Was just on the Arizona game and fish website entering for all of my drawings, Deer, Elk and Desert Sheep, get to the pay part and the site goes down! Called the tech line and they put me on hold for 15 minutes and I never heard back from them, real nice. I was supposed to get my brother and I put in tonight cuz the deadline is tomorrow...............looks like that ain't happening.

Maybe they'll do like NM when all the procrastinators crashed the application website the night before due date - extend the due date 5 days. Gotta get that money, no matter what... I say if you wait that long, you run that risk. Of course, I think they should abolish the web payment system and make applicants send real money ahead of time like Wyoming.

They extended it one day - 6/14/06 @ 7 PM

Well I stuck with it and got my applications complete 24 hrs. before the deadline, it wouldn't accept my brothers info until the morning of the 13th after about 25 tries. Each time after you had input all the info and your choices you would get to the payment part and wouldn't let you complete the deal and then inform you "your time on this session has expired".
In this day and age "Desert Ram", I thought 30+ hours before the deadline wasn't procrastinating!
I actually was waiting for Arizona to send my pre-purchased hunting license which I had in my hand a full 24hrs. before I started the application process.......so I guess I did procrastinate.
I too think that states should have you send the full funds like Colorado this would help narrow the field for the Desert Sheep hunts in Arizona that I'm trying for I'm sure it would be upping my odds. But it would be just another step in making this a rich guys only game, before you know it we will be paying to hunt on preserves and concessions and the little guy will be forced out.

Glad you got in after all. I understand that there are extenuating circumstances for some that dictate a late application. However, I doubt that there were enough people with those to crash the system, both in AZ and NM.

I disagree that demanding money up front would make it a rich man's game. If you can't afford the tag, you can't afford the tag, whether you send money now or pay in a couple months when they draw. What it does is weed out those that aren't serious about hunting. When NM went to the on-line application system and accepting credit cards, applicant numbers for every species at least doubled! You can't tell me demand for those tags went up that much in a year. It just got easy, so everyone put in. My question is this: How many of those new applicants are serious hunters vs. non-hunters or antis trying to lock up tags? After all, if you don't draw you're only out 6 bucks, and if you do, you can stop poor little Bambi from getting whacked by some redneck.

I completely agree DesertSheep, I was mostly thinking of how it affects me. If all states required the full amount when applying for premium tags I would be out a lot of money as I apply in Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Wyo., etc. and don't know if I could do it.
I am very serious about trying to draw a Desert Sheep tag but I'm not made of money and couldn't afford to pay the full amount in 3 states to apply but I can afford to hunt in one of those if I draw that tag!

The problem with mandating the fee with the ONLINE applications are the credit cards.

First, the G&F department will be charged a fee for the full amount, and that fee doesn't get rescinded when a credit is issued. So it would be costly for G&F from the get-go.

Second, the CC companies are not enthused with having to issue the THOUSANDS of credits that would result.

So it comes down to either getting rid of the online apps altogether and going back to "the way it was," or leaving it as is with only drawing fee up front.

BTW, with the mail-in apps, the game department actually makes money because it deposits all the up-front tag fees into interest earning accounts. -TONY