Best Places to Hunt in Texas
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Business magazine Forbes has ranked Texas as among America’s top 10 best place to hunt, the state is brimming with hunting opportunities. Aside from its sprawling land size (over a million acres in public hunting areas alone), the state is well known for a wide variety of wild game.
Among the popular game animals in the state include white-tailed deer, mule deer, desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, collared peccary, alligators, and wild turkeys. There are also exotics and invasive species such as feral pigs, barbary sheep, nilgai (Asian antelope), and axis deer, which all combine to make Texas one of the best place to go hunting.
With a vast hunting area (both public areas and privately owned hunting areas) in the state, finding and choosing quality hunting grounds in Texas can be quite a challenge with so many options to choose from. To guide you here are among the best locations to hunt in the lone star state:
The Lone Star State’s Best Hunting Locations
Hill Country
The Texas Hill Country in Central Texas is the southern portion of Edwards Plateau. As the name suggests the landscape is characterized by rugged hills and various karst formations. Known for turkey hunts, the area has a sizable wild turkey (Rio GrandeTurkey) population.
A recommended hunting location in Hill Country is the Kerr Wildlife Management Area located in Hunt. It has generally favorable reviews among hunters for good quality, mature animals. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department allows deer and turkey hunting in Kerr WMA. For hunting information, you can check out this TPWD site.
Pineywoods
Located in Eastern Texas, the Pineywoods ecoregion named after the coniferous forests in the area is a great hunting location. There are many Wildlife Management Areas in Pineywoods, the largest is the Sam Houston National Forest at around 162,000 acres. Just 45 minutes from Houston you can hunt white-tailed deer and feral hogs in the national forest. They also have waterfowls, coyotes, quails (What wine goes well with quail?), and squirrels.
The game might not be the biggest but they are plentiful, particularly the white-tailed deer, feral pigs, and waterfowl.
South Plains
The Texas South Plains is well known for its large game. The largest mature bucks can be found in the region. The protein-rich soil and genetics are the reasons why the Texas South Plains is home to large-size deers making the area popular with hunters seeking record-breaking hunts.
Apart from bucks, you can also find a sizable population of javelinas, which resembles domestic and feral pigs (though they are not biologically related).
There are not many big public hunting areas or wildlife management areas in the Texas South Plains, so hunters would have to shell out cash to hunt on private properties.
Trans Pecos
In West Texas is the Trans Pecos which provide hunting opportunities aside from the usual deers. The Aoudad or Barbary Sheep which are native to North Africa and considered exotic invasive species have made their home in the desert and are a favorite game in this part of the state. Apart from the aoudad, there is the pronghorn antelope and the desert mule deer that inhabit the desert.
Popular hunting locations include Black Gap, Elephant Mountain, and Sierra Diablo WMAs situated in the Big Bend Country.
Gulf Coast Prairies
If you are into waterfowl, the coastal prairies and marshes along the Texas Gulf provide plenty of opportunities to hunt as it is home to millions of ducks, among these include redhead, gadwall, and mottled ducks.
One of the popular hunting areas on the Gulf Coast is the Guadalupe Delta WMA, plenty of ducks in the location plus those looking for alligators would come hunt in Guadalupe Delta.
Edwards Plateau
North of the Texas Hill Country is the elevated region of Edwards Plateau, the ecological region includes portions of Concho, Tom Green, Irion, Sterling, Glasscock, Irion, and Reagan counties. The region is known for its high white-tailed deer populations. There is also a large population of Rio Grande Turkeys.
Eden in Concho County hosts several private hunting ranches. Other notable hunting places in the Edwards Plateau include San Angelo and Menard.
Guidelines
Texas with its vastness has several unique ecosystems that allow for a variety of wildlife to thrive, among these wild game included native and exotic species. Before you go hunting, Texas has several regulations and guidelines that you might want to check before heading to the great outdoors. However, hopefully, this guide will have given you enough food for thought to find the best hunting places near me.
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