# left over Box Elder tag "struggle"



## Hunter2015 (Oct 1, 2015)

So there I was at 7:30 a.m. sitting in front of my computer, signed in, hitting the refresh button every 5 minutes to stay signed in to grab a left over box elder archery tag. As soon as 8 am hit, the site refreshed and I was off and running. I had a tag in the checkout, went to the confirm payment...and...."were sorry the site is temporarily down for maintenance". So after loosing my shiz, i went back on, tried for the next 10 minutes trying to sign back on to snag a tag. I was already thinking they would be sold out. After 5 minutes of the web page "thinking", i was back in, and there were 54 tags left. So i went back through, snagged another one, went to the checkout. Hit the yes to confirm the payment.....and it sat there for another 5 minutes, "thinking". After literally sweating bullets, i finally got the page of "SUCCESS"! My wife however was not so lucky, she was on her blazing fast LTE, went to the yes button to confirm the payment...and it time out every time. What a joke. The DWR knew that there would be a mad rush and an overflow of traffic trying to get a tag, but yet they are still not prepared. What a joke, they need to beef up there servers or something! When you know something is coming...shouldn't you prepare for it. Talk about first world problems. Any one else out there in the fight this morning?


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Had a similar experience with the Wyoming leftover tags yesterday. Although Wyoming sent an email later in the afternoon saying that they saw that we tried to check out and they were holding tags for us due to the error with the high traffic and their credit card vendor. Classy move by Wyoming.

I don't know anything about these spikes in traffic, but it would be nice if they could anticipate them and be better prepared.


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## CPAjeff (Dec 20, 2014)

Kwalk3 said:


> Had a similar experience with the Wyoming leftover tags yesterday. Although Wyoming sent an email later in the afternoon saying that they saw that we tried to check out and they were holding tags for us due to the error with the high traffic and their credit card vendor. Classy move by Wyoming.
> 
> I don't know anything about these spikes in traffic, but it would be nice if they could anticipate them and be better prepared.


I had the same experience that you did with Wyoming, trying to pick up a leftover buck antelope tag. The session timed out and shortly thereafter, I got a call from a nice lady telling me that they had an antelope tag on hold for me and that I could finish checking out - I was really impressed by Wyoming's effort to make things right after a system glitch!


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

CPAjeff said:


> I had the same experience that you did with Wyoming, trying to pick up a leftover buck antelope tag. The session timed out and shortly thereafter, I got a call from a nice lady telling me that they had an antelope tag on hold for me and that I could finish checking out - I was really impressed by Wyoming's effort to make things right after a system glitch!


I was impressed as well. In the absence of improved servers, it seems at the very least that they anticipated there may be issues and seem to have adequately monitored what was going on to ensure that those who were attempting to buy tags were able to do so on an equitable basis(i.e. first come first serve, not luck of the computer system draw).

If Wyoming can do that, one would think Utah would be able to do something similar. Wish in one hand......


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

It all depends on who is running the process. I know that Utah farms out a lot of the tag purchasing system and so does Colorado. Wyoming might on the other hand handle their own.


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## Old Fudd (Nov 24, 2007)

Sounds like Who's ever is running the system must be a someone that set up the Obama health care web site..Just Sayin.


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## MuscleWhitefish (Jan 13, 2015)

No need to fear we have Troy Justensen of SFW at the helm now. 

“Mr. Justensen has been an important part of SFW from our beginning when he helped organize sportsmen who gathered on the steps of Utah’s capitol to express frustration with Utah’s then dwindling hunting opportunities,” said SFW Founder Don Peay

Next year, there may be more opportunities. So, less people will be fighting for leftover tags. Maybe


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

MuscleWhitefish said:


> No need to fear we have Troy Justensen of SFW at the helm now.
> 
> "Mr. Justensen has been an important part of SFW from our beginning when he helped organize sportsmen who gathered on the steps of Utah's capitol to express frustration with Utah's then dwindling hunting opportunities," said SFW Founder Don Peay
> 
> Next year, there may be more opportunities. So, less people will be fighting for leftover tags. Maybe


That's a lot of maybes;-)


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## NVDuckin (Apr 18, 2016)

Do the leftover tags show up on the regular application page? Anyone have a link? I just want to make sure I was looking at the right page.


