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Elk Draw Opened today

EastTNHunter said:
I understand your desire as an out of stater that you would want a bigger piece of the pie, and as a resident I would be more amenable to it if it wasn't such a limited resource. I may put in all of my life wanting to kill a TN elk and never get drawn. I can hunt elk in other places multiple times in my lifetime if I wanted, but they are not TN elk from my state of residence, nor are they so close to home.

More and more western states are cutting their tag pools for out of staters, and their herd sizes are immensely larger than TN's. I don't know why TN has increased their allowances for out of staters for such a limited resource.
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Agreed and understand... that being said, other states designate 10 to 35% of tags go to nonresidents, even on species such as moose, bighorn sheep, or mountain goats.

In the TN elk draw, it's literally been less than 1% of tags since inception that nonresidents have drawn.

I have never been able to find the published resident to nonresident draw ratio for TN elk. I'm assuming it's 'up to 10%' of available tags instead of '10% of tags to nonresidents'... otherwise we wouldn't have had 10 to 15 years of draws with zero nonresidents drawn until last year. I believe last year was the FIRST time ever a nonresident was drawn since inception.

If it were like all the western draws, 8 of 10 tags annually would go to residents, and 2 of 10 tags would go to nonresidents each year.

Or just tell nonresidents don't apply... you are not eligible to apply.... Elk are for TN residents only. I'd be satisfied with that.... although it doesn't cost me a dime to apply since I have a lifetime license, it seems TN is seeking NR application fees when they really don't have any chance of actually drawing. It also seems TWRA wants the NRs bidding on the auction tag as well to drive up the price.

We are getting to the point where most folks are getting fed up with the whole 'elk hunting' in TN thing. Millions of dollars spent reintroducing them 20 years ago, and here we are only allowing 11 tags a year. At this point, the herd should have reached a population where there should be 100 tags available... maybe we should kill off all the elk and try fallow deer or bison or some other gimmick instead.
 
mike243 said:
You have as good a chance as me, lifetime won't be penalized for living out of state I wouldn't think.
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Lifetime Nonresident is penalized... because they are .... a 'nonresident' .

And that's fine... the majority of tags SHOULD go to residents. But should it be 99% of tags?
 
The only way you can hunt elk in Tennessee is to win a quota hunt or the TN Conservation Raffle and both opportunities are now available for entry! There are lots of great reasons to want to hunt elk in Tennessee, but here are a few that we wanted to highlight.
  1. FAIR CHANCE
    Tennessee's elk quota hunts are awarded through a random drawing process giving everyone an equal chance of winning.
  2. HUNT THE RUT
    Raffle and quota hunt permit winners to get to hunt during the elk rut when bulls are bugling and responding to calls.
  3. EXCLUSIVE
    Each elk hunter gets their own elk hunt zone with no other concurrent elk hunting.
  4. A FULL WEEK
    Elk hunts are seven days in length giving hunters ample time to learn the elk in their hunt zone.
  5. PREMIER HUNT ZONE
    The raffle winner gets to hunt the premier elk hunt zone (Zone 1).
  6. GOOD SUCCESS RATES
    Sixty-one bull elk (49 firearms, 12 archery) have been killed since the inaugural elk hunt in 2009 putting the success rate of hunters using firearms at 71% and bows at 46%.
  7. AFFORDABLE
    1. Applying for a quota - there is no application fee for current Annual Sportsman License holders, Lifetime Sportsman License holders, or Senior Citizen License holders with an Annual Senior Citizen Permit (Type 167). For all other applicants, there is a non-refundable permit fee of $12.
    2. The TN Conservation Raffle chances start at $20 for one ticket, $50 for three tickets, or $100 for ten tickets. You don't have to be a TN resident and there is no limit on how many you can purchase.
  8. FILL THE FREEZER
    A mature bull elk can provide about 300+ lbs. of boneless venison! It's lean, sweet, and sometimes described as a mixture of beef and deer.
  9. BRING A FRIEND
    Successful elk permit holders get to bring a non-hunting partner with them to share the hunt!
  10. UNFORGETTABLE EXPERIENCE
    Elk hunting is considered by many to be the premier North American big game hunting experience. Who knows? You might be one of the lucky few that get the privilege of hunting elk in the Volunteer State!
Not sure who We are fed up with elk I'm not and nobody I personally know are, also I don't think twra spent no million dollars to get what few elk we have here, I would bet there's a lot more elk shot than the 10 tags, i'm not saying they are being poached but I bet there's a lot of it being ate by folks that live up next to there,
 
