Corpusfishing.com

[5moreminutes]

I've taken down 2 spikes, 1 doe, and a handful of hogs. Obviously not worth bragging but my first deer with my dad was memorable as well as funny.
150 yards was cool then I went to walking the woods with a 30/30 open sight (roughly a 25 year old Winchester lever action) and looked for the deer. That was fun but not as challenging.
Now 18 years later with a 1 y/o son of my own I don't know if we will experience a deer hunt? It's gonna cost that's for sure because it would be starting from scratch. My passion fr the outdoors is in the salt. Plus I like beef .
Thanks for the great read!
On another note. This morning coming back from Bluffs I saw a nice "free range" 6 pointer crossin Yorktown near the air field. Well balance set of antlers and wide past his ears. Like looking at deer that where hanging on the wall of the "country store" on 624/666 in bluntzer.
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Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.

[topdog15]

Bigrock has already alluded to this but it seems to have been overlooked. The state has not made hunting too expensive for the "average Joe". The landowners set the prices on hunts. Why is no one bashing the guy who owns the land for charging such outrageous prices? Instead, it's the state's fault? I'm not saying that the landowner is in the wrong, but if you're looking for a place to put the blame......there it is.
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"Ya'll must eat a lot of fish"

[cdhknives]

What I see no one has mentioned is the large amount of STATE owned land that is CLOSED to hunting. The GLO controls huge tracts but the common Texan is locked out. Even more is already TP&W 'owned' and is also closed to hunting because TP&W doesn't want to spend the money to manage it...so it sits.

So yeah, TP&W does share a little culpability in the reduction of access to the average hunter. Most Western States open their state land for a minimal fee. Not Texas. Yeah, I know about the TP&W lottery draws, I took my biggest buck ever from the Kerr WMA, but that is a trivially small % of the total that the state owns. Heck, everything else on most of that land feeds the school fund, why not add hunting feeds? Sorry, that makes too much sense and the timber companies and grazing/drilling lease holders wouldn't like that one bit.
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Why is it that these days sales people seem to be as honest as I am knowledgeable?

[Oil Field Trash II]

a whataburger used to cost 20 cents....

deer leases are a luxury item, and they have gone up in accordance with land prices, as well as follow the trend of people that are willing to pay for them. There is no one to blame... it's a free market and if a land owner is asking $30 an acre in duval county for 400 acres, and some dumbass actually pays that, is it the land owner's fault or the guy who will pay $30 an acre in a shot out county?

I don't understand the argument that TPW has had a role in the increase in lease prices either. (I assume this is mainly around the Antler restrictions). Take a look at a map of AR counties versus the most expensive leases in the state, and you'll find there isn't much overlap. I hunted in east texas, and saw first hand the out of balance deer herds... 20 does and 2 bucks were common to see in a food plot, stemming from the old idealogy of "don't shoot does". It's not a balanced healthy approach to a deer herd.

I've also hunted on some outstanding ranches, and it basically boils down to getting what you pay for... managed ranches cost money. If your expectation is to roll out and see plenty of 140-150" deer with an honest shot at a 180" deer, it's not going to be cheap. If you want to shoot a deer for the freezer, there are plenty of places you can get into around $1000 a year.

If you do a little homework, you'll find there are still people out there willing to trade deer lease access for work. I have a little place just north of corpus that I don't pay a dime for, just in exchange for doing a little work. You just have to look around in other places than craigslist to find something.

[cdhknives]

My argument is that by opening up public lands Texas, via TP&W, would allow entry into the deer hunting community for lots of people priced out by leases.

Yes, managed lands are going to be pricey. For the 1-2 deer for the freezer, get out into a blind to get away from the world for a day type hunter, even $1000 is not realistic. $3 for a TP&W lottery draw is, and those hunts are about a 10% chance of being drawn (on average). There is plenty of public land that COULD be made available for that type of hunt, there is plenty of interest (see # of entries into below average TP&W hunts), but no real push for it to happen.

Leases will be leases, but the lack of real public lands for open access hunting is inexcusable. Lots of states manage their public lands quite successfully with much smaller budgets and allow pretty much everyone who wants a weeklong deer/antelope/elk hunt the possibility for that hunt.
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Why is it that these days sales people seem to be as honest as I am knowledgeable?

