Please don't take offense, but I do prefer Andrew. My parents and sister still call me Andy. I will answer to Andy for other folks, once.
Anyway, the group I've been putting in with the last couple years will be getting together in the next couple weeks to strategize on the elk draw. Not sure if we'll all in put as a group with two cow hunts for first and second choice, of if we'll put in separately with a trophy bull hunt first and cow second choice. If we do all put in separately we'd make sure the first and second choices matched. Even if one was lucky enough to draw a bull hunt it would only be one. The other three would still help out, if they had the time, and the lucky bastard would help out if any of the other three got drawn for cow too.
Three of the four of us have 2 bonus points each (hunter-ed plus failure in last year's draw), and the other guy has none (he still needs hunter-ed and had beginners luck in the draw). If we all put in together we'll still average out to 2 points for the group, though only barely. So there's some advantage there. But 4 elk, even yearlings, is a lot of animal to deal with. And if we put in as a group then if we don't get drawn nobody gets to hunt. If we put in separately we stand a good chance of getting at least 2 tags. If both of those got filled with big, old mama elk there'd still be plenty of meat to go around. Decisions, decisions.
We'll all miss you when you leave. But, I know why you're planning to leave and can't fault the reasoning. Lord only knows how much longer I'll be here myself. Could be many years, could be a few months. Job is tenuous at the moment. If I survive the inevitable blood-letting, or find a comparable/better job locally I'll stick around for a while. Otherwise I'm outta here.
