I know there is the T.A.G.S. program, but I remember another tag service that helped you to apply and charged a nominal fee but I can not remember the name of it.

Do any of you use one of these programs or do you just apply and hope for the best?

Huntin' Fool

Worldwide Trophy Adventures' TAGS program will front application fees for you. None of the other applications services do that. There are only a few states that still require floating tag fees upfront (New Mexico, Montana, Wyoming, and Idaho on some species). So I wouldn't pay WTA a fee to apply me in states like Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, etc where you only pay a small application fee for each species. WTA charges a percentage of the tag they are applying you for. They cover the full tag fee and get the refund when you don't draw and keep your application fee that you paid them. When you do draw, they charge you the full tag price and still keep their fee on top of that.

I use WTA to apply in New Mexico only. Wyoming and Montana, I just buy points each fall until I know I can draw a specific tag, then I go ahead and front the cash because I know I am going to get it at that point. I have yet to apply in Idaho because I usually have enough tags for the fall by the time the Idaho deadline rolls around. There are a few controlled tags in Idaho that I will be going for in the years to come.

Other App Services: Huntin Fool (as mentioned by Wytex) and Epic Outdoors. There are some others as well. These charge you a fee and will fill out your applications with specific units depending on what you want, but you still pay them and they use your card to pay all the application fees. You just don't have to worry about what units to apply for or draw deadlines. They take care of it for you.