Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Giving up the lease, looking for public land in TX

We have about 10 men in the family who are on the 2 section deer/quail lease we have had for almost 30 years (I'm a newcomer having married into the family 10 years ago). The adjacent parcels have been broken up over the years and now most are small day hunt operations. The quality of the deer has severely dropped off and even does are becoming somewhat rare and quail are less than half what they were 10 years ago. About half the men are aging or have health concerns that preclude them from some of the exertion that comes with maintaining camp or even hunting in one case. A couple of the younger guys have lost interest as well. There's a vote at the family reunion in a couple weeks and it's expected that we are giving up the lease. Kinda sad, but I'm not willing to let my son be absorbed into a life disconnected to the land and our roots as men.

I've hunted Texas public land some with a small group of long time buddies, but we've really treated it as a camping trip with rifles. I've always figgered I'd get my venison from the lease. Now I'm in the situation where I need to put forth a little more effort in finding a productive piece of public land, and a lot more effort finding the better parts of it. An area that offers hogs or even escaped exotics in addition to deer would be preferred. Public land lotteries may be a good bet, but I've no idea which ones are the better ones.

Anyone willing to point me in a decent direction? I live in the DFW area and closer would be convenient, but I've got a feeling that my odds will be better if I get away from the closer East Texas options and increase my drive time.

Good luck...think the draw has odds as bad as the lotto. The cheapest meat hunt I ever saw was $200 axis doe no kill no pay in Blanco.

I would start looking for another lease......

I figger'd I'd hear that, and maybe latter when my son is ready I might be willing to fork it out or use a guided hunt every other year. For now I'm willing to suffer worse odds, but no worse than necessary. I don't mind getting skunked if I've put in the effort in both planning and execution.

There's a draw hunt in a WMA that's pretty close to North Texas that the odds are 50/50 in rifle and much higher in bow season. Minimum harvest on a buck is going to be around 115" to 125" and largest so far has been 215". That will be a 4-1/2 day hunt in an assigned compartments. The largest deer I've personally seen on site has gone over 200" and the largest I have on camera was a non typical in the mid 170's.

PM if you are interested. Cost I think are $3 to apply and $100 if drawn.

There's public hunting in North and East Texas - consult your annual map book - Caddo State Forest, Sam Houston SF, Crocket, Sabine, etc. And while you will have a tough time finding anything with more than 4 points, you can get doe permits pretty easy.

Bow hunting is recommended as it gives you chance at them before they spook and start hiding...

The other thing is if you have enough "members", you could form a hunt club - LLC and purchase your land - the fee would be the mortgage + property tax... beats leasing.

There is some public hunting on the National Grasslands just north of Decatur. I think it is restricted to shotguns and archery only. Haven't been there in years, but opening morning the roads around there looked like the parking lot at a Dallas mall. They have an office in town where you can get maps and info.
Gave up my deer lease last year for many of the same reasons and still have no prospects unless I want to pay 2 or 3 times what I used to. I keep looking and hoping though and sooner or later maybe my cheapness will subside.

You need to go to a regional Texas Parks and Wildlife office.
On 121 near Beach street, just a little further down the road.
They can answer all of your questions. Need a ann public hunt lic plus hunting. Availible on Aug 15th. Timing in sending in the $3.00 application, as they are dated, is important as all have closing dates. Go to an office, they will answer. Or even better look up the TPW web site, bet your answers are there.
Good luck

Better watch it on the exotics. Even escaped they still belong to someone and they will want paid. You don't want to be explaining it to the game warden either.

There's no season or bag limit on exotics down here, and you don't have to track down the owner before smoking them.

According to a warden I spoke with recently , you are not supposed to shoot escaped exotics if :

You know who the animal belongs to .

It has a visible tag or brand .

In other words ; go ahead and smoke 'em !

Thanks for the responses. I've hunted LBJ grasslands and Sam Houston NF. I've held the public land permit for the last couple years. Does are no longer a draw tag; they are open only from Black Friday through the weekend (at least that was the way it worked last year on LBJ).



That sounds like a winner.



That's how I understand it. I have heard some Aoudad and Axis now free range in some places. I hoped to see one up on LBJ last year.