TPWD Drawn Hunts

[DoubleGProstaff]

My wife and I have been drawn before with 0 pref points, for chap javi hunt and at JD for a gator hunt.


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[TXhoghunter94]

I just put in for 28 hunts with my dad, 1st year doing it.

[rcm719]

Put in 10, anyone done the alligator management before?

[DoubleGProstaff]

Put in 10, anyone done the alligator management before?

Never done the management hunt but have drawn gator tags


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[JackRyan]

Is there any strategy in applying for more or less hunts to increase your odds of getting picked? Last year was my first year to ever use the system so I had zero points. I applied for 9 hunts and got selected for 3 - beginner's luck??

[ultrastealth]

Put in 10, anyone done the alligator management before?

I did it 2 years ago. It's a fun hunt, but very difficult due to the floating vegetation and the restriction to alligators 5 feet or less in length. This makes access to most of the lake impossible, and puts everybody in pretty much the same area. We got two gators out of a possible 9. Get your rest beforehand.

[solocam_aggie]

Is there any strategy in applying for more or less hunts to increase your odds of getting picked? Last year was my first year to ever use the system so I had zero points. I applied for 9 hunts and got selected for 3 - beginner's luck??

I see that as like winning the PowerBall...lol.

Been drawn for only one hunt in 8 years, but it was a good one to draw. Arch deer at the Chap, with only 2 points. Burnt all my good luck on one draw haha.

[SolocamShooter]

I just put in for 28 hunts with my dad, 1st year doing it.

That's a big part of why the new system is screwed. They need to go back to either 1 per category or 3 per category and put everyone on a level playing field. Of course it's all a money grab for the state so it's not likely.

[SolocamShooter]

Is there any strategy in applying for more or less hunts to increase your odds of getting picked? Last year was my first year to ever use the system so I had zero points. I applied for 9 hunts and got selected for 3 - beginner's luck??

You got **** lucky and might not repeat that ever again.

[JackRyan]

You got **** lucky and might not repeat that ever again.

Well that's disappointing, was hoping for a repeat this year! LOL!

[txpitdog]

Is there any strategy in applying for more or less hunts to increase your odds of getting picked? Last year was my first year to ever use the system so I had zero points. I applied for 9 hunts and got selected for 3 - beginner's luck??

They're just baiting you in!

[bowhuntingw]

it is defintely a money grab now. we will never see it go back to the old system. i hunt out of state and no state that ive ever applied, except the new texas system, can you literally apply for every hunt in every category! i have been fortunate to draw a hand full of texas hunts over the years, some pretty good, but i think not limiting the number of hunts in a category a hunter can put in for, combined with the overall reduction in number of hunts available, will make my families trips to texas public hunts fewer and much less often. but i'll keep applying because there is always a chance.

[Felix40]

I agree with everyone here that the system is garbage. I haven't applied for much since they started the new system. Anything that is decent is less than 2% chance of drawing and the stuff that has the best odds of drawing (10% is good now) isn't even worth showing up for.

Some changes I would like to see:
1. Make nonresidents pay more for each application like every other state. I'm talking 5-10 times as much which would be on par with other states.
2. Raise the cost to apply for residents to $10-$15 to make people think about what they are applying for instead of just randomly picking 25-30 hunts that look a little interesting to them.
3. Only let people apply for one hunt per category the way it used to be. This will obviously decrease the amount of money spent on applications but that could be offset by doing #1 and #2.
4. Require a credit card number to apply so that as soon as you are drawn your card is charged. This is how most other states do it and it would get rid of all the 2nd drawing garbage so the process would be streamlined.
5. Make the hunts longer! One week should be the bare minimum for everything. Some of these hunts are two days with one day being taken up mostly by orientation. Its not worth is to me to drive 8-10 hours then pay $80-$160 for basically an afternoon and a morning of hunting. I realize that these hunts give staff extra work. There is very little need to have staff on site for the entire hunt other than to check animals, which I feel should be the responsibility of the hunter to take their animals to the office to be checked. People hunt WMAs every day across the state without direct supervision.

[SolocamShooter]

I agree with everyone here that the system is garbage. I haven't applied for much since they started the new system. Anything that is decent is less than 2% chance of drawing and the stuff that has the best odds of drawing (10% is good now) isn't even worth showing up for.

Some changes I would like to see:
1. Make nonresidents pay more for each application like every other state. I'm talking 5-10 times as much which would be on par with other states.
2. Raise the cost to apply for residents to $10-$15 to make people think about what they are applying for instead of just randomly picking 25-30 hunts that look a little interesting to them.
3. Only let people apply for one hunt per category the way it used to be. This will obviously decrease the amount of money spent on applications but that could be offset by doing #1 and #2.
4. Require a credit card number to apply so that as soon as you are drawn your card is charged. This is how most other states do it and it would get rid of all the 2nd drawing garbage so the process would be streamlined.
5. Make the hunts longer! One week should be the bare minimum for everything. Some of these hunts are two days with one day being taken up mostly by orientation. Its not worth is to me to drive 8-10 hours then pay $80-$160 for basically an afternoon and a morning of hunting. I realize that these hunts give staff extra work. There is very little need to have staff on site for the entire hunt other than to check animals, which I feel should be the responsibility of the hunter to take their animals to the office to be checked. People hunt WMAs every day across the state without direct supervision.

I agree 100% with this.

[Felix40]

I went ahead and sent an email to the director of public hunting. I don't know that it will do any good but they need to hear how dissatisfied we are about the way they are managing hunts on OUR land. I had been pretty much silent up until now because I assumed they would be working on fixing problems for the first few years. Im pretty patient but its been several years and it seems like it gets worse every year. By now I had hoped they would have some kind of decent system in place.