Tag Application Services?

Anyone have any thoughts or recommendations on tag application services? Pros and cons? Reviews? Thoughts? Are they worth it? PM me if you like. Thanks and God Bless!

what are u tagging?

Pros: They put you in for the tags and you don't have to worry about missing deadlines.

Cons: They usually want you to book the services through a guide they have a contract with and act like you are a criminal if you say you don't want to. They charge a fee for their service that increases the costs of the tags. They normally only cater to non-resident applications so if you are a resident of the state they don't want your business because you are much less likely to hire their suggested guide.

Frankly in this internet age there is no real reason to use them. Information is readily available and every state has a process for putting in for the tags. You can easily put a reminder in your phone or computer to alert you when the deadlines approach.

I agree with all of the above.

The only reason to use one of these services is you do not have time to do the research. There are tons of resources out there to help you decide where to apply and the odds/points required to draw. I personally consider the research and applying for the hunts to be part of the fun.

“Put you in for the tags and you don’t have to worry about missing deadlines”
“The only reason to use one is you do not have time to do the reasearch”

These are the only advantages? Odd, I reap all kinds of advantages using a TAG service and it’s worth doing so every year.

- PROs:
+ In states where you have to pay for the tag upfront upon applying (New Mexico, Wyoming are a few that come to mind), that fee the service charges you is ALL you pay upfront. If you never draw the tag then you don’t get reimbursed anything because you only paid the service fee. If you do draw the tag, then you will additionally get charged the full tag amount. How is this a benefit? Well if you want to apply for a tag but don’t have the cash flow to do so at the moment it still allows you to play. Definitely not the best business decision if you are just applying for one animal, I.e. an elk which is probably $6-700. Why pay a fee on top of that. However, if you want to apply for elk in multiple states, desert big horn in NM, Rocky MTN big horn in Wyoming plus Bison and MTN Goat, you are looking at likely over $7000 in tags. The service will charge you just a fee, several hundred dollars and then you don’t pay anything more unless the tag is drawn. So if you don’t have $7-10,000 to float applying for tags each year, it definitely broadens your ability to apply for more tags. If applying in states where they only charge you the tag fee upon successfully drawing the tag (I.e CO, UT to name a few), then yes there is zero reason IMO to use a tag service.

+. The true benefit however is the above, plus applying for your children. Many services will apply for any tags for youth for FREE w/ a paid adult application. THIS is worth the price of the service IMO. I have two boys, we apply for what would equal up to $20,000 + worth of tags each year, all for a small fee that ends up costing me about $500-600. Now sure, if we drew all of those tags I would have to pay that $20,000+, however as most know, drawing many of the big game tags is truly like winning the lotto. I am basically buying more lotto tickets to win the jackpot. Once my girls are old enough to get their hunters safety card, I’ll also add them into the application pool. 4 children at a time, all free applications applying for NM, bighorn sheep, trophy elk, mule deer, ibex an antelope then WY, elk, bison, mtn goat, bighorn sheep, antelope, and mule deer. Only costing me a fee on whatever I applied for. I am savings thousands of dollars annually and giving my kids every opportunity to go hunting each year. All for $500-600 service fee. I’ll pay to play.

+ yes they remind you when to apply and make the process easy


Cons

+ yes here is a service fee. Depending on if you a applying with kids or how many and what states you are applying to it could definitely not make sense to use a service. You simply have to do the math

+ yes they have recommended or contracted outfitters they try and steer you towards. Simply ask before applying if that’s in their policy and what leeway or options you have to pick someone of your choosing.


And yes I found that alll on the internet

I’ve used Epic, hunting fool and Cabelas. I think they are very worth it.

My favorite is Epic, I’ve NEVER been pressured to use a guide of ANY tag including being on LO tag list.

Some states with major point creep, messing up on just one draw and missing it may put you behind exponentially.


Pro’s- they do unit research, they keep up with season changes, the take care of everything based on what or how you want to hunt. If you are DIY guy no problem, let’s match your physical ability to certain physical level unit etc.

Really only con is cost. I put in for 11 states a year so its nice to hand off the majority of those to someone else. It’s very time consuming.


With that said Epic has a research/ advisory info available with out paying for tag applications, meaning $100 gets you all the units and hunt code info you want but you have to physically do all the applying.

That’s cheap info

I would disagree with almost all of this, I’ve never had the guide issues EVER in 10 plus years.

Only thing I agree on is the Internet age of research but for the states that don’t post draw odds, sex ratios, trophy quality, game survey info, success, etc you still need a subscription to some of the of the other services like Gohunt, epic taghub etc.

If you are retired knock yourself out and spend weeks researching units, triple checking hunt codes etc in every state. Other then that time is money. I’d let experts handle it.

TakeMeLord, have you applied for various hunts in various states on your own? And, if so, what was it about the process that has pushing you to consider a service? Just trying to understand why you're considering one. Maybe with this info you can get better help.

I would say with theringworm, the biggest pro is not having to pay for the licenses at the time you apply. They float that tag cost til you draw then you pay.

The rancher we work for is a member of Hunting Fool, they got him his desert ram tag, well did apps for him. Looking through the magazine they have, lots of chances to win a great hunt for a raffle fee.
I personally would not use them.

That's very interesting

Quite eye opening to look through their magazine. Different levels of membership.
These are their current giveaways : https://www.huntinfool.com/win-md-december

I haven't used a tag service but I use https://www.gohunt.com/ like BOBO the Clown suggested.

I use WTA (formerly Cabela's) TAGS application service to cover my New Mexico tag fees, but I still pick all my own units. They did "mistakenly" put me in a guide pool for elk year before last, so I had to pull that application, but they made it right with me. I would not use a service like this to apply for me in all states, because most of the states I apply in do not require that your front the tag fees or are predictable enough that I only front tag fees when I expect to draw. WTA's fees still add up to a signifcant cost depending on how many species you apply for. Especially when you get your refunds pretty quick after the draws come out.

Other services, like Epic Outdoors and Huntinfool will put in for you, but they will not front your tag fees, so that is still coming out of your pocket. They both put out very nice online/print magazines with lots of good information.

Wyoming and Montana require you to front the tag fee, but they also allow you to purchase points later in the year even if you didn't apply in the spring draw. These states are also relatively predictable to draw, so you can buy points for a couple years and know what tag you will draw the next year, so you can front the tag fee knowing that you aren't expecting a refund.

Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada for example, do not require you front a tag fee, but all require you to purchase a non-refundable hunting license to apply.

I do use GoHunt to do a bunch of my research. There are a few states that I apply in that they do not cover, yet at least.