Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting In defense of Texas hunting leases

it's a very small place. one really doesn't need a half section
to kill a deer.
still, there are many people out hunting these days that don't
give any thought to where their bullet may end up after they
pull the trigger. they're too focused on trying to get something
to post online on their farcebook page.
on the tiny place i hunt on, i'll know for sure i won't be putting
any extra holes in someone's house or truck, or i won't have to
buy any prize cows or rare horses that got punctured by my lead.

Ever seen a deer almost 200 inches? I have. Taken in the public land we hunted on in nat forest. 198 inches. Gross non typical.

I don't understand you coming to TX and then constantly ragging on it.

Maybe its not suited for you?

You are correct about game farm issues. High fences here, don't indicate game farms.

And contrary to so many that even think they have a clue, its not to keep deer in, its to keep certain deer out....

The game farms are simply overpopulated feed lots often....Thankfully I dont' know of many of them, but its their right.

Why is it y'all feel a need to "defend Texas Hunting"?

It is what it is, if someone doesn't like it go away.

Hard to imagine too many other states where the tradition is ingrained at an earlier age and accepted by a larger part of the general population.

If that's true of some other states, more power to you!

Hunters are brothers under the skin.

Amen. Instead of bickering amoung ourselves and proclaiming "the only real way to hunt is the way I do it", we ought ot be supporting each other in order to sustain our beloved sport for as long as we can.

And to improve relations with their neighbors. Some that overbook their hunts like to call/rattle across the line or maybe stray a little. miles

Your response tells the whole story. I don't care if the deer is 200" or 120" I'm not trophy hunting for deer. I go deer hunting hoping to kill a decent buck, that's it. Texans are so concerned with what a buck scores and there in lies 90% of the problems. Just because I think deer lease hunting is lame doesn't mean you have to get your britches all bunched up. You keep hunting where ever and however it makes you happy, I really don't care one way or the other. I'm not some guy in Montana that hunts the west drawing a blind conclusion to what Texas hunting is like and ripping on it. I live here, have hunted all over Texas, paid the lease fees, small leases, big leases and I simply don't care for deer lease hunting.

The OP, a Texan, felt the need to start a thread with the title "in defense of.." If it needed no defense, why start it at all and I never saw any great outcry on here about Texas. Being 69 years old and never having a hunt altered by weather, sitting in heated blinds, and feeders..... well to each their own I guess. If that is for you, good for you, if not, good for you.

I have some mixed feeling about the state of deer hunting. Mostly is the best it's ever been in most of the US at least white tail deer. In my life time I've seen my state go from deer were mythical to one of the best white tail states in the country. That's good!!!! I too remember the days when a fellow would go deer hunting in the family station wagon toting a trusty 94 Winchester and have himself a nice cheap hunt and if he came in and said "I got an 8pt" the first thing out of some jerks mouth wasn't what did he score quickly followed by he'd have been a good one in another year or two. Like the fellow had stolen something from the speaker. Everybody of course wants to kill a big one but the trophy thing has gotten out of hand imho. I know several people that have multiple big deer hanging off their wall and one can't help but be a bit envious but inevitability you find all of them have made liberal use of corn feeders and or guided hunting where $$ buys you about any buck you desire. You also quickly realize that many have ,( to be blunt )neglected their family's to some degree spending every minute in the woods instead of at the ball field or you find their kids have never been on a vacation or traveled outside their county or state., and their wife has to attend a rocky man elk fund raiser to get a night out to dinner. Sure that's a value judgement on my part but that's ok ymmv but that's no different than judging a guy for shooting a 110 class buck . So yes iI like to get out in the woods and chase deer and when finally I got a big one I was really excited but I can't quite shake the memory of when I was a bout 8 and my dad and I accompanied a co worker of his on a deer scouting trip. We found a salt pile on a stump and the fellow we were with had a fit that a low life scoundrel would reduce himself to salting a deer. To this day I cringe a bit at the sight of corn feeders.

Lets all be sure to villify others that hunt. That ought to productive...

It seems like we could just accept that hunts run differently in different areas of the country. Some guys hunt over bait. Some hunt with dogs. Some detest tree stands. Doesn't mean anyone's right or wrong, it just means we choose to do things differently. I, for one, have never hunted deer over dogs, but growing up the son of a hound man, running game was the norm. I'd like to scratch that itch some time. Doesn't mean I'd want to do it frequently, but I'd most definitely give it a go.

I guess my bottom line would be, if you don't like the way they do it in Texas, don't hunt there, and don't whine about something you haven't experienced. To each their own.

Texas is a great place to go if you're shopping for meat, there is a lot of it available.

I think we both misunderstand each other a bit.

I don't care about score either. I was told that score. I saw the deer after it was shot. I've never had a single deer scored that I"ve shot. I use the inches to give an example of what you say is not available or possible. I didn't shoot that deer. I likely would not either. I care more about deer management, than shooting a big deer. I've most likely shot the last mature large deer I'll ever shoot a few years ago.

