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Wyoming Game and Fish Department sold 158,595 Super Tag raffle tickets across the nation this year. (Photo by John Hafner)

Nate Miller of Thermopolis, Wyoming knew that when he entered the raffle for Wyoming’s coveted “Super Tag” hunting tags he had as much chance of winning it as the lottery, but he felt at peace putting the money toward a good cause.

The odds are slim of drawing any hunting tag through the raffle, which is organized every year by Wyoming Game and Fish Department, but the odds of drawing the biggest prize of all, the Super Tag trifecta, are incredibly steep.

Those who win the Trifecta lottery may buy tags for three species in top-notch hunting areas across the state.

Miller told Cowoboy State Daily that 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.

The Game and Fish Department sold 158,595 Super Tag raffle tickets across the nation this year, generating roughly $2 million for Game and Fish conservation funds.

Miller, who was informed earlier this month that he’d won the trifecta, says 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, it was me.”

Miller just went about his business as normal and essentially forgot about it after buying his Super Tag raffle tickets this year. He was glad he did his part to help Game and Fish, but figured he’d never win.

After calling back a number he didn’t recognize at the time, the guy on the other end said, “Thank you for your donation to wildlife conservation. And oh, by the way, you won,’” Miller said.

Miller thought it was a joke at first, but the Game and Fish officer convinced him otherwise.

The Super Tag raffle includes hunting tags for 10 Wyoming big game and trophy game species, including 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.

It cost $30 per ticket to enter the trifecta drawing, with only one winner who can buy tags for any three of the species.

Miller said he spent approximately $300 on raffle tickets.

He plans to get tags for moose and bighorn sheep, and will likely 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. Hunters can buy preference points each year and use them to increase their odds in drawing for highly prized 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.