Wyoming went to a preference point system for bighorn sheep and moose licenses quite a while ago. It’s not a straight preference point system, because it still keeps 25 percent of the drawing open to anyone, regardless of the number of points they have.
The other 75 percent of the licenses available to residents go to those who have the highest number of preference points.
You get one preference point each year that you apply for a license. Or you can buy a preference point if you don’t apply for a license that year. Some people I know alternate years they apply for moose and sheep, because they know they won’t be able to hunt both in one year. So they apply for moose this year, and buy a sheep preference point. If they draw the moose, they won’t get a preference point, but hopefully they’ll actually get a moose. Not to make this too complicated, but if you do draw a license for either moose or bighorn sheep, you can’t apply or buy preference points for that species again for five years.
And you can only get one preference point for each species a year. You can’t buy 43 preference points at once – you can only get one. And you can’t buy a preference point if you applied for that license this year, because you already got a preference point.
The preference points are specific to the species. And it’s important to remember that if you fail to apply for a license or buy a preference point for a species for two consecutive years, all your preference points for that species will be deleted. So don’t forget to buy your points today if you haven’t already!
This is your reminder. It’s mine, too. I only applied for a moose license this year, so I need to buy my sheep point. Don’t forget. You don’t want to lose all the points you’ve already built up.