I still hunt public and really enjoy it. There is more out there than folks think. The years we didn't have a lease, we found all kinds of opportunities.

I've never not been able to kill a deer on public land either. Sometimes I chose not to harvest the deer that we saw.

We enjoy just getting out and away from the roads like you do.

But to say there is nothign out there worth a flip public is way off base.

Thats my point.

As to whether you lease or not, or can afford to or not, thats obviously your choice.

And while you won't believe this, I"m going to say it, because my friends know its the truth... We go to a lease to be with family and friends. Not for the deer. Sure we shoot them. ALmost all culls and does.
I can kill much larger deer at home. On my place and friends places. But during most all of deer season we drive to the least to have fun!

If we went camping every weekend during season at the lake or such, it would end up costing us more than our deer lease does

YMMV, and I'd love to share a campfire and beer with you one day! But yes, I"m going to defend what we do here. Thats what you do. Defend what you have and what you do. Instead of apologize for it.

We could jump back to a palce we love much, Alaska, and talk about all the slobs there, road hunters, poachers, game wasters and so on too.... But the hunting is "free". I have complained quite a bit about the ways a lot of folks hunt in Alaska too, so I"m a bit hypocritical here. Yet I'm not changing what we do. To get away from the slobs, we'd have to fly in etc...

Question, I'm betting from reading you've accessed FT Hood... have you tried Camp Bullis in San Antonio also? Its been some years, but they had some good game too, plus FREE ranging axis...( as well as axis eat I could care less if they were penned or free ranging, they are great food to us) IF Bullis is still open its another option for you. And make sure if you have not gotten the public hunting hand out from TPW to browse it too. Public plus draw areas too. And then check out NF lands.

Shooting a promising young buck is counter productive for the future of the herd. If you just want to kill one, there are almost always trash bucks around... so you 've shot the 8 just to say you shot an 8 in my view. I don't care personally, but I'll not do it. Anymore. And I've neither an issue with folsk that have never shot an 8 before or a 10 etc... you should start at the bottom and move up. Its a natural progression of hunting.

the ONLY way our local deer improved both in quality and big time in quantity, was to make it illegal to shoot that yearling 8 point by antler restrictions. The first year the bitching was beyond nuts... but 10 plus years into this, IIRC, I'd be hard pressed to find someone here to complain that they legally can't shoot that 2-3 year old 8 point...

But at some point as stewards of the land and all thats there, we should have some responsibility, to the management of it for the best, for future generations.

I get as much joy now, if not more, from seeing all the deer at home, vs from the 90s on back, being lucky to see a single deer all year long. Now its rare not to see a deer or more every day...

And I can be very happy for the 110 inch buck for someone, and at the same time make the very true comment that he had some good genetics. OR Iv'e been taken to task for commenting the truth, congrats on a nice deer AND he was one that NEEDED to get out of the gene pool...>OMG you'd think I'd screwed someones sister....

YMMV

And the sister will get screwed, whether you are the one doing it, or not. miles

There is a whole lot dumb on display in this thread. There is about an equal amount of common sense. The dumb ones seem to rattle on, the others are pretty brief. You can spend 30 minutes telling me why Ford is better than Chevy or vice versa, or you can drive what you prefer and keep your mouth shut. Or you can spend 30 minutes bitching that someone has a garage full of trucks and that's not fair.

Saying a Deer NEEDED to get out of the gene pool is the equivalent of saying they are on the HIT List. Something I find mildly repulsive in that you are now degrading the hunt to nothing but horns.

Have we reached the point where we can determine what is best for a species based entirely on one physical characteristic? Some people are naturals when it comes to physical characteristics, but fail when it comes to smarts. Some are prime examples, but are flawed with a type 1 diabetic gene.

It would be wise not to manage for one particular body part at the expense of the rest.

Addition: The one that NEEDED out of the gene pool, just may be the ONE that has the genetics to defeat CWD.

Agreed. Same for rifles, optics, etc. as well.
Life is short, do what makes your socks go up and down.

There's a lot of envy going on here. Do it the way you please and move along. Be happy for those that enjoy it differently than you do.

I prefer hunting (usually on foot) to harvesting (usually from a blind or a vehicle) but I enjoy both in one way or another. I've seen deer jump high fences many times. I've seen huge whitetails behind low fences stare at me from a mere 40yds away - just as I've seen huge mule deer do the same in WY wilderness.

Do as you please and be happy for others that do the same as long as it's lawful and respectful.

Now, go argue with an anti.

Nature devised a way to improve the gene pool, but we humans mess it up. Antlers are an advertisement to the does that I can keep my body at a good level and still have the extra to grow antlers, so you need to breed with me. They are also used to gain dominance over other bucks and maintain breeding rights. When we choose to eliminate trophy bucks, we interfere with that, so we should also keep the inferior bucks from breeding. A buck with inferior antlers is a meat buck to me. Of course I don't have control over enough land that it matters, but I feel better. miles