is there any public land down in texas
Texas
Just wondering if Texas has any quality public hunting land or is it predominantly private and high fence? Our Governor brought in Dr. Kroll as Deer Czar in Wisconsin. How is he viewed in Texas? Do the majority of you like your current situation and do you prefer private land? Personally, I don't want deer hunting to become privatized or high fenced in Wisconsin. Convince me why I am wrong.
Just wondering if Texas has any quality public hunting land or is it predominantly private and high fence? Our Governor brought in Dr. Kroll as Deer Czar in Wisconsin. How is he viewed in Texas? Do the majority of you like your current situation and do you prefer private land? Personally, I don't want deer hunting to become privatized or high fenced in Wisconsin. Convince me why I am wrong.
There is public hunting in Texas. I used to hunt near lake amistad. There are lots of other public hunting areas in north and east Texas. Also not all ranches are high fenced. A lot are but I would guess the vast majority of deer are free range.
Texas is mostly private land due to the way the state was developed. Texas land ownership originated from the Spanish land grant, so all of the land was originally given to individual people.
Texas has some public hunting areas but a small percentage of the total land in the state.
I can't say whether I prefer public or private land for hunting since both have advantages. I will say that the land in Texas will stay mostly privately owned.
Probably a lot of misconception concerning Texas and high fences. While there are a lot of high fenced places, the majority of land in Texas is not. The usual reason for fencing is to be able to manage the deer herd, not just to prevent deer from getting on the neighbor. That said, I have never hunted a high fence, but if it were big enough, I wouldn't have any qualms, especially for exotics.
There is quite a bit of public hunting, just not as much as some of the western states. I quit hunting public land years ago though, mostly because I don't have to. The experience is better on private in my opinion.
I hunt, some, around Twin Buttes and some at San Angelo State Park.
Like most above have said, Texas doesn't have very much public hunting. Texas Parks and Wildlife has some good WMA that they have draw hunts for. They also have a few walk on places. The National Forest is a good place with some nice deer being taken out of it now. There are also a few Federal Rufuges that have some really good hunting on them.
Now on high fences. I hunted a high fence ranch 1800 acres for 25 years in the hill country. Just like the low fence ranch I hunt now, you might see a couple deer each year that you saw in the past, but you always see deer that you never seen before. There are many times I still wish I was inside a high fence when you pass on some young buck and it jumps the fence to hear the shot and everything comes back excpet the buck you were hoping to see grow up.
A lot of times the small ranchetts that are located around the bigger ranches kill everything that pass through because they know they do not have anything to keep the deer on their place. Our neighbors on one side of us have said that is what they do.
I hunt cooper WMA in northeast texas nearly exclusively every year now for last 5-6 years great hunting is bow only for deer and there are a ton of deer good quality bucks too. Oct can be crowded but once rifle season starts everyone goes to their leases and its great only had someone walk in on me a time or two out of the hundreds of times I have been in there.. Pat mayse WMA is really good too just rugged and dense
Texas has about 3% public land, and much of that is Big Bend NP with no hunting. So unless you have a lease or a friend with a ranch, your access is really difficult.
Compare that to much of the west with over half the land in Federal Management open to anybody for hunting.
I moved out west from Texas. No comparison. But it can be hard to draw tags here.... when you do, hunting is phenomenal!
For $40 you can buy a type 2 license and have access to over one million acres of hunting. Not counting the national forests.Plenty of land to hunt.
lots of it, check out Texas Parks & Wildlife site on web.
