We are putting in for Montana Big Game License's this year. We have four Preference points between six guys. Since Montana only allows party's of five what is going to be our best odds of drawing for all of us. I was figuring that if we put in in groups of three with two points per group would be our best chance. What are the odds of drawing with 2 points for three people? Thanks for the info and this great site.

Firedog: It is my understanding that the preference points are earned by individuals and only apply to that individual that earned them by applying previously and being unsuccesful. The 4 individuals in your group that have earned the preference points are pretty much assured the Big Game Combo license this year! The other two folks will have to apply as individuals without ay preference points. They still have a chance of being drawn however but I am guessing it would be under 20% chance of success for those two. Get on the horn to the Fish, Wildlife and Parks licensing section in Helena and get absolute clarification. I wish your two friends luck in the draw! And I do not think you would want them to apply (even just one of them - for the total of 5 for party applications!) on your party application of the rest with preference points. As it may disqualify you 4 also! Get clarification of this also.
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

Varmintguy, thanks for the response. I dug around a little more on Montana Fish and WIldlife's web page and the bonus point system works like this. You take the total number of points and divide that by the number of hunters in the group. So if we split into two groups of three each group would have one bonus point. Don't know what the odds of drawing are with one point, sounds pretty good.

Firedog: I went to the FW&P site and looked into the bonus point system details just now. Like I had read elsewhere it again stated that the bonus points are non-tranferable. But like you alluded to there is the posibility for a person with no bonus points to go in with a group of applicants that do have bonus points but then the bonus point value to the group is "devalued" to the group by a factor similar to dividing the number of bonus points by the number of applicants in the group so 2 divided by 3 in your case or your other option 4 divided by 6. About the same I am guessing! I again suggest calling them and speaking to them in person. This bonus system is fairly new (I have 2 bonus points apiece as a resident for Moose, Sheep and Goat) and I think that bonus system started the same year as the non-resident bonus system for the Elk, Deer and Big Game combos did. Anyway its new and I have been a resident since before it started (5 years).
The fine print there on the web site states the credit for bonus points will be obtained as I described above and as you have read but it confuses me in this way. Say you go for the 2 bonus pointed applicants with one point and the third applicant has no points the division goes to .666 of "A" point and then that is rounded off to the nearest "whole point" and that is 1.0 points so according to that statement there would be no reduction in your chances by including the person with no bonus point from last year!
Good luck in the draw!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy