Hunting Publicly Accessible Land in Texas with Airguns

Jump to latest Follow Reply
Ezana4CE

Ezana4CE

Member
Jan 15, 2021
8,898
3
5,392
Texas, United States
I think the next phase of hunting I'd like to transition into will be hunting land accessible to the public (some of us call this “hunting public lands”). I've been reading up on this and a few other areas of hunting I'd like to explore. Have any AGN members legally hunted publicly accessible lands with airguns in Texas? If so:
1) how long ago?
2) In which region(s)?
3) What sort of difficulties or challenges did you encounter in preparing?
4) Difficulties of challenges encountered on the hunt?
5) Did you hunt alone or in a group?
6) Which animal(s) did you hunt?
7) Which arigun(s) did you use?

TPWD Info on Public Hunting 2024 - 2025 season https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/annual_public_hunting/need-to-know/
 
Last edited:
Excellent questions. I have wondered the same thing about Wisconsin where I live. I’m not traditionally a hunter, air rifles kind of got me into it. I worry a bit about just going into what amounts to be a free fire zone. I mean I worry about roving gangs of drunk people armed to the teeth shooting anything that moves that may or may not be me! Let me know if you find anything interesting out :).
 
Upvote 0
Jman4183 said:
Excellent questions. I have wondered the same thing about Wisconsin where I live. I’m not traditionally a hunter, air rifles kind of got me into it. I worry a bit about just going into what amounts to be a free fire zone. I mean I worry about roving gangs of drunk people armed to the teeth shooting anything that moves that may or may not be me! Let me know if you find anything interesting out :).
Click to expand...
I knew a firearms safety/Hunter's ED instructor that was shot by some drunks while he was duck hunting in his early 20s. He was my Hunter ED instructor who told us the story.

He was on private property, allowed to be there, and was wading out to get a duck he downed(no retriever to get them).

Apparently there was a couple high school aged kids drinking in the woods on the same bank as him, just up the lake where he didn't see them. They shot him while he was wading back to shore.

Hit him with like 4 shot or something. It ripped his waders open and actually started to make him sink, but he made it to shore. They clipped his liver I believe, but luckily the farm owner saw the kids high tailing out of the woods so he went and checked on the guy. He rushed him to the hospital, where he stayed in ICU for about a week.

They never found out who did it either.

This guy also got attacked by a full grown Tom who spurred him sp bad he damn near bled out. I think he needs to stay out of the woods lol.
 
Upvote 0
I've had to confront armed young hunters about shooting in my direction. I also took photos and contacted the property owner and game warden. The thing I took away from that situation was to be very respectful and keep a lot of distance between myself and armed offenders when speaking to them. This does two things, 1) It causes you to speak loudly so that others in the area are aware of what's going on. 2) It gives you a better chance to find cover and a somewhat lower probability of bing shot intentionally. If I had the inclination that someone has been drinking and armed I'm leaving and reporting them to the authorities. That is the righteous thing to do to protect others as well as to protect foolish people from themselves. This is basic self preservation. On public lands I imagine that a lot can happen which is why I asked some of the questions I asked in post #1.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
It's almost all public lands here in Southern New Mexico. We hunt everything from elk to quail. Right on the Mexican border. No problems to speak of. You hardly ever see a person. If you do there is no problems. Out here in the big wide open folks generally mind their manners.

Texas does not have much public land. Things may be different. Here it is just wide open desert and mountains for miles in all directions. All open to hunt, fish or camp wherever you want.

Any game you want to hunt is here including a few exotics. All within 100 mile radius of El Paso. Lots of non-game species to hunt year round.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Texas hunting
Had a local add in the paper Hog and varmint hunting ODESSA, TEXAS, I called to see if I could get on the land for rabbits/ field rats, with a PCP, He said no BB guns allowed , I explained that I could shoot a aspirin at 50 yards and I could show him,, In a nutshell I did a lot of explaining about safe around livestock and I would be shooting only 177 and 22 caliber , I cant use his words on here but more or less he said we cant have a bunch of IDIOTS running around with BB guns shooting everything up, he then hung up..
Mike
 
Upvote 0
As far as I know the Cross Bar in Big Bend is the only BLM land in the entire state. There is a couple grassland preserves in Texas that are "public land". Other than those few acres I don't think there is any public land in Texas.

On my surface management map it shows only 5 small locations totalling about 650, 000 acres in the entire state. All grassland preserves managed by the Forest Service. The rest are just campgrounds and historical areas.

Am I wrong?
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Bedrock Bob said:
As far as I know the Cross Bar in Big Bend is the only BLM land in the entire state. There is a couple grassland preserves in Texas that are "public land". Other than those few acres I don't think there is any public land in Texas.

On my surface management map it shows only 5 small locations totalling about 650, 000 acres in the entire state. All grassland preserves managed by the Forest Service.

Am I wrong?
Click to expand...
State and National Parks are public land (hunting in National parks/forests in Texas entails a different process). A TPWD resource on the topic and according to this there are over 1 million acres accessible to the public in Texas.
 
