Hunting In Texas by Justin Gilbreath

Hang with me as I run you through the landscape of hunting in Texas. After living here my entire life and spending countless days in the woods across Texas, there's not many places I've not had the opportunity to see. Since joining Bucks of America, I have had the opportunity to learn and even hunt some other states, and none of them are truly the same as Texas.

Depending on where you live in Texas you have different styles of hunting terrain. In the north central part of Texas near the cities you have public hunting ground around lakes like Benbrook Lake, Grapevine Lake, and Lake Whitney. When hunting within the city regulations on corp. land, you are allowed to use archery only (no high powered rifles) for whitetail deer.

-Benbrook Lake

A drawing system puts you in for a 2 week tag.  Archery permits only.

-Lake Whitney

You are allowed to use shotguns for hogs, dove, and turkey, however you can’t go over number 2 buck shot. Whitetail deer can be hunted with archery only and you are allowed to use crossbows with new regulations. On corp. land you are not allowed to use any type of feeders or box blinds. Portable climbers or pop up blinds are permitted.

Texas has different types of terrain. If you go out to east Texas and you get into tall pine trees and swamp lands and it tends to get higher yearly rainfall then south, west, or central Texas. When you travel into east Texas you are allowed one alligator tag per person. Dedicated areas in east Texas have managed land deer permits (MLD) where Texas Parks and Wildlife creates an allotment of deer you can take off your land per year.

Hogs and hog hunting, along with javelina, are massive hunting draws for the state. In Texas, they are a big pain in the farming industry. In some areas they use choppers to take them out. They call this HeliBacon!

A big thing in east Texas is gigging for frogs. Locals think they taste great fried. 

Down in south and central Texas you get into mesquite and cedar trees and open farm lands also considered hill country. You can find whitetail deer, hogs, turkey, and the pod of rattlesnakes.

Hill County there is an estimated 2 million deer roaming and an estimated 113 deer per 1,000 acres. The estimated deer population statewide is roughly 3.5 million. 
For a Texas boy like myself, there are plenty places and species to hunt. Not to mention, there is a large amount of high fence ranches that are available to hunt for exotic animals like elk, buffalo, aoudad rams, axis and many other species.