Fall Permits In the Mail

[charlie elk]

Another step closer to the 2011 fall hunt, successful applicants will be notified by mail. Or you can go online to check https://jc.activeoutdoorsolutions.com/w ... /goHome.do
Got mine, but then that is not a surprise being there are 10,298 tags left for OTC buying. A guy like me does wonder why in the world we have to draw for a tag we know we are going to get? Seems a waste of money and effort just put the fall tags up for sale OTC one per day until gone.
Here is a link for the OTC tags-
http://www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/cs/fallturkey/
Bring on fall!

[putt]

Charlie

Thanks for the heads-up. I haven't got my postcard yet, but I see from your weblink that that there are fall permits remaining in my area, so it should be a done deal.

I'm guessing that you're especially looking forward to this fall season because of your new turkey pup. As both a turkey & dog lover, I'm looking forward to reading posts of your pup's fall hunting adventures.

[charlie elk]

Putt,
I am quite proud of my turkey pup so you can be assured there might be some proud strutting going on this fall even if; when it is for real and things don't go as planned. After all that is what hunting is all about. Vic will only be 9 months, 2 days old come fall opener so I am ready to cut him some slack on his first hunt.

Sounds like you had a good hunt this spring in 1 and I hope you come back in the spring of 12, we should have 7 day hunts then.

Looks like fall turkey hunter numbers almost doubled this year from 26,000 in '10 to nearly 50,000 this year. Not sure if it is the economy with those looking for a "free" turkey dinner, the buzz about the great hunting in WI, a very long season or the excellent fall issue T&TH put out.

[putt]

Looks like fall turkey hunter numbers almost doubled this year from 26,000 in '10 to nearly 50,000 this year. Not sure if it is the economy with those looking for a "free" turkey dinner, the buzz about the great hunting in WI, a very long season or the excellent fall issue T&TH put out.

Charlie.
Both T&TH & the NWTF's "Turkey Country" had good articles on turkey dogs this issue. Your sport is getting publicity.

I'm a little puzzled by your Wis turkey hunter numbers. I may be wrong, as I often am, but I read the numbers going unfortunately the other way. By my count, initial fall permit number went down 7000+ this year. The initial fall permits available stayed the same at 95,700 both years, & all 2011 zones had the same number available as in 2010. In 2010 48,908 were issued initially. This year I count 54,368 total permits remaining, meaning only 95,700 - 54,368 = 41,332 went in the initial drawing in 2011.

When I look at the two fall zones that I'd be interested in for Saturday's leftover sale ( zones 2 & 5 ), both zones have increased substantially in leftover permit numbers from 2010. Zone 2 went from 1599 leftovers in 2010 to 3036 this year. Zone 5 went from 82 to 603. In fact all zones with leftover permits went up in leftover numbers this year.

I've been a bit anal about keeping track of permit numbers the last few years.

And yes, I did enjoy my spring hunt in your zone this year, & hope to do it again next spring. Don't know which period it will be, since I first hope to break my string of three straight initial 5th period draws in my home zone, & get an earlier draw here.

Good hunting with that pup.

[charlie elk]

The initial fall permits available stayed the same at 95,700 both years, & all 2011 zones had the same number available as in 2010. In 2010 48,908 were issued initially.

According to WDNR 2010 fall license sales were about 26,472. Since 2006 license sales have held a bit more that 26,000 per year. Quickly in my head and from memory I subtracted the leftover permits from the total available- leaves about 40,000 leftovers with about 95,000 available it looked like license issue almost doubled. However as you point out not a lot of difference in OTC this year over last. Which must indicate a lot of hunters apply, get drawn but do not purchase a fall license. I had no idea there were that many not following through with a license purchase!
I am going to check with WDNR for the exact 2010 license sales; it takes them up to 2 years to compile the final numbers so they may not have them for public distribution yet.

[putt]

OK Charlie. If it will help, here's the WDNR link where I got my info:
http://dnr.wi.gov/org/land/wildlife/hun ... y/fall.pdf

The chart at the bottom of the page is titled "2011 - FINAL Fall Turkey Harvest and Permit Information"

Note the 3rd column total, "2010 Permits issued thru the Preference Drawing" = 48,908. The 4th column total, "2010 Permits Issued over the counter" adds another 12,265 to the 2010 fall permit total.

There is also a link on the WDNR's main wild turkey hunting webpage that lists the fall totals from 1989 - 2006. 2010's total fall permits were listed as 61,567.
I tried to paste the link here, but everytime I do I get a "Forbidden" error message when I try to preview.

[charlie elk]

Those are the number of permits not the number of license sales. A single hunter can purchase multiple permits, but he is still only one guy afield. License sales give a more accurate handle on the number of hunters. See the attachment for a history of the actual license sales; this was prepared by the WDNR license department.

What surprises me and I had not noticed it before this discussion; about 22,000 successful permit applicants choose not to buy a license and apparently these permits are never issued and carried by a hunter afield. I am inquiring with the WDNR about this and will let you know if I get an answer. Perhaps the Patron licenses account for some of the difference, but if I remember correctly there are not that many patron licenses sold any more. Remember all those excel spreadsheets I emailed over to you Putt? They contain all the license sale stats.

If anyone can't see the attachment on this post or want a copy of those referenced spreadsheets send me an email with that request - elk@charlieelk.com

[charlie elk]

Sorry about that giant attachment I couldn't figure out how to shrink it on this new forum layout. I'll study that problem when I get time and fix it.

[WillowRidgeCalls]

Did you get any extra tags today Charley?

[charlie elk]

You betcha, with my license purchase that makes 2 for unit 4 and plan to pick up another tomorrow. Not sure why the excitement and my hurry because there are thousands left at season's end.
For starters I'll get 3 in 4, 3 in 1, and 3 in 3 that will keep my options open. There are farmers who are really excited for Vic and I to show up to thin their turkeys.

How about you? Sticking to your home unit or moving about the great state of WI?