As if Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks complicated system to apply for special hunting permits wasn’t confusing enough, a new wrinkle was added last year without public notification.
The agency has allowed hunters to purchase bonus points for 20 years to increase their odds of drawing hard-to-get permits. The points accrue over time and are awarded after the hunter failed to draw one of their first-choice tags. In theory then, a hunter who is repeatedly denied a tag and purchases a bonus point should eventually have greater odds of drawing in a specific region.
The regs say
As noted in FWP’s regulations, “Bonus points essentially offer you additional drawing chances and are used for first-choice drawings only. Existing bonus points will be mathematically ‘squared’ prior to the drawing. That means if you already have three ‘base’ bonus points, those will be ‘squared’ and you’ll then have nine points going into the drawing.”
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