This season, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Big Time Texas Hunts (BTTH) program commemorates 25 years of offering Texans some of the very best hunting opportunities in the state. Ten premium guided hunt packages are offered in this year’s Big Time Texas Hunts drawing.
In the last 25 years, Big Time Texas Hunt participants have helped raise over $17 million to fund wildlife research, habitat conservation and public hunting access. The 2020-21 hunting season was the biggest revenue producing year for the program, raising over $1.24 million. Conservation efforts funded by Big Time Texas Hunts include desert bighorn sheep restoration work in West Texas, thousands of acres of brush control work across the state for the benefit of species like mule deer, pronghorn and quail, along with multiple grassland restoration projects. Public hunting efforts include the funding of numerous public hunting leases and the purchase of hunting equipment like ADA accessible blinds for a number of Wildlife Management Areas (WMA).
“Hunters pay for conservation and the BTTH program is the perfect example of that,” said Justin Dreibelbis, TPWD’s Private Lands and Public Hunting Program Coordinator. “After 25 years, we are extremely excited to continue offering hunters an opportunity at once in a lifetime hunting opportunities and raising important wildlife conservation funding at the same time.”
Some of the popular hunts included in this year’s drawing include an Exotic Safari, where the winner and a guest will have a chance to hunt gemsbok, axis deer, and scimitar-horned oryx at Mason Mountain WMA, the Texas Grand Slam which offers the winner four separate hunts for desert bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, pronghorn, and desert mule deer, and the Powderhorn Cast and Blast. The Powderhorn Cast and Blast is the newest BTTH offering and provides one lucky winner and a guest a chance to hunt white-tailed deer, exotics, and waterfowl on the more than 15,000 acres of the Powderhorn WMA, in addition to a guided fishing trip on Matagorda Bay.
“The animals I harvested and the fish I caught, the incredible vastness of the land, the variety of animals, and the top-notch TPWD staff and guides, all made this a hunt I’ll never forget,” said Roger Wolfe, winner of the first Powderhorn Cast and Blast drawing in 2020.
Big Time Texas Hunts entries are available online for $9 each or for $10 each at license retailers, or by calling 800-895-4248. The deadline to purchase entries is October 15 and winners will be announced within two weeks.
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