re: Encroachment on Public Land

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like a bitchy keyboard warrior

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I take offense to this

As much as it sucks, encroachment is going to happen. But only if you let it happen. All my duck hunting is done on public land, and I don't worry about waking up early to beat other people because they going to move in on you anyway. Walking is the way to beat encroachment. If you have an ATV, hunt off ATV trails then be willing to walk further than the next guy. If you have a boat, drive your boat as far as possible before parking, and then walk into the woods. Any time you walk more than 1 mile in the woods, you are eliminating a lot of people. Opening morning of duck season last year in NELA there were already 3 boats parked when I pulled up. I walked 2 miles in the woods to a pothole and didn't ever even hear someone relatively near.


Long story short, if you are healthy enough and able then go the extra mile.

I just got home from work, so sorry it took me so long to respond. I will be happy to answer you, Boat Motor Bandit, and Convertedtiger. This is a long post, so feel free to skip it if you aren't interested.

I am plenty educated on Texas public land options, dropped several hundred dollars applying for the limited entry draws and epostcard hunts this year alone. I was lucky enough to be drawn for one limited entry hunt that lasts 2 days. The calcs below are from the notes I took earlier this year when looking at draws and other options in range of me (I am stationed in San Antonio).

Now lets turn to Texas Parks & Wildlife Website, which you and Converted both think I have somehow haven't seen before... LINK

As you know, Texas breaks their public hunting land into eight zones. Here is the breakdown of each zone and how many public land options are open to deer hunting (archery/gun):

Region 1: Panhandle (0 archery, 0 gun)
Region 2: Trans-Pecos (0 archery, 0 gun)
Region 3: Central Texas (3 archery, 1 gun)
- Los Rincones (138 acres - archery only)
- San Angelo SP (2500 acres - archery only)
- Twin Buttes PHL (12,858 acres - archery and gun)
Region 4: Dallas/Forth Worth (6 archery, 2 gun)
- Pat Roberts PHL (41,000 acres - archery and gun)*
- Cooper WMA (14,000 acres - archery and gun)*
- S. Sulfur Unit Cooper Lake SP (1000 acres - archery and gun)
- Bois D'Arc Unit Caddo NG WMA (13000 acres - archery and gun)
- Ladonia Unit Caddo NG WMA (2700 acres - archery and gun)
- Twakoni WMA (34,000 acres - archery and gun)*
- Pat Mayse WMA (8,900 acres - archery and gun)
Region 5: Pineywoods (14 archery, 2 gun)
- Ivy WMA (465 acres - archery only)
- White Oak Creek (25,000 acres - archery and gun)*
- Angelina Neches Dam B WMA (12,700 acres - archery and gun)*
- Caddo Lake WMA (8100 acres - archery and gun)*
- Alzan Bayou WMA Blount Tract (2200 acres - archery only)
- Alzan Bayou WMA Old River Tract (485 acres - archery only)
- Triple Timberline Unit 122 (16,851 acres - archery only)
- Sabine River Authority Unit 630 (7400 acres - archery and gun)*
- Moore Plantation WMA (26,000 acres - archery and gun)
- Bannister WMA (26,000 acres - archery and gun)
- North Toledo Bend WMA (2000 acres - archery only)*
- Old Sabine River Bottom WMA (5700 acres - archery only)
- Alabama Creek WMA (14,561 acres - archery and gun)
- Martin Dies Jr SP (750 acres - draw only)
Region 6: Austin/Waco (4 archery, 1 gun)
- Luminant Texas (1000 acres - archery and gun)
- Somerville PHL (3000 acres - archery only)
- Granger PHL (10000 acres - archery only postcard)*
- Keechi Creek WMA (1500 acres - draw only)
Region 7: Houston/Beaumont (1 archer, 1 gun)
- Sam Houston NF WMA (162,984 acres - archery and gun)*
Region 8: San Antonio/Corpus Christi (1 archery, 0 gun)
- James Daughtery WMA (26,000 acres - archery only postcard)*

* = lake present and factored into the surface acreage calculation.

Your statement that there are "literally hundreds of 3-5k acre WMAs all throughout East Texas to Dallas and into North Texas" is inaccurate - there aren't that many WMAs open to deer hunting in Texas, period. Now, I will say you are 100% right there are more hunting opportunities in east Texas, as shown above. As a matter of fact that is just about the only area of Texas where there is any public land available to hunt deer at all. But I will point out again, look at the number of WMAs that appear to be big chunks of acreage and see how many have lakes or rivers present.

In my opinion Texas is cooking the books when they tell you they have 34,000 acres of public hunting available at Tawakoni WMA (for example) and then leave out that 90% of that surface acreage is a lake.

Texas is a big state, so if you aren't within 2 or 3 hours of the Texas/Louisiana line (the Pineywoods and DFW zones) then you are pretty much out of options in the way of public big game hunting (deer hunting).

So where does Texas stack up in terms of others states as far as public hunting land? Boat Motor says Texas "has more public hunting lands than any other 2 states combined short of Alaska."

