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Big game deadline extended after computer swamped

May 26, 2016 | 5:00 PM

Eager hunters were more than the computers handling Saskatchewan’s big game draw applications could handle at the deadline.

The Ministry of Environment has extended the deadline for the big game draw and the Canadian resident whitetail deer draw, until Tuesday, May 31. In a news release, the province says traffic to the site was so heavy the evening of Wednesday, May 25, the system crashed and went down for several hours.

Even with the outage the system processed more than 11,000 applications on the final day, up from 7,000 on the last day of the 2015 draw. The total was more than 85,000, up from more than 71,000 last year.

The ministry says it wants to make sure everyone who wants to can apply, and it will allow editing to previously-submitted applications.