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## trclements (Jan 17, 2012)

Hard to feel bad for someone that didn't get a leftover tag that could have easily drawn it if they had just applied. Why blame the DWR for not having a perfect system for selling the leftover tags? Get you application in next year and select Box Elder - archery as your last option.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

trclements said:


> Hard to feel bad for someone that didn't get a leftover tag that could have easily drawn it if they had just applied. Why blame the DWR for not having a perfect system for selling the leftover tags? Get you application in next year and select Box Elder - archery as your last option.


While I agree with this because this is what I've done every year, there are a variety of reasons someone could be wanting a leftover tag. I really don't think it's too much of an ask to have a system that doesn't malfunction every time these very predictable leftover sales happen.


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## Hunter2015 (Oct 1, 2015)

trclements said:


> Hard to feel bad for someone that didn't get a leftover tag that could have easily drawn it if they had just applied. Why blame the DWR for not having a perfect system for selling the leftover tags? Get you application in next year and select Box Elder - archery as your last option.


I get what your saying, and I'm not looking for sympathy. You have a good point. Alls I'm saying is that if the DWR is going to offer these tags, they should be able to support the traffic that I'm sure they anticipated would be happening. Don't offer somethin if you can't properly support. Easily could be solved by saying that you must be present in person at a DWR office to get one of these tags, first come first serve.


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## Old Fudd (Nov 24, 2007)

The BOX ELDER TAG MEANS nO tRESSPASSING.. nO sTANDING. nO wALKING. 
No Talking. No Breathing.. No Peeing on the Ground. Oh I must have Box Elder confused 
the Monty Cristo Area. Took my wife up to show her were I hunted after work with a Bow.. what a freaking mess! Broke my Heart.. Same with Lost Creek. East Canyon.and Morgan.Chalk Creek. Browns Canyon so many areas the public could hunt. slow but sure it will be history, when an if Our Knuckle Heads in Washigtion and State Government keep screwing around.. Well the NO TRESSPASSING SIGNS Will become the Norm.I did not draw a General Archery Tag.But I would rather stay home than getting a left over Box Elder Tag. It ain't Southern Utah. Thats a Fact. OH WELL,,


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Fudd. Most guys picking up the box elder tag are just planning on hunting the extended hunt. But there are places to hunt in the unit as well.

Also, the 4/5/6 east canyon chalk Creek unit includes the Wasatch front north of i-80. I hunt public land there every year on the general and/or extended seasons.

Maybe not the areas you used to hunt, but there are plenty of places to hunt nonetheless. 

As for me, I'd much rather have a box elder tag with the opportunity to hunt than sitting on my couch. Different strokes I guess...


Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

I didn't have a deer tag in Utah for this year,
So,
I picked up a muzzy tag for Kamas unit this morning..
Same 'crashed system' problems as mentioned, but worth the extra effort.

I'm thinking I will hunt the last 3 or 4 days of the hunt.
Crowd should be gone by then.


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## Airborne (May 29, 2009)

Seems that if people want to be unhappy they will find a way to make it happen. There is TONS of opportunity out there, just have to look for it. Times change--always have, adapt and overcome. If you want ideas on opportunity this forum is a great place to ask.


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## Clarq (Jul 21, 2011)

Glad to hear you were able to get what you were after. I tried to pick up the leftover Zane CWMU pronghorn tag and it was gone in under 3 seconds (exactly as I expected).

I wonder if the people at the DWR office get slowed down with everyone else? If not, that would be the ideal place to go to buy a leftover tag.


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## goofy elk (Dec 16, 2007)

Ha,^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I tried to get that Zane tag too......

Literally gone in 3 seconds!


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## colorcountrygunner (Oct 6, 2009)

They had a leftover CWMU tag?! Weird! Does that happen often? I wouldn't have thought so. I've been thinking of putting in for the Zane antelope CWMU after I draw out for elk since it looks like it would be a pretty quick tag to draw, it is close to my hometown of Cedar City and I kind of know the Wood family.


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## Critter (Mar 20, 2010)

Sooner or later the hunters that want to just hunt the extended really need to figure out that they need to put down this unit as a choice on their application and not risk not getting the tag at all. With 4 choices or are there more, you can put in for all your favorite units and then if they are not drawn get the Box Elder tag and not have to go through the aggravation of a first come first sold on line wait.


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## 3arabians (Dec 9, 2014)

Critter said:


> Sooner or later the hunters that want to just hunt the extended really need to figure out that they need to put down this unit as a choice on their application and not risk not getting the tag at all. With 4 choices or are there more, you can put in for all your favorite units and then if they are not drawn get the Box Elder tag and not have to go through the aggravation of a first come first sold on line wait.


