I think the system is good, not great. They could limit number of apps per category like it was when it was a paper system, that might use up the higher pts. Put in for 49 hunts, including post card hunts, and drawn for 2 this year. This year was fewer applications because I needed to schedule around high school football season and a December wedding coming up, so had to be a little more strategic. Also, with double digit points in GDE and Exo only applying for better hunts. I have double digits in turkey and haven't been drawn. Last year applied 60 and drawn for 1 hunt.

100% agree. Non-residents should get a reduced allotment of permits OR be required to purchase a hunting license before applying, just like other states.

Quile a few years ago my son and I when to the Chap for a standby draw for GDE. There were probably 25 or so there for the draw. It just so happened that an employee of TPWS got drawn. We didn't. Luck of the draw but it sure looked fishy.

May or may not have been intentional, but I experienced one that was. At a mad island waterfowl hunt I was the last one to pick and picked a spot that the staff member thought I was crazy to pick. I had been there on a drawn quail hunt the day before thus I knew where the geese and cranes where passing low and did well that morning. The next morning, I went to pick the same spot. The staff member denied me and said somebody already picked it. I strongly inquired because no one in their right mind would have picked that spot without inside information. It was the staff member that picked it! It worked out in the end as I knew he could only hunt a short time before he would have to go back to log hunters coming back out so I asked if I could at least hunt the marsh below him and move up back up to my spot after he left. He let me do that and did at least gift me the geese he shot to add to my cranes. But still TPWD employees should not be able to bump public hunters from spots or hunts so they can hunt instead.

While not perfect, I think the system is a good one. I know going in my odds are not great on the premium hunts, but finally got drawn this year for Exotic (Palo Duro Canyon Aoudad) after accumulating 13 years of points.

Seems like I get drawn at least once every 2-3 years for at least one hunt.

Also agree on what WileyCoyote and Mark E said about non-residents applications.