[Oil Field Trash II]

texas is by and large private, I just checked on TPW's site, and it states they have almost 1 million acres open for public hunting.
I stopped counting at about 175 different areas that are open for public hunting in the state.


http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/lands/maps/

this doesn't even include the public hunting areas that are off the record that just require a little investigation to find. my neighbor killed a nilgai a couple years ago on public land...

what state land are you referring to that's closed to hunting?

[obsessed]

hey fellas

great discussion so far...

I would like to touch on one thing that was mentioned early on.

If TP&W doesn't want "trophy deer", then why put AR's in place and making it mandatory for that county?

if a hunter wants to shoot a basket 8 with a 10 inch spread, why should he not be able to do just that, it's his land or his lease and he is hunting for the hunt, not the trophy....

just my .02
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Trophy whitetail and exotic hunts on some of the finest ranches Texas has to offer, www.mcoutfitterstexas.com
www.baffinbayrodandgun.com

[Oil Field Trash II]

[obsessed]

[Oil Field Trash II]

I think the state plays a role when deer live on multiple tracts of land, thus needing a management tool to control hunting on smaller tracts of land.. Too many day leases that had absolutely no regard for management, just putting deer down, and ruining it for everyone around them. in addition, the deer do not belong to the landowner, they are the property of the state, so owning land just means that you have access to the deer, not that you own them.

There are methods to obtain MLD status where it can be up to the landowner what they kill, you just have to prove your case to the state and get your MLD status.

there are always going to be a few deer that get by the 13" deal, but the vast majority of deer are greater than 13" when they're mature. we're talking a 95% to 5% split here (SWAG)...

I hunt in a couple different areas, and one of them I wish there were AR's... have a neighbor with about 75 acres, and (at least) 5 people hunting there, it makes you wish there were a few restrictions other than the deer being brown.

[obsessed]

I do this for a living so I see both sides of the coin....but at the same time, if that neighbor of yours wants to lease out or shoot "brown and down", can we honestly say that it is a bad thing if he is doing what he wants on his own land, his plan of attack may not be the same as yours or mine, but it is his choice...

simple solution to fix the problem and shoot the deer you want on your land, high fence it and manage it the way you want.

as for the MLD, we are in a no doe county, but do obtain doe permits in our area, but we do it as a co-op with the neighbors, we all try to accomplish the same goal, but again, those older "mature" deer I was speaking of are doing a lot of breeding on our ranch and the neighbors, thus we have an influx of slick 8 or less....the mature deer need to go as they are past their prime, but are not larger than 13 inches on the spread.

We have talked with our GW and our biologist that does our surveys with us, they agree with us that some of the deer we have on cam need to go, but the law dictates otherwise....

I guess in close, it goes both ways....in this day and age of hunting, i'm just glad and blessed that I have a place to hunt. LOL
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Trophy whitetail and exotic hunts on some of the finest ranches Texas has to offer, www.mcoutfitterstexas.com
www.baffinbayrodandgun.com

[Oil Field Trash II]

[Crazyhorse]

If anyone really is interested in finding out just exactly who is to blame for things being the way they are concerning the state of deer hunting in the state of Texas, all they have to do is Look In A Mirror, plain and simple.

Who helped bring about AR regulations, HUNTERS.

Who caused prices for leases to get out of hand, HUNTERS.

If a person only wants to shoot a certain size buck, that is their business, but they want everyone else to feel the same way. Since everyone is not going to agree with that, you work to get the law changed which is exactly what happened.

It does not matter how much a landowner WANTS to charge for hunting their property, because if HUNTERS were NOT willing to pay it, it would not get leased. Guess what, HUNTERS ARE willing to lease these properties and pay these prices.

So when you start looking for someone to blame, start at home.

Deer Hunting, nationwide, for many individuals has became a COMPETITIVE SPORT.

Hunting and Fishing are not sports, they are both part of human history.

Had it not been for Hunting and Fishing, humans would not have became the dominant species on the planet.

TP&W merely did what some very vocal special interest people wanted to see done.

Has it helped the states economy, especially in rural areas with good deer populations, yes. Has it caused problems with people no longer being able to afford a place to hunt, yes.

Is the situation going to rectify itself in the near future, I do not see that happening.
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It is impossible to speak in a manner where you can not be misunderstood.