Yeah, but at least they have adapted and weren't extirpated entirely. My point is the species is fairly flexible but too much human interference is obviously not good, usually. The vehicle "culling" is always a problem.

SGrem said:

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Im afraid I'm teaching my son a passion for the outdoors that he wont be able to afford to pursue.

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A cousin of mine goes hunting on public land in Colorado and Oregon and loves it.

How do we get more public land in Texas? A good friend of mine from NC moved back home to Texas and he says the only thing he missed about NC is that availability of hunting land. Hunting clubs are cheap and wildlife is aplenty.

I've never hunted that setup as I've always had my own place, but how does that work? Is that land owned by the government? I don't like the government any more than the other guy, but I'd much rather a big ass ranch of 30,000 acres get sold off to public availability than cut up into a development. Lock it up. I fear that if that does not become the case relatively soon in the future, hunting won't be a thing for long. Eventually, even the folks that can afford it won't want to. I think I read that Texas has a tiny 12,000 acre BLM piece in the freakin' panhandle.

Public land is not necessarily always the ideal situation. Unless access is done by controlled draw, the land will typically become grossly overhunted and overharvested.
Example: Here in the Ozarks there is lots of public access hunting areas/acreages. There is no regulation or limit to how many people can access the areas during hunting seasons. So the areas become overrun with people and the general mentality by the people hunting there is "better shoot whatever you see because if you don't somebody else will". I have a 7,000 acre public access hunting area right across from our ranch. During rifle season it sounds like the "TET Offensive" over there.
The Biologist that oversees it says he can't even remember the last time he has seen a deer harvested that is over 2.5 years old.

I actually really really enjoy public land hunting. And Texas has more than you think. The Public Lands permit has a map on line. Then all of the areas that are not in the map book triples the size of opportunity shown in the book.
Texas has 3.2 million acres of public land. Get out and try it and enjoy it. It is for you.

I have three Pope and Young Whitetails shot on public land with my bow. A 130" eight point. A 140" eleven point and a 150" fifteen point. Have had some 180s in sight but no shot. Public land has great opportunities just have to manage expectations for number of people and personal comfort.

Well sounds like you shouldn't be worried about your son being able to afford to hunt in Texas in the future…as you say…plenty of public land available in Texas for him to enjoy someday.

Yes sir. Understand completely. All my family and old hunting buddies are gone now. My wife of 49 years has always been my best friend and we have hunted everywhere together. She's my last hunting buddy left. Hope she sticks around a bit longer.

BrazosDog02 said:

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How do we get more public land in Texas? A good friend of mine from NC moved back home to Texas and he says the only thing he missed about NC is that availability of hunting land. Hunting clubs are cheap and wildlife is aplenty.

I've never hunted that setup as I've always had my own place, but how does that work? Is that land owned by the government? I don't like the government any more than the other guy, but I'd much rather a big ass ranch of 30,000 acres get sold off to public availability than cut up into a development. Lock it up. I fear that if that does not become the case relatively soon in the future, hunting won't be a thing for long. Eventually, even the folks that can afford it won't want to. I think I read that Texas has a tiny 12,000 acre BLM piece in the freakin' panhandle.

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I'll wager those hunting clubs are similar to what you see in East Texas. A club aggregates a whole lot of property that's generally owned by a timber/paper company.

I was on a place like that over in the Neches bottoms between Rayburn & Steinhagen (aka Dam B). IIRC, it was like 100 members on about 5500 acres. It was inexpensive and there were tons of deer around but like most of East Texas it was difficult to see them unless you happened to get on one of the primo blind spots (based on seniority in club) that had a good sized clearing.

Being East Texas I had 2 feeders and a blind stolen too.

The place had some nice duck sloughs off the Neches to but despite the club rules allowing it, a couple old timers *****ed about duck hunting potentially scaring off the deer and they got duck hunting limited to the very end of the season.

Gunny456 said:

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Public land is not necessarily always the ideal situation. Unless access is done by controlled draw, the land will typically become grossly overhunted and overharvested.
Example: Here in the Ozarks there is lots of public access hunting areas/acreages. There is no regulation or limit to how many people can access the areas during hunting seasons. So the areas become overrun with people and the general mentality by the people hunting there is "better shoot whatever you see because if you don't somebody else will". I have a 7,000 acre public access hunting area right across from our ranch. During rifle season it sounds like the "TET Offensive" over there.
The Biologist that oversees it says he can't even remember the last time he has seen a deer harvested that is over 2.5 years old.

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From what my cousin has said, few hunters get very far from their vehicles. For them, a quarter mile might be as far as they wish to go.

My cousin is retired from the forest service and has spent many summers in the lookout towers watching for fires. Instead of carrying everything to the tower, he would sleep in his trailer at the trail head and hike the five miles or so uphill every morning to get to the lookout tower and then the five miles or so downhill every evening to get to the trail head.

So my cousin has no problem with walking a few miles from the road to do his hunting and generally has good luck at it.

Not the case here. It's not that drastic elevation climbing so they cover the entire areas pretty well. My neighbors kid went into the middle of the 7,000 acres thinking maybe he would get away from most folks. When the sun came up he had orange vest all around him.

BrazosDog02 said:

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How do we get more public land in Texas? A good friend of mine from NC moved back home to Texas and he says the only thing he missed about NC is that availability of hunting land. Hunting clubs are cheap and wildlife is aplenty.

I've never hunted that setup as I've always had my own place, but how does that work? Is that land owned by the government? I don't like the government any more than the other guy, but I'd much rather a big ass ranch of 30,000 acres get sold off to public availability than cut up into a development. Lock it up. I fear that if that does not become the case relatively soon in the future, hunting won't be a thing for long. Eventually, even the folks that can afford it won't want to. I think I read that Texas has a tiny 12,000 acre BLM piece in the freakin' panhandle.

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TPWD is on a land buying binge.

Granted, the recent purchases may be ready for our kids or grandkids.

And I doubt that it will be a free-for-all, hunting for anyone anytime type off deal. Think draw hunts.

BrazosDog02 said:

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How do we get more public land in Texas? A good friend of mine from NC moved back home to Texas and he says the only thing he missed about NC is that availability of hunting land. Hunting clubs are cheap and wildlife is aplenty.

I've never hunted that setup as I've always had my own place, but how does that work? Is that land owned by the government? I don't like the government any more than the other guy, but I'd much rather a big ass ranch of 30,000 acres get sold off to public availability than cut up into a development. Lock it up. I fear that if that does not become the case relatively soon in the future, hunting won't be a thing for long. Eventually, even the folks that can afford it won't want to. I think I read that Texas has a tiny 12,000 acre BLM piece in the freakin' panhandle.

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Well if you value public land and want more hunter opportunity, then you must get involved at the state and federal level when it comes to public land issues. As Grem said, there are several million acres of public land available to hunt throughout the state, and much of it is within a couple of hours of a major metro.

In January TPWD will vote to acquire almost 4000 acres of land at WMAs and state parks, and almost nobody will comment online about supporting the measure or the need to allow public hunting on the acquisitions. Maybe 1 person will show up in person to provide a comment. https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/feedback/public_comment/

The feds are often adding new space to FWS refuges around the state, so when those come up, you need to leave comments on the federal register.

Get involved with Backcountry Hunters and Anglers as well. We have a chapter in Texas and if we had 1% of Texas public land hunters as engaged members, we'd have a much stronger voice when it comes to maintaining and increasing public hunting opportunity.