 period hunting, & some with disabled-only hunting. I didn't use those "grand total" numbers in the above totals. Those numbers are a very small percentage.