As anyone that hunts, fishes, or hikes probably knows this is an absurd and completely false claim. Here is a pretty good LINK to a site that will give a very detailed rundown on public hunting land by state, and juxtapose that against population to give you a ratio of huntable land per person. Not surprisingly Texas ranks near dead last, only Hawaii and Iowa beat it out for less percentage of public land open to hunting. If you just look at total acreage open to public hunting Texas ranks #25 out of our 50 states (Alaska and every western state ranks at the top). Surprisingly Texas ranks even below Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee and Virginia in terms of public hunting lands. Louisiana barely trails behind Texas, despite being a fraction of the size and population.

I know this was a lot of info, but I hope maybe it can spur some interest in public lands for folks out there. Texas is not the shining example of what our public lands should be, and I have zero problem defending that statement. Please don't mistake this for "bitching" because I'm not that petty, its the bigger picture that I focus on. I care about public lands and protecting them to pass down to my kids, in the majority of Texas you have to have money to hunt and that isn't the American way. For the majority of folks in Texas, there is no public big game hunting available, period. Only if you live in the pinewoods or east of Dallas can you be within realistic range of hunting an area of public lands consistently, that is just a fact.

Squirrel hunting in Tensas River NWR years ago. Got in real early. I hear something behind me, dude with his 6 yo son.
Walks right up to me before he sees me. I tell him I’ll be hunting in a particular direction and he says fine but it’s public land and he’ll hunt wtf he wants to.
Moves over to my left about 50 feet and sits down. Still early so I move away from him as noisily as I can as fast as I can about half a quarter away and started hunting. Never heard him shoot.
I did alright. He had however big the TRNWr is to hunt and had to plop down beside me to hunt. Great teacher for the kid. He really showed me.

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As bad as it is at least you don’t live in Texas. Zero public land and a minimum of $3K to get on a lease of any quality. I’ve lived/hunted all over the country and Texas is by far the worst state for hunting and it is not even remotely close...even communist New York was markedly better.

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Ok jackleg, we will start the above post. THIS was your original statement that many took exception to. You did not say shite about deer hunting. You threw out a blanket statement about Texas having shite for public hunting land. You were proven wrong. So THEN you change tactics and zero in on just deer hunting.

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bullshite. Show me where I can hunt a deer on public land this week in Texas.

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You yourself showed where you could hunt on public land. You say that most of the hunting is in DFW and Pineywoods areas. You know why? Take a look at the deer density maps. That's where the most deer are and more importantly, the most deer hunters. So many areas have low numbers of deer per acre so they don't make the list. Many other areas, demand is low so they don't have deer hunting there. Yes, South Texas has a big healthy deer population and not much public hunting. That's because there is not much land there that is not privately owned and managed. The state leases some private land for public hunting but there are no landowners that are going to let Joe Blow come in and hunt deer that they have spent hundreds of thousands on managing. Yes, deer in South Texas is big business. Just like ducks in South Louisiana is big business.

But, piss and moan all you want. My family has been successfully deer hunting in Texas for generations and will continue to do so long after you are gone. A little leg work and a lot less bitching on a website can afford you the same opportunity. This has gotten WAY off topic though. Try hunting opening day at the Dam B area if you want to talk about encroachment. People used to stack in there like cordwood.

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I've hunted in Texas for 30 years and after bowhunting the midwest, I don't really care to hunt Texas that much anymore.

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It can be a challenge certainly. With a little skill and knowhow, you can make some very successful hunts though. I would agree on deer hunting further North though. The deer get stupid as you go North.
The,generally, less hunting pressure that can make them go nocturnal helps as well. It sucks patterning a deer herd's behavior for months only to have everything change within a week of the season starting. I have counted 40 deer in one field the day before deer season and poof gone the day after the season begins.

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All of this is why I've nearly stopped deer hunting, and I love it.

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I haven't been deer hunting in a few years myself. Especially after the 13" spread regs came out. Most days you will find us in one of the many public duck hunting opportunities in Texas and loving it. Yes we occasionally get walked or boated up on but it is the nature of the beast and is not common. Especially when we are compartment hunting most of the time.

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It can be a challenge certainly. With a little skill and knowhow, you can make some very successful hunts though. I would agree on deer hunting further North though. The deer get stupid as you go North.
The,generally, less hunting pressure that can make them go nocturnal helps as well. It sucks patterning a deer herd's behavior for months only to have everything change within a week of the season starting. I have counted 40 deer in one field the day before deer season and poof gone the day after the season begins

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I've killed a lot of deer in Texas, mostly on private leases. I've hunted multiple years in Brady, Mason, Junction, Freer, Tilden, and on my home pasture in Bandera, Texas. I have a 160 killed in TX and a 170 in Kansas. I have never really killed anything significant on public land in Texas, but I hunt on public for different purposes, sort of like practice for my high country or out of state hunts. I get meat and try to pattern bucks Dan Infalt style while making sure my camping gear works.

What I am saying is there is nothing like hunting the midwest whitetail. It is a region where the rut is entirely different. In Texas, hunting the rut is fun, but it's not critical. I actually preferred hunting end-of-season food sources with great success. In the midwest, the deer go ballistic in the rut unlike anything I have ever seen in Texas. And that includes hunting 10k and 20k acre places in South Texas and seeing 160+ inch deer regularly.

There is just nothing like hunting the midwest. Once you do it, there really is no other style of whitetail hunting that is of interest to you.