Odds were good for winning 2011 Washington moose raffle tag
HUNTING -- Relatively speaking, the odds were excellent for drawing Washington's coveted 2011 moose raffle tag.
Lloyd Hoppner of Colville won the coveted tag to hunt a prolonged season anywhere moose hunting is allowed in Eastern Washington in the drawing held last weekend at the Big Horn Outdoor Adventure Show.
His ticket was drawn from a pool of only 1,000 tickets, down from a pool of 3,000 tickets last year, Wanda Clifford, executive director of the Inland Northwest Wildlife Council, said Friday.
The council does the work of running the raffle to raise money for wildlife conservation projects while 10 percent of the proceeds go to the Washington Fish and Wildlife Department for moose management.
The special permit is a good deal, especially since some hunters have put-in fruitlessly for 20 years without drawing permit in the general state lottery drawing.
One has to wonder why more hunters didn't buy the $10 raffle tickets. The economy? Maybe they just don't understand the program.
Savvy big-game hunters know they can boost odds by entering the raffles as well as the normal state lottery in which they get one chance among about 31,400 applicants vying for one of 138 tags.
Of the 3,000 moose raffle tickets sold last year, Clifford estimated they were sold to fewer than 300 hunters.
She didn't have figures for how many hunter bought the 1,000 tickets this year, but it's clear the odds were good for those who did.
Residents and nonresidents are eligible to buy tickets, and the hunting license and tag is awarded to the raffle winner at no extra charge. That makes the tag a real deal for a nonresident.
The “once-in-a- lifetime” restriction is waived.
If selected, any legal weapon may be used.
