I had an interesting phone call from an old hunter who had been buying hunting licenses and deer tags in California for over 50 years. He asked a simple question: “What does the DFG do for guys like me?” The state offers junior hunter tags all over the place (under the guise of promoting hunting). We have archery hunts, and a few muzzleloader hunts. How about offering some senior tags for the guys who’ve been supporting the game management programs for decades? Initially, I liked the idea. But then I decided I don’t like any tag allocation system that excludes a class of hunters. I hate auction tags, and I’m not a big fan of junior-only tags. Old guys like me can just take our chances in the regular drawings like everyone else. We just need to face it: Getting old sucks.

For the first time, the Department of Fish and Game will be offering a bighorn sheep hunting tag in a raffle – no, that’s not right, excuse me – the tag will be offered in an unlimited random draw. You can buy as many chances, or entries, into this random draw as you want for $5.66 each through license vendors or via the DFG’s on-line licensing and tag application system. It works just like a raffle, but a raffle is illegal under state law because it’s considered a form of gambling, so we call it an unlimited random draw fundraising tag.

The DFG found they made more money on these random draw fundraising tags than they did on the fundraising auction tags which go to the highest bidder. The DFG first offered these unlimited random draw tags last year for a pair of hunts, one for deer and one for elk. The two tags generated more the $130,000 in revenue for DFG big game programs, far more than equivalent auction tags brought in. So for the 2012 seasons, there will be a bighorn tag for the Old Dad/Kelso Peak zone, a pronghorn antelope for any open zone in Northeastern California, an open zone deer tag (valid in any deer hunting zone), and Owens Valley-wide tule elk tag.

PREFERENCE POINT TAGS: While we’re on the subject of big game tags, it is well beyond time for the DFG to revise the preference point system for some big game hunts. If you look at the drawing odds for some of California’s premium hunts – those for bull elk, pronghorn antelope, and even some special trophy-opportunity deer tags – the first thing a new hunter notices is that he or she will never in a lifetime quality for a preference pool tag. And the preference pool represents up to 90 percent of all the tags issued for a hunt or zone.

The preference point system works exceptionally well with some popular, premium deer zones, allowing a hunter to compute that he will be able to get a tag in X12, for example, about once every three or four years by accumulating a point each year he doesn’t draw that tag. In 2010, you needed three preference points to be sure you’d receive one of the 760 tags for X12.

But in hunts with fewer than 50 or so tags that are highly desirable, unless you started applying the very first year the preference point system went into place, you will never qualify for one of the preference pool tags. Hunters with the maximum number of points will receive those tags for probably the next 25 years or more. For example, there were just 35 tags for the coveted late-season Goodale deer hunt in 2010, and 32 of those tags were in the preference pool (that’s nearly 90 percent). The maximum number of points you could have accumulated that year was eight. There were 1,046 hunters who applied for the 32 tags with eight points. That means there were still over 1,000 hunters, now with nine points, who applied in 2011, and there will be at least 950 with 10 points this year. And….

Well, you get the point. Even with people dying or finally applying for other tags, it will be at least 20 years before all the maximum point applicants get drawn for this tag. Then we drop down to the maximum-minus-one pool and wait another 20 years. A new hunter will never crack the nut. He will face astronomical odds for the three tags in the random draw pool, where over 4,000 hunters compete for those three permits each year. He will do that until he dies. The odds are even worse for things like elk, pronghorn and bighorn sheep.

Diligence should have its reward, but not exclusivity. The DFG could make this system fairer, yet still reward those who consistently apply for these coveted tags, by changing the “preference point” system into a “bonus point” point system for hunts with 50 tags or less. Everyone applies equally for all the tags in the bonus point system, but for each point you’ve received for years when you didn’t get drawn, you simply get another entry into the drawing. This increases your odds of getting the tag – but it doesn’t exclude other hunters with fewer points from the opportunity.

By JIM MATTHEWS

www.OutdoorNewsService.com The annual survey of bighorn sheep in the San Gabriel Mountains will take place on Sunday, March 4, and volunteers are needed to participate in this annual tally that has been done almost every year since 1979. The survey is a joint effort by the Department of Fish and Game, U.S. Forest Service, and the Society of the Conser

vation of Bighorn Sheep to keep tabs on bighorn numbers and population trends within the mountains.

Volunteers are required to attend an orientation meeting beginning 6 p.m., Saturday, March 3, at the new Verdemont Community Center and Library in north San Bernardino just off Interstate 215. Volunteers will conduct ground surveys of bighorn sheep in at least eight different areas in the San Gabriel Mountains. The counts are led by representatives of one of the three sponsoring groups, and the ground surveys are tabulated and compared against helicopter surveys done at the same time DFG and USFS staff.

Volunteers must be at least 16 years old and capable of hiking at least one mile in rugged terrain. This is not your weekend trail hike. The hikes generally involve scrambling up steep ridges to high vantage points where volunteers peer through binoculars and spotting scopes to find, classify, and mark locations of all bighorns spotted. The counts usually last several hours and volunteers should bring binoculars or spotting scopes, snacks, drinks and be prepared for foul weather.

To sign up go to www.sangabrielbighorn.org or call either 626- 574-5287 or 909-382-2870 to have a volunteer packet mailed to you.

The San Gabriel Mountains population was once well over 700 animals, and the largest mountain sheep herd in California. But the population crashed in the 1980s and 90s and dropped to less than 100 sheep in 2000. Last year’s survey placed the population around 400-plus animals, and showed – based on the number of yearling sheep – the population was increasing again.

Last year 158 bighorns were counted from the air in seven regions, and 70 sheep were classified from the ground in four of those same areas by over 100 volunteers. Ground counters also counted 18 bighorns in an area not surveyed by air, the South Fork of Big Rock Creek, because of reports from hikers about seeing bighorns in this area.

Jeff Villepique, a Department of Fish and Game association wildlife biologist, said the current growth in the bighorn population is because of opportune wildfires and weather conditions that created good habitat for the sheep in younger, higher-quality forage.

“If you burn it, they will come,” he said. He noted that on one small burn on the East Fork of the San Gabriel River, they counted 30 animals in 2011.

But he said post-fire benefits wane eight to 10 years after the burn, as the brush grows back up. With the exceptions of a few small fires, the last major fires in sheep habitat were in 1997 and 2003, and the window for those fires benefiting sheep is closing.

Dr. Pete Clark took this exceptional bear while hunting with me last fall. Certainly over 11 ft. in his prime, but still well over 10ft. B&C 29 12/16ths. Fellow guide Troy Kitchel captured it on video. Killing shot was at 4 yards! We were hunting with longtime friend and Master Guide Brent Jones of AAA Alaskan Outfitters