What Are the Odds?
With savvy planning, you can increase your shot at one of Texas' drawn hunts.
By Morgan O'Hanlon
Photos by Chase Fountain | TPWD
Public drawn hunts offer the chance to be selected for coveted hunting experiences across our state's public lands. Although your annual public hunting permit secures access to numerous huntable species on 1 million acres of public land, drawn hunts are implemented to manage turnout at the most popular areas and to prevent overhunting of carefully managed species. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) is required by code to distribute permits in a “fair and equitable manner.” Over 70 years of managing public drawn hunts (the first occurred in 1954), our state's public hunting managers have learned that the best way to do that is by holding random drawings, which means these drawn hunts require a little luck.
Though all drawings are random, a few strategies can increase your chances of ultimately bagging your dream hunt. Whereas Big Time Texas Hunts has “raffle-style” ticket sales (meaning that each ticket you purchase secures you an extra entry in the bucket), public drawn hunts limit participants to one entry per category per area each year. So you can apply to both a gun deer hunt at James Daughtrey Wildlife Management Area and a gun deer hunt at Chaparral WMA, but you can apply to each category/area combination only one time per season.
That rule comes with one Texas-sized asterisk: Thanks to TPWD's loyalty points system, you can increase your odds of winning your dream hunt by entering the drawing in that category year after year. With each year you enter and are not selected, you earn one loyalty point. The total number of entries you'll have in that category is equal to the cube of your loyalty points in that category. For example, if you've entered the drawing for a particular category for two years, you'll have eight entries in that drawing. If you've entered the drawing for that category for 20 years, you'll have 8,000 entries. You'll keep accruing loyalty points in a category unless your name is drawn, at which point the counter will reset to zero.
A drawn hunt entry costs $3 or $10 depending on the category; drawings are held August to November. Kelly Edmiston, TPWD public hunting coordinator, cautions that drawn hunt entries are kind of like lottery tickets. “;There are two drawings for the lottery every week, and you can go buy a ticket every Wednesday and Saturday, but that does not mean you will eventually win the grand prize,” he says. Last year, a total of 50,129 individuals entered drawings for drawn hunts. Because you can apply for multiple categories in the same season, those individuals submitted 248,855 applications for their shot at one of nearly 10,000 drawn hunt permits.
Choosing your category wisely may also improve your odds of being drawn. Categories are broken down by several factors: place, time, animal, means and method. Edmiston says the deer hunts with guns have historically been the most coveted, meaning the odds are better for less popular categories and areas. If the species matters less to you than the opportunity to hunt, try applying for a hog, turkey or dove hunt. Applying for less popular or lesser-known spots like Texas State Forests may help. Gun categories tend to be more popular than archery; youth hunts are generally less competitive, too. On the TPWD drawn hunts webpage, you can find information about previous years that will help weigh the odds.
Not the betting type? Your annual public hunting permit already grants you full access to hunt white-tailed deer, feral hogs, dove, quail, turkey, waterfowl, rabbit, squirrel and more in over 180 hunting areas. As an added bonus, e-postcard drawn hunts are reserved for public hunting permit-holders. You can also attempt to hunt on a standby permit; any aspiring hunter with a public hunting permit can contact the hunt area a week before a hunt for details about the standby drawing process and permit availability. There is no fee to enter a standby drawing, and hunting on a standby permit won't affect your loyalty points. For more information about drawn hunting opportunities, visit tpwd.texas.gov/drawnhunts.
May the odds be in your favor!
