New Mexico Department of Game & Fish
Dear Mr bentstick,
Congratulations! The New Mexico Department of Game and Fish is pleased to announce that you were successful in drawing a 2014-2015 hunting license for the following hunt code: BHS-1-109. Your license is available in your account and may be printed on any plain paper printer at your convenience. To access your account please go to http://onlinesales.wildlife.state.nm.us and log in. Information specific to your hunt code can be can be found in your account or in the current 2014-2015 Hunting Rules and Information Booklet available online at http://www.wildlife.state.nm.us. Again, congratulations and good luck on your hunt!
Congrats! Let us know how the scouting and hunting goes
Have a great bowhunt. BB
I think BHS 106 and BHS 109 are the only 2 units that hand a snowballs chance in hell of offering a non resident tag and I hope you did get lucky. I kept my app in the draw just on the slim chane they did actually offer NR tags. I guess they did.
Sandbrew
No offense to you personally bentstick. Congratulations and have a fabulous hunt. Thank god at least it is a Texan that got one! You are double lucky!
Yeah I kept mine in a chance is a chance...maybe it turned it for guys that stayed in....
bentstick,
If you received the email, trust it, you are going. did you add an outfitter number to your application?
Prior to the drawing, the Department of Game and Fish came up just short of saying they would not award a ram sheep tag to a nonresident.
Its technical, but NMDGF bent the quota statute as far as they could to get a ram tag out to a nonresident. There is a good chance that a court would stop them from doing what they did if challenged. The Game Commission and Department aren't stupid. They know what they did and are banking on the likelihood that they won't be challenged in court at all, or soon enough for it to matter as you will have already rolled your sheep. They may also be counting on having the quota statute changed before the next drawing, or using an agglomeration of the sheep hunt codes some how before next year. Anyway, they have shown their preference for using (abusing?) their discretion to award ram sheep permits to nonresident or outfitted applicants when not doing so would be more defensible.
NM is pretty much unique amongst all western states in seeking ways to prefer nonresidents and/or outfitted applicants over unguided residents whenever possible. Most states use their discretion to limit nonresidents as much as possible. Again, I am in no way knocking you bentstick. You are just the wildly fortunate recipient of New Mexico's unique priorities.
Here is something I wrote in a letter that spells out what should have happened and how you got lucky anyway. It is pretty dry reading....
"request the Department conduct the special hunt drawings this year in a manner that insures that for each hunt code “a minimum of eighty-four percent of the licenses shall be issued to residents of New Mexico” as stated in the “quota statute” (NM Stat 17-3-16)..... specifically to the 2014 bighorn sheep drawing but is relevant to all draws hunts. The key words in the legislature’s intent in the quota statute are “minimum” and “shall”. These two words only appear only in the statute in reference to the award of a minimum of 84% of permits in each hunt code New Mexico resident applicants that apply without a New Mexico outfitter. The words "Shall" and "Minimum" do not appear in reference to the unguided nonresident and outfitted resident or nonresident applicant classes. The word shall is a mandate.
....Mathematically, there must be a minimum of 7 permits available in a specific hunt code for a minimum of 84% of permits to be awarded to residents of New Mexico that apply without an outfitter contract and for even one permit to be awarded to nonresidents without an outfitter contract or an outfitted applicant. (5/6 = 83.3%, 6/7 = 85.7%). The maximum number of bighorn ram permits in any hunt code this year is 4, so all bighorn ram permits must be issued to Residents of New Mexico.
There are two bighorn sheep hunt codes this year with four permits each. The statute may appear contradictory on how these four permits should be awarded across the 3 applicant pool but there is no contradiction. Rounding rules in the statute indicate that 3 permits should be awarded to residents of New Mexico, zero permits should be awarded to nonresidents that apply without an outfitter contract, and zero permits should be awarded to nonresidents and residents that are contracted with a New Mexico outfitter. One permit out of the four remains unallocated after rounding. The statute supplies clear guidance as to which applicant pool the “stranded” permit should be awarded. Since three out of four is only 75% of the permits, the fourth permit must be awarded to a resident to meet the minimum of 84% of the permits in the hunt code that SHALL be awarded to residents. The question remains, does the statute provide the Department discretion to award the fourth permit to a resident that has applied in the outfitter pool? The answer is no. The statute considers each of the three applicant pool as separate. When it says a minimum of 84% SHALL be awarded to residents it is referring to the pool of residents that apply without an outfitter contract in place."
Congrats
Good luck, Robb
Sandbrew's Link
ABQBW- I had my scope bounce and trumble down a rocky slope 30 feet while attached to my backpack with me wearing it. It was fine for about 2 years then the screws came loose right before my moose hunt and it was usless. Might be worth having it checked out now before you really need it for hunting season.
Sandbrew
I had a few conversations today with the NM game and fish officials that run the draw. They said: 2 Rocky ram tags (wheeler and latir) awarded to nonresidents that applied in the outfitter pools. 1 latir Rocky ewe tag awarded to an unguided nonresident. 1 latir rocky ewe tag awarded to a nonresident that applied on the outfitted pool.
For the wheeler and latir tags that were awarded to nonresidents in the outfitted pool they floated those tags between the unguided nonresident and outfitted pools until someone from one of those pools got lucky. It just happened to be someone from the outfitted pool and happened to be a nonresident for both tags. They did not look at residents for these two "floater" tags.
You are a lucky, lucky man. If you are not in good shape now I suggest you get in good shape. Those are tall, steep, high mountains.
Wait that sounds like two bits of advice....
Bill V.
Congratulations on drawing the Latir's for BHS. It's one of my favorite places anywhere and very remote. I've fished up there through the RCLA entrance with the family and even backpacked the long way from Cabresto Lake and past Heart Lake. It's beautiful country but the backpack trip was very difficult mainly due to incredibly bad weather that week.
The time I went up with the family we were hiking up to the the high lake and a big male cougar almost got my golden retriever. The pup was about 75 yards away from us when my wife noticed something creeping along the rocks near him. We didn't have anything but a knife so I yelled and threw a few rocks and the luckily the lion took off.
Best of luck on your hunt.
