Attention hunters: that dream hunt of a lifetime could be coming your way this year if you’ve entered Big Time Texas Hunts. If you haven’t applied, there’s still time before the October 15 deadline.

The Lone Star State boasts some of the finest hunting anywhere in the country, and the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Big Time Texas Hunts offer hunters a chance to experience the best of the best.

The Texas Grand Slam hunt package includes four separate hunts for Texas’ most prized big game animals — the desert bighorn sheep, white-tailed deer, mule deer and pronghorn. There are nine guided hunt packages available, including several quality whitetail hunting trips, as well as opportunities to pursue mule deer, alligator, exotic big game, feral hog, waterfowl and game birds. The Big Time Texas Hunts all include professional guides, food and lodging, as well as taxidermy in some cases.

Buddie Gunter of Corpus Christi, last year’s winner of the Texas Grand Slam hunt package, shared his four hunting adventures with his 22-year-old son, Dillon. The original plan, said Buddie, was to let Dillon take the lead on the mule deer and pronghorn antelope segments of the slam and he would take the whitetail deer and desert bighorn sheep.

“That plan changed after the first day of the sheep hunt,” recalled Buddie. “That was extremely challenging and on the second day I told Dillon he could have it and it’s a good thing I did because they went through some rough country, on mules, to get that sheep.”

Video excerpts of Dillon during the bighorn sheep hunt can be viewed on Youtube at https://youtu.be/hx96YtwxeIg .

As the Gunters headed out recently on the final leg of their Grand Slam journey, the pronghorn hunt, Buddie reflected on the Texas Grand Slam opportunity and the memories he and his son have made.

“It has been great and the people were great, all the folks we hunted with and especially the Parks and Wildlife staff on the sheep hunt,” he said.

Big Time Texas Hunts has generated $7 million since its inception in 1997, with proceeds dedicated to providing more public hunting opportunities and funding for wildlife conservation and research programs in Texas.

Entries for the Big Time Texas Hunts are $9 per hunt package if purchased online and $10 if purchased at a license retailer or over the phone at 800-895-4248. Online and phone purchases will require a $5 administrative fee per transaction, meaning hunters can buy as many entries or licenses in a single transaction as they wish online and only pay one fee. There is no limit to the number of Big Time Texas Hunts entries an individual may purchase. Purchasers must be 17 years of age or older.

Winners will be contacted before the end of October to give them time to make their hunting trip preparations.

Learn more about the available hunt packages and purchase Big Time Texas Hunts entries online at www.tpwd.texas.gov/buybtth.