The Point System Works If You Plan

Opinion. I'm HuntBank's founder and I've hunted northern Utah since I was a kid. Sources are at the bottom.

Hunters like to say the point system is rigged. I think it does what it says. It rewards people who plan and punishes people who drift, so if you don't like your odds, look at your plan first. Every state runs it differently, so here are the four I've hunted.

How Wyoming's draw works

For nonresident deer, 75 percent of the licenses in each hunt area go to the preference point draw, where the highest point totals draw first. The other 25 percent go by random draw. Everyone who applies is in both.

You get a point by buying one each year, one per species. Skip two years in a row and you lose every point you banked for that species. Draw a first-choice license in the preference point draw and those points are used up.

One missed year is forgiven. Two aren't.

How Utah's draw works

Utah runs two point systems. General-season buck deer uses preference points. Limited-entry and once-in-a-lifetime hunts use bonus points.

For general-season buck deer, lifetime license holders pick first. Up to 15 percent of the permits go to the Dedicated Hunter Program and up to 20 percent go to youth who are 17 or younger. Everyone else is drawn from the top down, so the applicants with the most preference points go first. Draw a general-season buck deer permit and you lose all your preference points.

Limited entry is split. Half of each hunt's permits go to the applicants with the most bonus points, and the other half are drawn from all the remaining applicants. A low-point hunter still has a shot at the second half. You earn a bonus point each time you apply for a species and don't draw, and you lose that species' bonus points if you draw a limited-entry permit for it.

I always try to draw an archery permit for the extended archery hunts. The extended hunt lets you keep hunting in certain areas after your archery hunt ends, as long as you haven't taken a buck or an elk. You need the archery permit first, and you have to complete the Archery Ethics Course every year and carry your certificate. I couldn't find any points tied to the extended hunt itself. The permit you're after is the archery permit.

How Colorado's draw works

Colorado is where I shot the biggest buck I've taken so far.

Deer there run on preference points. You get a point when you don't draw your first choice, and points are tracked by species, so one deer balance works for any deer license. Draw your first choice and your points drop to zero. The draw uses all of them, not just the ones you needed. If you go ten years in a row without applying for or holding a deer license, you lose your points. Buying a point keeps your file active.

Nonresidents are capped. On deer hunt codes that took six or more points for an adult Colorado resident, up to 20 percent of the licenses can go to nonresidents. On codes that took fewer than six points, up to 25 percent can.

That changes with the 2028 draws. Each hunt code's licenses will be split 50/50 between a preference point draw and a bonus draw, nonresidents get 25 percent, and a point will cost $15 for residents and $30 for nonresidents per species. I'd look at your Colorado plan before then.

How Idaho's draw works

Idaho is a random draw. Controlled hunts are a lottery where every applicant has the same chance, so there are no points to build. Nonresidents get no more than 10 percent of the tags on hunts with more than 10 tags, and one tag on hunts with 10 or fewer.

Starting with the 2026 season, nonresident general season elk, deer and whitetail tags are a random drawing too. They used to be first come, first served. Nonresidents who apply pay a non-refundable $200 general hunting license, and resident general tags aren't part of the drawing. That makes Idaho the one state here where there's nothing to bank. The controlled hunt rules I found are old, so check the current ones before you apply.

What I'd say to someone like me

I'm a 26 year old Utah resident. I've hunted in Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming, and they've all been great hunts. I'm thankful my dad started putting me in for points when I was 12. Now I need to build again.

So here's what I'd say to anyone in the same spot. Apply every year in any point state you might hunt. A point is the one thing you can't buy back later, and in ten years you won't know where your job, your family or your knees have you. An unused point costs little next to missing one the year a unit comes into reach.

Apply in the states you'd really hunt, not every state in the West. Wyoming's nonresident deer point goes from $41 to $75 on Jan. 1, and the cost grows with every state and species you add. Wyoming's two-year rule makes dropping it a real decision, so make that call on purpose.

Know where you're headed

A point only matters if there's a unit you can draw with it. Some top-tier units have no point level where the odds hold up on real data. HuntBank calls those a shot in the dark. Put in for one if you want the hunt, but don't plan your year around it. Plan around units where your points get you a real chance, and keep banking toward a reach unit too.

Where it breaks down

Points aren't a promise. Quotas follow herd numbers, and Utah says fewer surviving fawns means fewer spring permits, so a rebuilding herd can shrink the tag count while you wait. Points also creep. As more hunters bank them, the number needed to draw a popular unit tends to rise.

Why I built HuntBank

Adult life got busy. I wanted to know where I was hunting next year so I could start prepping. Utah archery? Colorado or Wyoming rifle? Early or late season? I had points, but I needed to know how to spend them and in what order to get the most bang for my buck. So I built HuntBank.

That also means I want people using it, so weigh my opinion with that in mind.