Preparing to apply for drawing permits

Last week, I mentioned the problems I had finding a hard copy of the 2019-2020 Alaska Drawing Permit Hunt Supplement. This week, I went to pick up the current trapping regulations booklet and had the same problem. Both items are on the ADF&G website, but if you want a hard copy, either go directly to the Palmer Fish and Game office or to Chimo Guns in Wasilla. They have a good supply of all the hunting, sportsfishing, waterfowl, trapping, and drawing permit brochures as well as the 2019-2020 Alaska Subsistence Permit Hunt Supplement.

Anyway, now that I have a hard copy of the drawing permit supplement in hand, let’s look at what it has to say. The application period runs from Nov. 1 to 5 pm on Dec. 17. Winners will be announced by the third Friday in February. You can only apply online. Whether a hunt occurs or not, no application fees will be refunded if a hunt is cancelled.

Something new this year is that an applicant can now apply for up to six bull moose hunts, all of which will count toward the total count of six moose hunt applications allowed per person. In prior years, only three of a person’s six moose hunt applications could be for bull moose. This caused a lot of problems for folks who didn’t realize the restriction and applied for more than three bull hunts.

You also can’t apply for any drawing permit hunt for which you were awarded a permit for the previous season. If you failed to report results from any drawing, tier II, targeted, registration, or tier I hunt from last season, you are ineligible to receive any permits for the next regulatory year.

There are more requirements for application which are all spelled out on the front page of the supplement. I advise you to read them and follow the application instructions, so you are entered into the selection pool and not disqualified from being drawn.

I’m not planning to apply for any drawing permit hunt for brown or grizzly bear, black bear, elk, mountain goat, muskox, sheep, or emperor geese, so you’ll have to study the supplement to determine any changes and which hunts you might have an interest in.

I do plan to apply for bison, caribou, and moose drawing permits. My dilemma, of course, is which hunt or hunts I would like. Because of my physical health (probable knee replacement), I will be applying for the Delta bull bison hunt. I’m familiar with the area from my 2007 successful cow bison hunt and look forward to drawing a bull permit so I can use my Remington Rolling Block rifle in 45-70 caliber, using blackpowder cartridges, to complete my hunt of a lifetime dreams. I shot my 2007 cow with my Shiloh Sharps rifle in 50-90 caliber.

The caribou application will be for the Unit 13 hunt, but that hunt last season was a bust for lack of numbers of caribou available to hunters. I’m discussing applying in a party permit format with a hunting partner, but we might both bail on this hunt and go up on the Dalton Highway with our bows looking for ’bou. The Dalton Highway is a general season hunt. I’ve been looking at the Fortymile caribou hunts over the years and I might just end up applying for the caribou hunt in the Unit 14A and 14B Talkeetna Mountains area too.

The moose hunts are the ones I’m really thinking about. The antlerless moose hunts have a new hunting structure for the late season hunts in Unit 14A. The department has split the traditional hunting season in half and are now issuing permits for Nov. 1-30 for one hunt (DM413) and permits for Dec. 1-25 for the second hunt (DM414). If I could, I would always hunt this late season for moose for several reasons.

First, the colder weather is better for the meat. Second, the bugs are nonexistent. Third, the normal snow makes moose easier to see and getting around is easier using either an ATV or a snowmachine, depending on the snow depths. Winter conditions, especially on a snowmachine allows one to go places which are not accessible when the ground is not frozen.

I’m also looking at some of the moose hunts in the Interior, several of which are any bull hunts.

Making a final decision on which hunts to apply for will require some research and discussion, but isn’t that half the fun of planning a hunting trip?