Agreed! The DWR website had the exact same problem last year and left me scrambling for a leftover tag. After going through that I decided it was time to plan my apps better to try and avoid having to go through that again. The days of "If I dont draw I'll snag a leftover tag" are gone. There probably wont be ANY left over tags available in the next year or two. There are 5 choices Critter.


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## Vanilla (Dec 11, 2009)

Old Fudd said:


> The BOX ELDER TAG MEANS nO tRESSPASSING.. nO sTANDING. nO wALKING.
> No Talking. No Breathing.. No Peeing on the Ground. Oh I must have Box Elder confused
> the Monty Cristo Area. Took my wife up to show her were I hunted after work with a Bow.. what a freaking mess! Broke my Heart.. Same with Lost Creek. East Canyon.and Morgan.Chalk Creek. Browns Canyon so many areas the public could hunt. slow but sure it will be history, when an if Our Knuckle Heads in Washigtion and State Government keep screwing around.. Well the NO TRESSPASSING SIGNS Will become the Norm.


Just wait until the state gets its way regarding turning over federal lands. You have never seen "No Trespassing" signs like that day. That much I promise!


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## brisket (Mar 3, 2015)

With the availability of cloud computing today, there really is no excuse to not be able to handle a predictable spike in server traffic. It is so easy these days to simply spin up more server instances (or beef up the current servers) if you have an event like this. It literally is the click of a button or two. Granted, the gov is typically a slow adopter of technology, and judging by the ancient design of the draw website, they are likely still running their own servers too.


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## middlefork (Nov 2, 2008)

brisket said:


> With the availability of cloud computing today, there really is no excuse to not be able to handle a predictable spike in server traffic. It is so easy these days to simply spin up more server instances (or beef up the current servers) if you have an event like this. It literally is the click of a button or two. Granted, the gov is typically a slow adopter of technology, and judging by the ancient design of the draw website, they are likely still running their own servers too.


I thought it was the people in Fallon running the draw. Not the Utah state government but what do I know.


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## derekp1999 (Nov 17, 2011)

Let's have the guy that runs the EXPO tag run it... he gets SFW money so he'll do it right.


Right?


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## elkfromabove (Apr 20, 2008)

middlefork said:


> I thought it was the people in Fallon running the draw. Not the Utah state government but what do I know.


The Fallon company runs the draws, but these permits are sales not draws, so the DWR is responsible for them and the problems related to them. Whether they deal with it directly or it's farmed out, I don't know.

In any case, it's my guess that after this year, there won't be ANY leftover tags to fight over.


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## Kwalk3 (Jun 21, 2012)

Apparently we threw the DWR under the bus too soon. Just talked to a buddy that was trying to get a tag and wasn't able to complete purchase. He just got an email stating he would still have an opportunity to buy a tag if he still wanted it.

Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


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## Hunter2015 (Oct 1, 2015)

Kwalk3 said:


> Apparently we threw the DWR under the bus too soon. Just talked to a buddy that was trying to get a tag and wasn't able to complete purchase. He just got an email stating he would still have an opportunity to buy a tag if he still wanted it.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


Really?!? What tag was be going for?


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## McFinnigan (Jan 29, 2016)

Kwalk3 said:


> Apparently we threw the DWR under the bus too soon. Just talked to a buddy that was trying to get a tag and wasn't able to complete purchase. He just got an email stating he would still have an opportunity to buy a tag if he still wanted it.
> 
> Sent from my SM-G928T using Tapatalk


Early in this thread someone talked about an experience they had with buying a tag for wyoming(?) and that they could see that something happened when trying to process the payment. Well, looks like the same thing has happened here. Woke up this morning and saw the email. Logged on as fast as I could and bought the tag before they changed their mind 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Hunter2015 (Oct 1, 2015)

Well I say that I stand 100% corrected! After reading posts on here, I logged on....and bless my stars they have a special offer for my wife! It's for gen season buck deer-box elder archery!!!! It said sold out still but it allowed me to buy it!!!! My faith has been returned. log on and check it out of you ran into the same issue!


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## MWScott72 (May 23, 2011)

derekp1999 said:


> Let's have the guy that runs the EXPO tag run it... he gets SFW money so he'll do it right.
> 
> Right?


Arrgh...you just shot my morning!!


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