Moving to Texas

[HNTR918]

Work is relocating me to from Colorado to Texas this summer.
I'll be living in the North Dallas area.
I've already read thru the regs, public land booklet, & OnX.
Anyone have tips for a back country hunter moving to a state with little public land?
I'm not into exotics, fenced land, or paying for private hunts ... I'd rather go DIY WY or ID for elk & Muleys for that cost.

 

[brisket]

Living in Texas, if you don't want to pay landowners to hunt, you need to know someone that owns land. The north TX area has lots of day hunt opportunities for hogs/turkey/dove/predators, but it's all on private land. You can find yearly leases for deer anywhere from 500/yr on up. If you want backcountry, I'd look for hunts in western states

 

[Dusty2426]

Work is relocating me to from Colorado to Texas this summer.
I'll be living in the North Dallas area.
I've already read thru the regs, public land booklet, & OnX.
Anyone have tips for a back country hunter moving to a state with little public land?
I'm not into exotics, fenced land, or paying for private hunts ... I'd rather go DIY WY or ID for elk & Muleys for that cost.

Life long Texan here and you are short of luck on public land hunts. I hunt some private land and a couple of meat axis hunts on high fence which is more like grocery shopping ( blind and feeder but easy to select what you want) but for true public land experience I travel out of state

 

[jspradley]

There are a few places you stand a decent chance of getting a pig on public land..There are some decent deer on the National Forests, all is not lost but it's definitely tougher than out west

 

[isu22andy]

I hope you like fishing


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Fitzwho]

Look into applying in Kansas and New Mexico too. Arkansas and other states to the east have better access than most of Texas.

 

[elkduds]

You are going to confuse the hell out of drivers there when you keep right except to pass: based on my experience driving around CO watching white plates w black letters.

 

[Ag111]

Lots of free range low fence hunting in Texas, even for exotics... But everything is private land. Don't forget that Texas also has over 30 million people so there is a lot of competition for the 1.5% of the land that is public. Majority of this public land is only for bird hunting as well. Best advice... Save your money and go hunt out west, that's what I do. On a serious note though, look for an affordable lease to the north west of Fort Worth. You can get into some good hunting. Also, Texas is not as big of a bowhunter state as some other so that is helpful.

 

[Ag111]

Hogs year round and whitetail 3-5 month season depending if you have an MLD property. So it's not all bad... Just mostly bad

 

[Jaker_cc]

Sorry for your misfortune, I’m trying to get from Texas our west as deer hunting down here has bored me to death for 8 years

 

[scp]

Just left west TX last year; know the pain you’ll feel.

Spend your time building relations through local shops, clubs, advocacy groups (connect with the BHA TX chapter). Hard work in the interpersonal arena can lead to opportunities that may be otherwise inaccessible or expensive.

Spend your cash on non-res tags elsewhere. CO, OK, and NM each have great options and the DFW airport has reasonable rates to all three states if you don’t want to drive.

Good luck to you.

 

[Okhotnik]

Sorry to hear that

Ive lived in Texas twice in my life. Good people but schitty hunting, unless you like high fenced petting zoos, hot as phug, flat, no trees, no mountains, very little public land. I thought bbq way over rated.

Fishing aint bad

 

[Trr15]

I moved from Wyoming to the DFW area 2 years ago. I live just outside of Fort Worth. I like the area much more than I expected to. There is a ton to do, the weather is great (the heat isn’t really as bad as everyone makes it out to be) and the people are unbelievably friendly. with that said, I plan on being here no more than 6-7 more years, at which point I’m heading back to the Rocky Mountains. I haven’t really even done much research on hunting here due to the lack of public land opportunities. This fall will be my third season hunting as a nonresident in Wyoming. I hunt elk in CO each year as well. I do plan on shooting at least one good Texas whitetail and a few hogs before I leave here. Feel free to PM me if you have any questions about the area.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[txbowhunter99]

Leases are expensive and public lands are over hunted and very limited. Not much in the way of shooting big game here either but....


There are some places you cant put in and draw for that will give you the oppertunity to shoot 175 plus low fence non baited deer. Also failed to be mentioned in previous post but texas happenes to be a target rich inviorment that we have no real limits or liscenses or restrictions to shoot varmits and predators. Also pigs are everywhere..... So 365 hunting and practice on live animals.

Also if your in the dallas area and really want to hunt public land Oklahoma is not far and you are less than 2 hours away from tons of land to hunt public with a bow (guns and muzzleloaders get 2 weeks)

Sent from my LG-H871 using Tapatalk

 

[cuerro viejo]

Don’t let people scare you some of the biggest deer in the state are killed on public land within 30 min of DFW

Right of top of my head I can thing of 4 draw(easy draws) and two walk-in areas.

Other public land like national forest are not crowded. Texas public land mindset it 100 yards from road is deep, and two trucks at trail head is crowded.

Also dont forget texas draw hunts. Cheapest draw system in the US for alligators, to free range nilgai and axis to elk and aoudad, etc

 

[thinhorn_AK]

Time to get a new job.....

Maybe hunt Audads.....

 

[Rich1201]

Don’t let people scare you some of the biggest deer in the state are killed on public land within 30 min of DFW

Right of top of my head I can thing of 4 draw(easy draws) and two walk-in areas.

Other public land like national forest are not crowded. Texas public land mindset it 100 yards from road is deep, and two trucks at trail head is crowded.

Also dont forget texas draw hunts. Cheapest draw system in the US for alligators, to free range nilgai and axis to elk and aoudad, etc

I'd agree with this. I'm in DFW and have killed two deer on public in the last 2 seasons with my bow. It's not easy but doable if you put in work. Other than opening weekends of bow/rifle where I hunt it's not that crowded.

Sent from my SM-G965U using Tapatalk

 

[Catahoula]

Keep your Colorado residency.

 

[jspradley]

Sorry to hear that

Ive lived in Texas twice in my life. Good people but schitty hunting, unless you like high fenced petting zoos, hot as phug, flat, no trees, no mountains, very little public land. I thought bbq way over rated.

Fishing aint bad

Whoa now that BBQ comment crossed the line... thems fightin words!!

 

[cuerro viejo]

Keep your Colorado residency.

4.63% state income tax vs Zero...