Upvote 0
Jman4183 said:
Excellent questions. I have wondered the same thing about Wisconsin where I live. I’m not traditionally a hunter, air rifles kind of got me into it. I worry a bit about just going into what amounts to be a free fire zone. I mean I worry about roving gangs of drunk people armed to the teeth shooting anything that moves that may or may not be me! Let me know if you find anything interesting out :).
Click to expand...
I drove a big orange truck on 94 and always worried when hunting season opened , Seriously !
 
Upvote 0
The public lands are often staked out by "meat" hunters. Some of them may be semi-subsistence type folks. They are not sportsmen. They consider their favorite spots, well, theirs and might feel perturbed by another hunter on their spot. Kind of like meat fishermen, their spot is their spot. Or so they think. Wear orange, be courteous and behave like your grandparents would have as in be nice and report bad behavior and "claims" to the authorities.

Do not mess with moonshiners, 420 farmers, meth sorts or whatever they are brewing, growing or concocting, when they say git (yes, I meant to misspell) they mean it. You might want to hurry on along and when you are many miles away, let the proper folks know.

Really, I never had much problem. Texas is difficult due to the scarcity of public lands for recreation and hunting.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Ezana4CE
Upvote 0
Ezana4CE said:
State and National Parks are public land (hunting in National parks/forests in Texas entails a different process). A TPWD resource on the topic and according to this there are over 1 million acres accessible to the public in Texas.
Click to expand...

I think it's a matter of terminology. You mean "publicly accessible" lands but are using the term "public lands".

"Public land" and "accessible to the public" are two different things. State and National Parks are not public land. They are private land accessible to the public within agency rules.

All public land is managed by the BLM and NFS. It is owned by the people and managed by the Federal government. The people have the rights of an owner on public land. Free access is guaranteed by law. You do not need permission to be there. You are bound by very few rules. You own the joint.

There may be other publicly accessible land in Texas to hunt on. It may total 1m acres. But it's not public land. It's publicly accessible private land managed by the State or the National Park Service. Free access is not guaranteed. The State or Federal government can restrict or close it any time. The public is not the owner and must abide by the owners demands.

So that's where the disconnect is. Texas has a million acres of publicly accessible land to hunt. About 650k acres of that is public land. The rest is administered by the State or National Parks.

By comparison New Mexico is half the size of Texas and has 1/10 the population. We have 23 million acres of public land, 12 million of State Trust land, and another 5 million in state and federal wildlife preserves. Then there is the NPS and State parks.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
Ezana4CE said:
@Bedrock Bob Thanks for the lesson in nomenclature. People in my region know what "hunting public lands" means when it is phrased that way despite the technicalities. Do you have any input regarding the initial questions about hunting in Texas?
Click to expand...

None.

When you say "public land" to a guy out west he assumes you mean "public land". It's a really big deal here because there is so much of it.

In an area with so little I can see where it may not be as important. You guys are just searching for a spot to go without having to garner permission and I get that.

Sorry to have wasted your time.
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Ezana4CE
Upvote 0
The first blood segment is BS. A bad shot on an animal that taken and reduced to possession by someone else is their animal to tag. Make your shot count.

Laughed and agree with the "your a Dick" comment on long range shooting.

I don't get the "don't move during prime hours". That seems to be a self serving "rule" for his style of hunting. Generally when out hunting big game I'm covering ground. I've been very successful at putting tags on critters by covering ground. If I'm out there hunting, I'm always "hunting" and have killed game at all hours.

The rest is pretty on point. Especially the bit about horses and mules.

Ezana4CE said:
I like these tips. I think courtesy can go a long way, but how many courteous people are out hunting land accessible to the public?
Click to expand...

By and large most people out hunting are like you. Most are courteous.
 
Upvote 0
@Hal4son He discussed the “striking first blood” portion more in the comments section. I’m not even sure how that would go. If it’s not on film I don’t know how you’d prove where your shot hit.

The long range shot portion was funny as hell. He presented a number of things for me to consider as I mostly hunt alone these days. I was thinking that perhaps there are courteous people on public lands, but many people seem to say there are some territorial folks there as well. Hopefully I don’t encounter that much.
 
Upvote 0
Ezana4CE said:
@Hal4son He discussed the “striking first blood” portion more in the comments section. I’m not even sure how that would go. If it’s not on film I don’t know how you’d prove where your shot hit.

The long range shot portion was funny as hell. He presented a number of things for me to consider as I mostly hunt alone these days. I was thinking that perhaps there are courteous people on public lands, but many people seem to say there are some territorial folks there as well. Hopefully I don’t encounter that much.
Click to expand...
I had a young man claim a goose he missed that I cleanly folded after it got by him. When he ran out and claimed it I congratulated him on his shooting and let him have it.

I've never had to deal with it when it comes to deer and elk. I generally don't like being around people and avoid areas that are overcrowded. Cover is thick around here. Elk that are well hit don't normally result in a foot race to put the tag on it.
 
Upvote 0
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom
Back
Home
Forums
Resources
Menu