New hunter question

[Black Titan]

Hey guys, looking for some clarification on some things if someone could dumb it down for me.

As I understand it, my limit in my "unit" is 4 antlerless, 1 antlered, per season. Im in Roane County and will be hunting Roane, and Anderson counties this year. Both fall in the same unit I believe.

If I hunt in a different "unit", do my limits change?

I got my paper work for the Oak Ridge hunt. At the top, after a paragraph about getting the deer checked at a checking station, it says "bonus deer". Does this mean any deer I get on the oak ridge hunt doesn't count towards my statewide season limit?

And could someone please explain this darn point system? I've seen posts along the lines of "maybe I'll have enough points after I retire to get drawn for elk". What does that mean? Why does it take so many points and where do these points come from?

BT

 

[XCR-2]

Best I can explain the second part of your question about the points. When you apply for any quota hunt except for elk, if not drawn for the hunt then you acquire a point. We'll use the President's Island quota hunt for reference. If you apply for that hunt you will not get drawn unless you have around 15 or so points. Reason is the quota for each said hunt is only around 20 hunters. Everyone that puts in can't get drawn so these hunters keep applying every season for that hunt until they've acquired or saved enough points that it's basically their turn in line to hunt. Now if you apply on some less sought after hunts such as Prentice Cooper or Catoosa we'll say, then with 0 points you do have a good chance at drawing one of those hunts. Heck they even have leftover tags for some quotas. Also let's say you want to hunt presidents island one day but you put in and get drawn for Catoosa and you had 5 points built up, you will lose those points I believe. Basically, pick a hunt that you want, start applying and don't stop until you get that hunt. I usually only apply for Yuchi, draw it with 3 points every 3 years. But then you have point creep which is a whole different deal that you need to read about. Point creep has to do with more hunters applying every year and one day I won't draw Yuchi with 3 points it'll take 4.

 

[TN Larry]

Lots of good information here:

Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information

Come and hunt in Tennessee today. Find out all you need to know about the wonderful deer hunting opportunities that exist today.

www.tn.gov

Some points from above:

- Roane and Anderson are in two different units. Roane is Unit A and Anderson is Unit B.

- The above link shows the antlerless limit per season i.e. archery, muzzleloader, gun. You can kill the entire season's antlerless limit in one day in the unit that you are in. It is also my understanding that you can kill the limit for each unit's antlerless. For example, unit A has a limit of two antlerless with a gun, and unit B has a limit for one antlerless with a gun. So you could go to Roane County one morning and kill two antlerless with a gun and go to Anderson that afternoon or the next day and kill one antlerless.

- For antlered bucks, you are limited to only two total across the two units that you hunt for the entire year. They can be taken with any combination of weapons that is legal for that season as long as they are not killed on the same day. The antlered limit is two per season but only one per hunting day. For example, you can kill two with a bow OR two during muzzleloader, OR two during gun, OR one during bow and one during gun, etc. You just can't exceed two per season and only one per day.

- In terms of a quota bonus deer i.e. your Oak Ridge hunt, a bonus deer doesn't count toward your statewide limit. In your case, you can kill a buck on your Oak Ridge hunt but still have your two buck tags for the general statewide season.

- In terms of priority points, this is for the quota draw system. Let's say that you want to hunt a highly sought after WMA and only put in for it............if you don't get drawn for any hunt, then you get a priority point. When the drawing happens the following year, the highest total of priority points gets first priority for these hunts. For some hunts like President's Island, it takes years of only putting in for that hunt before you have enough points to be built up to get drawn.

- For the elk hunt, there is no priority point system. There are too few spots with thousands of entries each year that would basically make it that you would never get drawn unless you entered the first year.

Hope that sheds some light and spend some time reading the TWRA page posted above, call your Regional TWRA office for information, and ask on here if still confused.

Good luck this year.

 

[Black Titan]

Best I can explain the second part of your question about the points. When you apply for any quota hunt except for elk, if not drawn for the hunt then you acquire a point. We'll use the President's Island quota hunt for reference. If you apply for that hunt you will not get drawn unless you have around 15 or so points. Reason is the quota for each said hunt is only around 20 hunters. Everyone that puts in can't get drawn so these hunters keep applying every season for that hunt until they've acquired or saved enough points that it's basically their turn in line to hunt. Now if you apply on some less sought after hunts such as Prentice Cooper or Catoosa we'll say, then with 0 points you do have a good chance at drawing one of those hunts. Heck they even have leftover tags for some quotas. Also let's say you want to hunt presidents island one day but you put in and get drawn for Catoosa and you had 5 points built up, you will lose those points I believe. Basically, pick a hunt that you want, start applying and don't stop until you get that hunt. I usually only apply for Yuchi, draw it with 3 points every 3 years. But then you have point creep which is a whole different deal that you need to read about. Point creep has to do with more hunters applying every year and one day I won't draw Yuchi with 3 points it'll take 4.

That kind of clears it up.

So if someone wanted to accumulate points, they could just apply every year to a hunt or several hunts that require alot of points, but they have no intention of going to, to build up their points bank?

