My wife and I have been to McAlester two times for the tournament. We never applied for the hunt, due to the distances and dates involved. We live in West Tennessee, which is quite a ways from Oklahoma. We loved going there, especially going on the "Velvet Tours". We saw and photographed some tremendous bucks. Easily the largest I've seen in a lifetime of whitetail hunting. The heat was brutal. One day, our SUV was parked under a shade tree, and the temp on our truck read 111 degrees. Still, I'd go again, given the chance.
P.S. We decided that the Velvet Tour should be re-named the B.O.tour, as it was a bus full of deer hunters who had been out all day in the 111 degree heat.
Murray