Thermopolis resident Nate Miller figured that entering the raffle for Wyoming’s coveted “Super Tag” hunting tags carried no better odds of winning than the lottery, but at least he was putting money toward a good cause.
The odds are slim of drawing any hunting tag through the raffle organized every year by the Wyoming Game and Fish Department.
But the odds of drawing the biggest prize of all, the Super Tag trifecta, are incredibly steep.
Trifecta winners may buy tags for three species, good in top-notch hunting areas across the state.
As Miller figures the odds, a hunter would have to put in for five chances at the trifecta every year for 4,200 years to guarantee a win.
“Most people’s good hunting life is 30 or 40 years, and I don’t plan on living 4,200 years,” said Miller, who works as a contractor.
There were 158,595 Super Tag raffle tickets sold across the nation this year, generating roughly $2 million for Game and Fish conservation funds, according to the agency.
Miller was informed earlier this month that he’d won the trifecta, and he still can’t believe his incredible luck.
“It truly is unbelievable and statistically impossible,” he told Cowboy State Daily. “But I guess somebody had to win and this year, and it was me.”
How The Super Tag Raffle Works
The Super Tag raffle includes hunting tags for 10 big game and trophy game species in Wyoming. Those include Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, Shiras moose, elk, mountain goat, mule deer or white-tailed deer, bison, pronghorn, mountain lion, wolf and black bear.
Each regular Super Tag ticket costs $10. Ten winners each get a tag for one of the 10 species.
Tickets to enter the trifecta drawing are $30 each, with only one winner who can buy tags for any three of the species.
Miller said he “spent about 300 bucks” on raffle tickets.
He’s set on getting tags for moose and bighorn sheep, and “90% sure” that he’ll take mountain goat as his third pick.
Winning a Super Tag drawing does not count against hunters’ once-in-a-lifetime limits for certain trophy game species. Winners also keep any preference points they’ve built up.
Preference points may be bought each year and are used by hunters to increase their odds in drawings for highly sought-after tags, such as moose or bison.
Miller previously drew a bighorn sheep tag and killed a ram, and has 27 preference points built up toward a moose tag drawing.
That makes winning the trifecta that much sweeter.
“Those once-in-a-lifetime hunting opportunities became twice-in-a-lifetime for me,” he said.
The Phone Call That Changed Everything
After buying his Super Tag raffle tickets this year, Miller just went on about his business and more-or-less forgot about it.
He figured he’d done his part to help Game and Fish, and there was no way he would ever win anything.
He got a call from a Cheyenne number that he didn’t recognize, and being busy at the time didn’t answer it.
Later, “I called back and the guy on the other end said, ‘Thank you for your donation to wildlife conservation. And oh, by the way, you won,’” Miller said.
At first, he thought it was a joke, but the Game and Fish officer on the other end wasn’t kidding.
Hunt Planning
Once the reality of winning sank in, Miller realized that his fall 2025 hunting season had just become a whole lot busier than he’d expected.
“I never thought I would win the trifecta. But I did, and now I have to figure out what to do,” he said.
Planning three hunts for premier trophy species won’t be simple.
“I’m just a regular working person,” he said. “I haven’t had time to dig into the details.”
Lifelong Hunter
Miller was born and raised in Wyoming and has hunted here all his life.
Elk hunting is his favorite. The herds around Thermopolis are thriving and huge bulls are plentiful, he said.
He’s also had successful hunts for wolves and other species.
He’s never had a chance to hunt moose or mountain goats, so he’s especially looking forward to those trips.
Miller is confident in his hunting abilities, and thinks he has good chances of filling all three of his trifecta tags this fall.
But in hunting there are no guarantees, so Miller said he has “some anxiety” about coming home empty-handed.
Most of this year’s Super Tag winners are out-of-state hunters.
Two Wyomingites won single-species drawings, according to Game and Fish.
Leron Corson of Bar Nunn won the moose drawing and Travis Peden of Sheridan won the drawing for black bear.
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