Do people do that or is it frowned upon? It kinda doesn't seem fair.

BT

 

[TN Larry]

Best I can explain the second part of your question about the points. When you apply for any quota hunt except for elk, if not drawn for the hunt then you acquire a point. We'll use the President's Island quota hunt for reference. If you apply for that hunt you will not get drawn unless you have around 15 or so points. Reason is the quota for each said hunt is only around 20 hunters. Everyone that puts in can't get drawn so these hunters keep applying every season for that hunt until they've acquired or saved enough points that it's basically their turn in line to hunt. Now if you apply on some less sought after hunts such as Prentice Cooper or Catoosa we'll say, then with 0 points you do have a good chance at drawing one of those hunts. Heck they even have leftover tags for some quotas. Also let's say you want to hunt presidents island one day but you put in and get drawn for Catoosa and you had 5 points built up, you will lose those points I believe. Basically, pick a hunt that you want, start applying and don't stop until you get that hunt. I usually only apply for Yuchi, draw it with 3 points every 3 years. But then you have point creep which is a whole different deal that you need to read about. Point creep has to do with more hunters applying every year and one day I won't draw Yuchi with 3 points it'll take 4.

That is pretty much it. In order to get a point, you must not get drawn for any hunt during the quota draw. Once you get drawn for a quota hunt, then your points go back to zero. The only exception is if you get a leftover tag after the drawing is completed. For example, you can't put in for President's Island and Catoosa if you're wanting just President's Island. You will get drawn for Catoosa and won't build up any priority points. You also have the option to just buy a priority point if you just want to accumulate a point and not get drawn that year.

 

[TN Larry]

That kind of clears it up.

So if someone wanted to accumulate points, they could just apply every year to a hunt or several hunts that require alot of points, but they have no intention of going to, to build up their points bank?

Do people do that or is it frowned upon? It kinda doesn't seem fair.

BT

Either that or you do have the option to just buy a priority point. Either way will get you points built up.

In my case, I am only wanting to get drawn for President's Island (PI for short). It took around 13 points this year to get drawn for the December buck hunt. That would be 13 years of not getting drawn for any hunt. In my case, I have had enough points to draw the hunt the last two years but didn't wanna get drawn at the moment for various reasons. So I have bought a priority point the last two years and now have a total of 15 points which is one of the highest totals that anyone in the state has.

I know all of this is a lot of info and hope it makes sense.

 

[Black Titan]

Lots of good information here:

Tennessee Deer Season Dates, Regulations and Other Information

Come and hunt in Tennessee today. Find out all you need to know about the wonderful deer hunting opportunities that exist today.

www.tn.gov

- For the elk hunt, there is no priority point system. There are too few spots with thousands of entries each year that would basically make it that you would never get drawn unless you entered the first year.

Hope that sheds some light and spend some time reading the TWRA page posted above, call your Regional TWRA office for information, and ask on here if still confused.

Good luck this year.

So for Elk, at 40 years old and having never put in for the elk hunt, I can pretty much kiss my chances goodbye at ever hunting elk in TN. That's crazy.

So when my son comes of age to start putting in for quota hunts, he should start putting in for the elk every year to have a chance?

BT

 

[TN Larry]

So for Elk, at 40 years old and having never put in for the elk hunt, I can pretty much kiss my chances goodbye at ever hunting elk in TN. That's crazy.

So when my son comes of age to start putting in for quota hunts, he should start putting in for the elk every year to have a chance?

BT

No, there is no point system for elk. You have just as much chance of getting drawn as someone that's been putting in every year as everyone has the same status. If there was a point system, then you would not have a chance with so few tags and thousands of applications. This is why there is NO priority system. The priority system is in play for deer, turkey, and maybe ducks (not as familiar with them) but not elk.

 

[Black Titan]

No, there is no point system for elk. You have just as much chance of getting drawn as someone that's been putting in every year as everyone has the same status. If there was a point system, then you would not have a chance with so few tags and thousands of applications. This is why there is NO priority system. The priority system is in play for deer, turkey, and maybe ducks (not as familiar with them) but not elk.

Ohhhh ok I see what you're saying. So the elk drawing is more like a lottery system if I understand correctly. That's good to know.

Thanks for all your help.

BT

 

[wmaples]

I'll add a similar question that I have. If I am successful on quota hunt with a "bonus deer" how do you tag it? With the app or take to a check station? To ask another way, is the app/twra smart enough to realize that a deer tagged during a quota hunt at said management area is a bonus deer?

 

[TN Larry]

I'll add a similar question that I have. If I am successful on quota hunt with a "bonus deer" how do you tag it? With the app or take to a check station? To ask another way, is the app/twra smart enough to realize that a deer tagged during a quota hunt at said management area is a bonus deer?

Depends on the WMA, some like Catoosa have their own check in station. If not, when you check it in, you choose public land and then the corresponding WMA.

 

[Biggun4214]

Call your Regional TWRA office and ask these questions. It better to have an official answer.