When you apply for a Lottery Hunt you can scroll down and see by category how many PP/LP's you have from App's that did not generate being Drawn for a Permit. I've been applying for a while, and discovered at one point that when I did not buy at least ONE $3 App per year, ALL of my previously acquired PP/LP's were scrubbed and you had to start the accumulaton process over again.

As of this years App's & pre the 2019 Hunting Season's Drawing process, I only have 2 Categories I have not been drawn in for more than 3-5 years , and now have 20 LP's in EXO & 17 LP's in GDE. Obviously I am not frivolous with those App's and only apply for places I really am willing to burn those LP's for.

Only have 8 App's submitted so far for this year, but will study our schedules at home, with 2 antique shop locations to stay on top of, to see if there is time available & any serious interest in going anywhere else in this years outside of the App's submitted this year in EXO, GDA, GDE & GDM.

My first Drawn Hunt ever was a GDA at the old Walter Buck WMA that is adjacent to the east side of South Llano River SP in umm? had to be in the late/late '90's. Previous to that whenever i was not on a lease was the only time I submiitted Lottery Hunt App's. I had not been doing App's regularly until sometime after we moved back home to Dallas in '75 and lost all the 25 years worth of those 1975 - 1999 accrued PP's by NOT applying EVERY YEAR.
Ron

16 in Exotic and Pronghorn. I have been drawn at least once in every category I have applied in over the last 15 years except these and Feral Hog.

Preference points don't go away. I still have several for Alligator which I stopped applying for several years ago. I didn't ally for any archery hunts last year and I still have those points from previous years. If they discontinue a category those points would go away I suppose.

Got more than 10 for Exotics and Mule Deer. I have been lucky and have been drawn in most other categories.

In the 1970s who knows what they were doing with preference points. They would have been keeping track of them manually back then. Yours could also have been lost to human error. My original Bowhunter Education from the time of paper records had been lost too, but fortunately I had filed my own records of the class and was able to provide the instructors name with proof enough to get it back. I started applying around 1980 give or take a year, have missed applying some years, and have not had any preference points scrubbed.

This year I will be at 26 points GDE, 23 Pronghorn, 18 Exotic, 16 for three others, and various double digits in yet another 7 categories. I have had some great hunts over the years. A trophy Aoudad at Caprock Canyons, An Ibex at Mason Mountain. About 20 Alligator hunts mostly at Murphree, but have taken trophy size gators at Sea Rim and Engeling. Other hunts at Engeling, Mason Mountain, and Bee Cave. Even an experimental Pheasant hunt at Granger with my Brittany in the 1980s. We had a stretch at Murphree during the time of snail mail applications where we drew the opening gator hunt dates 5 years in a row. Unfortunately the current draw system has made it much more difficult to draw the better hunts. Having double digit points you don't want to wager on a mediocre hunt has become a curse.

Probably the same situation as most people, double digits for all the dream hunts - bighorn, pronghorn, guided gemsbok. High single digits for most of the rest - seems I draw one hunt each year, for each category that has 7-9 LPs. Then they get reset. So many good Texas hunts directly conflict with out late hunts here for elk and mule deer, that we can't apply.

I spent 15 years trying for my first drawn hunt, and my best friend died of breast cancer the same week of the hunt, so turned the tag back. That is the only hunt out of all that I have not accepted in 27 years.

If you have a situation where you think you may have lost points, double check your accounts with headquarters. I told people earlier that my hunting partner showed zero points in all categories, which I knew was impossible. Turns out a license clerk had opened another account for him this year when he got a new fishing license.

Here are some I have been lucky to draw-
Guided Scimitar Oryx
Ckoke Canyon Muzzy Deer
Chaparral GDE, ADE, YouthDE
Choke Canyon NS ADE
Matador GDE
Caprock Canyon Exotic, GunMuleDeer
Palo Duro Exotic

Gun Mule Deer--10
Turkey------------17
Pronghorn--------20

Oh Lord. This thread took the wind out of my sails....

"Just like any "LOTTERY" if'n ya don't buy a ticket ya ain't never ever gonna win Nuthin"

Words from a scratch off winner...
Ron

My current double digit PP's are 23 for pronghorn, 15 for exotic, 13 for gun deer management, 13 for private lands either sex, and 12 for gun mule deer. I had double-digit numbers for archery mule deer, gun deer either sex, and gun deer antlerless/spike before being drawn. Most are easy to understand, relatively few permits and many applicants. Would have thought I would have drawn the management hunt by now though. The 17 PP for turkey above is amazing, I seem to draw that one every 2-3 years. Luck of the draw I guess.

OLD habits are hard to break...Put in for too many Hunts "at all the old familar places"...uh thats a phrase from a very old song from WW II "I'll be seeing you" ...mebbe it'll take that long for me to get drawn again...plus a couple new places that were worth trying.
Ron

My one hunting partner is 71, and I'm 69. My other hunting partner is a single lady 18 years younger, and she is just hitting her prime as far as when/where/how to go. The 3 of us make a pretty good team of experience and exuberance, so we have a few more years to apply. May start being a lot more selective on the hunt locations tho, so I expect our point totals to really start climbing in the future....

My hunting posse is down to Me & Myself & I. All of the Old Gang has already passed or well on their way ...cancer & heart disease mostly. I am/was the youngest @ soon to be 75 in a couple weeks, with all of the above ailments and more but still able to go within Lottery Hunt type supervision. Enjoy what time you have left as best you can whenever and wherever you can. It's only money, and you can't take it with you...but the shared memories are forever to the younger set who are with you.
Ron

I back packed my own big bull elk out and back to the truck by myself last year, but luckily it was only a half mile. Sure was thankful for my Kawasaki UTV when my partner asked me to help on their other two bulls!!! Getting old is not for the faint of heart.

Maybe it is only money. But it is discouraging when I see a guy get drawn for about 10 hunts in 2 years. And some including me have never been drawn for anything. Yet every year I make a donation. This year I donated about 3 times my normal amount. Hopefully something changes. There needs to be a change in the system, I'm just not sure what the fix is. But if guys are getting multiple hunts in a recurring years, and others none. Seems to me like the loyalty points need to be more valuable.