Moving to Texas

[MtGomer]

Tough deal. Hopefully your job has plenty of vacation so you can get away to hunt. And away from the Texans....

 

[Gulfgoose]

The high fence deal gets blown way out of proportion. Yes there are some small tracts in the hill country that are pretty dumb to 'hunt' on, but for the most part they are huge tracts in south Texas that really don't make much of a difference besides from a management perspective. As has been said before, there's a lot more public hunting opportunity than people let on. There's even multiple draw areas in some of the mountains in the west Texas/Trans-Pecos region. If you're a waterfowl hunter, the entire coast is public hunting without even mentioning the COE lakes and WMA's.

 

[wytx]

Get on the Texas Hunting Forum and Texas Bowhunter Forum. Make some friends and give some good advice on hunting the mountains and maybe some private access will open up for you.

 

[2rsquared]

Lots of hunting and fishing (both salt and fresh water) opportunities in Texas.

Lots of hogs and predators to keep you busy outside of the deer seasons.

Hunting access is hard to come by though. I put in for a lot of public land draw hunts and also took my chances showing up as a standby in hopes of getting a spot from a "no show".

 

[KSLPresidente]

My family has been in Texas since the 1830’s and we travel to your neck of the woods to hunt true free range. The closest thing here is a lease or someone you know who owns land. It’s not the same as paid hunts with a outfitter or game ranch. You do all of the work and manage the area and habitats within reason and work with or at least in agreement with the land owner.

 

[Texman]

Lol at the comments. I'm sure TX is nothing compared to the western states but it's got plenty of hunting opportunities. I live within an hour of +/- 40,000 acres of public land which is also all less than 2.5 hours from dfw. It's not easy to kill a monster buck but there's some nice bucks in there and you can hunt hogs all year at most spots. There's some people out there during deer season but I've never seeen it really crowded and I've only ever ran into 2 other hunters during the spring or summer months hunting pigs so it's not bad at all.

Sent from my LM-X410.FG using Tapatalk

 

[jm1607]

I've been here most of my life.

Put in for all the draws for sure. There's some easier ones if you want to just get out and hunt and not save. It's cheap too.

If you want to hunt whitetails on public land I'd drive to Arkansas. It's not very far for you. You can put in for the draw as well which is only like $5-$10 if I remember right.. They have huge black bears there as well, not to mentions it's beautiful. Most of the TX public lands is very monotonous flat hardwood forests.

Hunting OTC public land in Texas is pretty much tragedy of the commons. I used to do it and I have no intention of ever doing it again. I'd rather chase OTC Elk in CO than hunt TX OTC public again, and that's saying something! If you have alot of scouting time to dedicate I say give it a try, but I wouldn't recommend it to anybody.

When I want to hunt OTC public land I go to Arizona, whether it's OTC or leftover. I usually go 1-2 times a year..

 

[D Ray]

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.

I'm here in N. Dallas/Ft Worth. I bow hunt public land. Lots of places to bow hunt on public land. check out Texasbowhunter.com or PM me.

 

[huntTX2Eat]

If you want to hunt Hogs - I'm sure you can get in the field somewhere without any cost.

If you want to hunt Deer - It's mostly private, with limited success in public due to limited public land....

...Tons of wild life in Texas though...and best BBQ in the world.