Passport to Texas

Steve Knowles with his mule deer.

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This is Passport

For years Steve Knowles of Georgetown, Texas entered Texas Parks and Wildlife’s Big Time Texas Hunts Drawing, without…ever…winning.

I always considered it basically a donation for all the good work that TPWD does. And that’s why I’ll continue to enter, despite not having a lot of success, for as long as I can get out and have the opportunity to hunt.

Then he received a call last October saying he’d won the Ultimate Mule Deer Hunt.

If I could not win the Grand Slam, then the Ultimate Mule Deer hunt was the one that I did want to win, because I had never really been mule deer hunting. I was pleasantly surprised.

In December, Knowles brought down a 19-point Mule Deer with a 37-inch outside spread on the Yoakum Dunes Wildlife Management Area; biologist Brandon Childress was his guide.

He had spotted the deer for the first time the day before. And he said, ‘Okay, we’re going to see if we can go find this deer again.’ And then as soon as we drove in early in the morning, we were able to get a glass on him. And it took us a good two hours to get to the point where we were close enough to the deer that I could actually take a shot. We were our hands and knees sometimes crawling in the sand, Ducking behind sand dunes. That’s what makes the whole hunt fun. And that’s what I’ll remember about the hunt.

Big Time Texas Hunts offers nine premier guided hunt packages on private ranches and wildlife management areas in Texas. Online entries are $9. And$10 by phone and at license retail locations. Deadline to enter is October 15. Find all details on the Texas Parks and Wildlife website.

For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.