Passing the baiting law was a mistake.

Could not agree more. I am staunchly opposed to the SOA program(despite the fact that I did register for several hunts) If the goal is to get more people involved in hunting, it doesn't make a lot of sense to me that you would take true public land and make it available to only a select group of people that got lucky enough to draw a tag. I know the old argument is "low pressure, better experience, etc.' but it just makes so much more sense to me to just make more land available to everyone. Those SOA's are bigger than a lot of hunting clubs.

Agree with this statement. Reef permit privilege, baiting permit privilege, "where does it end?" privilege.

While that’s true could you imagine how quickly these premier properties would be turned into shucks? You would have 3-400 people show up for the hunts and every deer that wasn’t killed would be run to the next county. I would imagine cedar creek, Uchee and Portland never would have been allowed to be bought by the state to turn into a Wma.

My thoughts:
1. Require WMA permit to enter the draw. Why should non-WMA permit holders get a chance to hunt land paid for with WMA money before they've invested a dime in the program?I heard that there were several people last year that showed up to SOA hunts without WMA permits. Just require everyone to pay into the system if they want to enter the draw, just like the gator tags. This will also take more revenue for public land/SOA as previously mentioned.
2. Cap out-of-state success somewhere around 10%. Theoretically, someone from Wyoming without an AL hunting license or WMA license has the same odds to be drawn as an AL resident that has bought a hunting and WMA license every year for the past several decades. In fact, I don't even think you need to be a US citizen to enter. Alabama has limited public land, so let's give the residents priority.
3. Let's get a preference point system going so there is a chance to be drawn if you apply long enough.

All of this could be enacted using the gator tag approach. Just instead of having to pay the admin fee for the lottery, just pay your WMA license fee. Make the WMA license fee higher for out-of-state.

Agree with you 100%. There is a preference point system already though. If I had to guess the reason they don’t require WMA license was political. There are so many people opposed to any public land, like someone else said previously there are politicians who try underhanded ways to destroy forever wild. I think it was a year or 2 ago they tried to impose property taxes on the land which would have destroyed it. That’s an example of elected officials not following the will of the people who elected them. How can a bill to kill FW even come close to passing the the vote by the public was so overwhelmingly in favor.

Anyway I bet when they were trying to get approval for SOA program part of the pitch to these politicians was that it was for everybody, not just public land hunters. It should just be for public land hunters and those willing to support it with $16.50. The people on this post dogging public land, hoping FW would dissolve and everything else are probably applying and have the same chance to enjoy SOA program. How awesome is the new dove hunting program for you and your kids that’s now available?

Somebody said our public land is only available for 75% of our season. All WMAs are open to bowhunting the entire season and either sex. The national forests are open to gun all year but only a couple weeks to kill does. That’s not bad. If they opened all the land to the entire rifle season with no limitations there wouldn’t be any deer left. There already isn’t enough on a lot of these properties I wish they would restrict them more.

I have almost as much distrust and distaste for government and politicians as everybody else. But some things are necessary. There wouldn’t even be any deer in the state if the government had not restocked them and created hunting seasons. People can’t be left with a free choice between greed and our wildlife and land because greed will always win.

Good deal on the preference points. I must have missed that.

As to the WMA fee to enter the draw, consider it a perk of being a WMA license holder. I hadn't considered the political implications. It's weird to think that folks are for wildlife but against public land.

Yes, the hunting would probably not be as high quality, but part of being a good hunter entails patterning other hunters as well as the deer. Without the draw system, I understand that the hunting on SOA land would be just as crowded as the rest of the state's open permit public land, but I cut my teeth dodging other hunters, and I'm not any smarter or better at killing deer than the next guy. Dealing with other hunters on public land is part of hunting. I don't think the need for higher quality hunting overrides the need for more aggregate amounts of public hunting in general.

It should cost something to apply and something more to actually hunt when drawn. $100 is not too much to ask especially to maintain these nice properties.

I love the fact that its a draw system - it would be a travesty to ruin these fine properties by over hunting.

There are plenty of free-for-all opportunities with unlimited access on countless WMAs and NF land... so have at it... and guess what...you already know... the hunting in general sucks there... great way to introduce a kid to hunting...
"Okay kid, lets wake up a 0300 so we can beat the other rednecks to our spot maybe even get into a cussin' match with them, walk two miles breaking brush the whole way, sit on the ground or a climber at best, MAYBE see something (doubt it), then IF by some miracle, the smartest most pressured 1.5 y/o Spike in the state decides to commit suicide for you, we can drag it back out two miles... fun times!

You are poorly connotating the situation. beating other folks to a hunting spot is part of the game. Been that way forever.

I guess I kind of see where you're coming from with introducing kids to hunting in a way that will keep it interesting, but it's not like a kid has a better shot at being selected for a deer hunt on an SOA. I know there are youth waterfowl and dove hunts, but for deer hunting a kid doesn't have a better shot at getting selected just because they're a youth.

I do agree that there is not enough youth opportunities.
I’d be okay with the SOAs being youth only honestly...

And it’s a shame their aren’t more dog hunting opportunities, which right along with dove hunting, are the most fun ways to introduce kids to the sport of hunting. Still hunting is boring for kids.

Bad dove hunts are the most boring thing on earth. Squirrel hunting is really fun and burns a lot of energy, and dogs are involved.

Try living in a state where 95% of the land is privately owned.

I don't go on bad dove hunts... if there are no birds we do something else. Squirrel hunting is awesome. So is riding around on the golf cart and shooting rabbits off the dirt road in the evening. Hogs too.

We're not far behind.
TX: 95.8% private
AL: 92.9% private