Ky states only a percentage of non resident tags, Tn says everyone has a equal chance. I don't make yugo up but I can paste with the best of them 🤣
 
So they lied on the face of it, 25% for none residents when you dig deeper. they need to the info change before they get sued.
 
ELK DRAWING INFORMATIONSeventeen participants for the elk hunt, and one participant for the youth elk hunt, will be selected through thedrawing system. A nineteenth participant will be the winner of a permit that is donated to an NGO (Non-GovernmentalOrganization) with the fundraising proceeds designated to the TWRA Elk Program.1.Non-resident applicants will be restricted to no greater than 25 percent of the drawn permits. For 2024, no more thanfour non-resident applicants will be drawn. Lifetime License holders who do not meet residency requirements of theState of Tennessee will be considered non-residents
 
EastTNHunter said:

Page 3, section 2 states information on nonresidents
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Awesome, ty! Up to 25% to NR is reasonable. The only explanation for a 1% NR successful draw in the past is that very few NRs are applying for the TN elk season draw...

What that means is NRs are lumped in with residents, but are capped at 25%. So very few nonresidents are actually applying for the draw, so very few NRs are actually drawn.

IF... the NR applicants quintuple, you may see 4 nonresidents draw each year.

I hope that doesn't happen, as residents will get pissed, and according to that information, my chance of drawing a tag is just the same as anyone else, including residents.. until the 25% NR cap is reached.

In other words, my chance of drawing is the same as any TN resident at the current time. Just that there are 100s of TN applicants for each NR applicant.
 
mike243 said:
So they lied on the face of it, 25% for none residents when you dig deeper. they need to the info change before they get sued.
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Nit even close...

'No greater than 25% nonresidents' is TOTALLY different than '25% for none residents'.

That explains why only ONE nonresident has ever drawn a TN elk tag instead of 20 (or 4 per year under current tag allocation) since inception. There just aren't many NRs applying for the TN elk tag.
 
I would feel better if TN went with a WY bighorn sheep/moose/mountain goat percentage (10%) allocation to nonresidents, as I feel like that is likely a closer comparison to resource availability. In full disclosure, I believe that WY allocates 10% of these tags in a separate, dedicated pool to guarantee that amount to nonresidents, whereas TN is "up to" 25% which explains why so few nonresidents have drawn in TN historically. I believe that WY residents have been pushing hard to make this a non guaranteed 10% allocation, and those populations are still larger than TN's elk population the last I knew. I would be opposed to any dedicated pool to nonresidents for TN elk, but no one from TWRA has asked me either.

 
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The elk hunt info page was online a week or so ago. The success results for the last couple of years wasn't though. Haven't checked lately.

Regarding NRs, it varies from state to state. AZ elk and deer is no more than 10%, but could be less. Nebraska NR antelope is archery only, and res only for elk. CO was up to 35%, but reducing to 25% this year. I think WY is 20%.

If you get on any of the western hunting forums, you hear the same thing...reduce NR tags!

Here's a couple TN pics to get you thinking. Oh wait, I should be trying to convince all the TNDeer'ers NOT to apply! 😆 😆
 

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I went for broke. I applied to the VA elk hunt, the KY bull and cow hunt, and of course the TN hunt. The TN is free to me as I have a lifetime license, but the other two cost me $20 each.

Maybe one day I will drop the money and head west, but it is so expensive and not getting cheaper. I think if I get drawn in one of the three states (KY,TN,VA) then I will have to spend some money on licenses, hotel, gas, food, and I would be open to hiring a guide to help me as I have no idea what I am doing, but I would bet it is a heck of a lot cheaper than going out west and doing a guided hunt on a private ranch.
 

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