Drawn Hunts are open for the 2017-2018 season. Good Luck!
https://www2.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/

Yes, just got the email and pretty excited.

Thnx for the update!

Still trying to get back to the Palo Duro again, and look you up. Much harder when you are a group of four instead of two!

Thanks for the heads up !

Let the fun begin !

Got the email, entered a few. They took bighorn sheep off this year, something about restoration efforts interfering. It was as close as I get to playing the lottery.

Got drawn last yr and couldn't go bc of last minute truck problem. Not missing a hunt this yr if drawn

Just applied for 12 hunts

Haven't been drawn in 4 years. Most categories I have 8+ loyalty points, with the exception of GDA and GDM. Hoping this is the year I hit one or two.

I apply for only a couple of hunts but noticed that the success was very low last year on those I'm interested in.

TPWD is really stacking the hunters on the NWRs as well; there is going to be 3,600 hunter days on Aransas. There is near 20,000 acres available for hunting but that means there will be a huge amount of pressure on the huntable habitat (about 50% of the hunt area). Under the old system, a large percentage of the hunters had hunted the refuge for years so they knew what they were getting into. Even then the attrition rules always held true; the rule of half. You loose about half of the previous day's hunters every day of the hunt. That rate will be higher with new hunters this year because it is now in the draw system and they will not understand what they signed up for. It is brutal country.

I put in for all the pronghorn and mule deer options as well as alligator. 4 points in each one now.

I don't really pay much attention to the success rate. It's always lower in the compartment style hunts because a lot of folks just don't know how to hunt if it's not with a corn feeder and a box blind.

I like your "rule of half". Makes perfect sense. The first day, you can't run in any direction and not hit someone in an orange hat.

Last year I saw two guys walking around through the grass at Laguna Atascosa wearing shorts and Crocs. That night I saw them at the motel I was staying in. They had gotten eaten up by ticks and chiggers and decided to leave the next morning. They are damn lucky they didn't run into any rattlers. It is an unforgiving place and a hard hunt.

No kidding, or a gator! The closest I've ever come to being in real trouble has been on the Laguna. I got real close to being snatched off a spillway by a very large gator. On both the Aransas and Laguna, I've seen hunters pack up and leave, for good, within hours. Some, have driven as far as Dallas to get there.

Every time I go in or out at Aransas, I ask how many hunters are in the field. That's how I came up with the rule. I was talking to a Refuge Biologist, LEO, and the volunteer and they asked my why I ask that as everyone else wants to know what as killed. I told them the kill question makes no since, look at the kill board, but I've always been interested in the hunters in the field and I told them about my rule. All three said they had observed the same daily reduction in hunters.

I hunted the first hunt on the Aransas. I believe it was 1966, and I hunted there every year through 1972. In 1975, I started hunting the Laguna because I moved to Harlingen. I've hunted the Aransas about every 5 years. I told those at the check station that I wasn't going to come back. Every time I have returned over the 50 years, it is never better than the previous time I was there. The habitat is a mess and mismanaged. It is a great example of why you don't want the government involved with anything. They rob the resources from the land and don't put a penny back into it.

So I'm putting in for the draw this year for the first time, not sure which ones yet but a few of them. Up until this past year I never knew Texas had draw hunts. I've chalked up my chances to hunt anywhere this year to zero since I don't have any Loyalty points. Any idea on how many years down the road it might take to draw? My goal is to put in for the areas with mid to higher success rate.

I don't think it matters. I waited about 30 years to be drawn on the Chaparral, however long it has been open, but there were guys that were drawn on the first try.

If you do the math on the draw odds, points don't really mean much on the harder to draw spots. By the time you accumulate enough points to give good odds on getting drawn for a place like the Chap, you'd be to old to hunt it. It's all about luck.

This is my second year and I really hit it hard with 20 picks so far. I have 2 more than I found to put in for also.

I put in for mulies at big bend black gap elephant mtn and sierra diablo and I put in for a javy hunt in black gap just for the heck of it.

Im not sure what I would do with a peccary because I am sure not going to eat it. But I sure would love the chance to hunt one in such beautiful country.

Those are really my dream hunts there.

I hit the hill country hard at the state parks. I just love that area to camp and hike so a hunt will be fantastic.

I have been fired up all day looking at things to buy to prepare for hunting season. Im sure I wont get picked picked but it sure is nice to dream a little that one day I will go on a real hunt instead of the SHNF.

Which I did request a doe tag again.

December is when I start to hunt and that is only 5 months away. AAAArgh!!

The thing that strikes me this year is that it is almost exactly the same as last years. In the past it seeemed like they were always adding/taking away hunts. This year same as last time except the Aransas is under the TPWD draw.

Also they ave way too many properties that are youth only.

On the Aransas.....I go about once every five years. I have been three times. Each time I vow never to return but alway do. This time bough I will probably not bother since it is in the draw system. Never got a deer but always manage to get some pigs. The thing I don't like is they do not allow camping and you have to stay about 45 minutes away. Just makes for a very long day.

On the draw odds....Don't give up, a few years ago I drew the Rita Blanca pronghorn. I had 15 points and my 12 year old nephew had zero. You can't draw if you don't put in for them.

Good luck to everyone on the draws!!!!!

Ponied up my annual donation.

Final applications of the year. Yes, I applied for some of these trophy hunts. I have a couple trophy hunts and a couple meat hunts for extra cow elk and deer in Idaho and Wyoming, but I enjoy coming back to Texas every year if I can.

The fellow that runs the Chap talked about this. The guy that ran the place before him, was there from the start. I think he said 32 years when he retired. He applied every year for the place he managed and lived on but was never drawn.

II talked to another fellow that was my age, in his '60s, he had been drawn eight times!

That's very true and will be lost on many that are applying. Just the drive from the entrance into the hunt area takes a long time as it is so washboard most of the time. Both my neighbor and I decided to drive back and forth each day as the available facilities in the area are so poor. Two hours to our parking spot and another 30 minute walk into our blinds. My blind was 500 yards further than his, I didn't understand that one as he is half my age!

He killed a small buck and a hog. I saw a bunch of hogs but didn't want a bunch of dead ones stacked up around my blind. Too damn tired to move them!