Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Public land hunting in TX?

I'm thinking about trying to deer hunt on public land this fall. However, I've only hunted private land before. What exactly do I need in order to hunt in a place such as Bannister WMA or Davy Crockett National Forest? Is there a drawing, or special permit of some kind?

There is a special drawing for most WMAs that is due in August. I don't think you need to apply to hunt National Forest, but when I lived there, there was a special doe tag that was valid on national forest that you had to apply to.

Should need a public hunting permit... maybe type 2 IIRC for non WMA areas... WMA mostly require a draw again.. IIRC...

I don't think Crockett has had a doe draw in a few years... we used to draw doe tags pretty regular there though.

Contact the State Forest service, google Davy Crockett NF and follow links... then call the forest service and ask questions as I don't know whats changed.. I do know that I saw some heck of a bucks the years we hunted there and one local took one that was upper 180s....

T3, I used to hunt the National Forests in Texas a lot. My advice (outside of the permit issue.) Scout this summer and know all the area well. Don't go on opening weekend! Hike at least a mile off the road and don't carry anything in unless you take it back out. The farther away from the road, the better the hunting and the fewer the folks hunting. Hunt when it's freezing azz cold for the same as previous. You can have some good enjoyable hunts on these lands and see some big deer if you work at it. These lands are underused for the most part in Texas.

If Crockett is anything like Sam Houston NF you might consider a tree climber.

It's not and neither are the other 2 national forest.

To hunt the 4 WMA's located on the national forest (one on each) you'll have to buy an Annual Hunting Permit (formerly known as the "Type II" license and you'll see/hear a lot of people refer to it as that) when you get your license. If you hunt national forest land outside the 4 WMA's you won't need the AHP.

The AHP is good for about 1 million acres in total mostly east of I-35, and mostly timber company land (but not all). When you purchase the permit they'll send you a booklet of maps and regulations for each area. For instance in some of the counties that have the national forest and a WMA located in it there's more land available thru the AHP to hunt than are included in the WMA. Let's take San Augustine CO. for example. It's comrpises the northern 1/2 of the Angelina National Forest north of Sam Rayburn. That's about 70,000 acres of NF land and of that 25,000 acres is Bannister WMA, and 5,000 acres in the widerness area. However there are several other large chunks of AHP land leased to the state - some of which are 9,000 acres or more inside the same county. Just as an exmaple.

Here's the gateway info site for all national forest and grassnlands in TX.

Any differences in harvest/season dates between the WMA's and the rest of the county they fall in are listed in the TXPW game proclamation deal you get for free with your license.

Here's the info on antlerless permits for each - this is last years dates but you get the idea. Call the District office in Lufkin and ask - the staff will know and they do them for all 4 NF.



National Forest and Grasslands in TX

Here's all the contact info....honestly you'll have better luck contacting the TPW biologist responsible for the species (IE deer) and the area (say Houston Co for the Davy Crockett National Forest) if you have any questions on what the deer are doing, regulations etc...than calling the biologist on staff for the US Forest Service....trust me I know.



Annual hunting permit information. Again last years dates and they likely won't roll over until closer till Sept. 1 when the new licenses roll out.



Limited Draw Hunts which require an application and a fee to paid to enter and to hunt in most cases.


Any other questions just ask.

The average "deer hunter" who hunts on the national forest/WMA's in TX spends less than 4 days afield......

I almost wish I could sticky this post because it seems like it gets asked about once every 2-3 months. TPW would LOVE for you to come up and kill some deer and pigs.

With the recent changes in the buck harvest rule the counties that the NF fall in are seeing more traditional trophy type bucks since at least the boom of the early/mid 80's and maybe even more.

The number of 150" deer are going up exponentially if that's your cup of tea.

One tip I would say is scout, look for areas that were burned this spring. They actually burned the snot out of some of the WMA's this spring unlike some of their past burns which were less than stellar. Scout those and check up on them again in late fall. Even by early November the deer will be hitting those hard if we get rain in August.

Skip opening weekend and you'll likely see nobody or at most 1-2 other trucks. I drive thru one of the NF and WMA's at least twice a week during season and see maybe 10 people a year if I avoid going on weekends.

LBJ switched from permits in 09 to "doe weekend" starting the Friday after Thanksgiving til that Sunday. I readjusted my trip dates to make that time frame.

I wish Rick would sticky it too (was I the last person to inquire?). Good information Nathan. Thanks.

Nathan brought up a great point. Deer love the recently burned areas when the tender vegetation sprouts. It's almost like planting an oat patch.

great info, thanks. Now to narrow down a place to scout out-thinking Davy Crockett, but that place is huge.

If you buy an annual hunting permit it will list how many people hunted for each species for each unit and how many days they spent hunting etc.....never hurts to help narrow down some areas.

Here's a real loose general map of the DC NF. You'll note it's the most fragmented of the 4 NF in TX so make sure you know where you are in relation to private land.

NF map

There was a gross B&C deer taken off the NF in the last few years but I don't know if it came out of Houston or Trinity county.

I've seen some pretty good deer crossing the road there on both highways while coming and going to Boggy Slough.

You can stop by the ranger office and if you ask to speak to the biologist or silviculturist on staff they can give you maps - they have drawers and drawers of special quad maps that are just like the regular USGS maps excep they are in black/white/greyscale and the white areas are US Forest Service land and the grey areas are private land (or vice versa I'm too lazy to go pull mine out).

I've been hunting Sam Houston Natl Forest land for the past 4 years now. While I have seen a bunch of deer in that time-it's always pre-season. If you think you are going to pattern deer before season, and then find them during season in those same areas-good luck.

I can tell you that even after opening weekend, there will be so many hunters in the woods on EVERY weekend that it will be hard to find parking on the side of the road. All the way through the end of season.

This past year, I bow hunted to try and avoid all the people that show up during gun season. The first morning, I showed up at my highly secluded, way out of the way, honey-hole to find 4 trucks parked at the mouth of the trail, and 7 people standing around smoking.. I hiked the 4 miles in before dark, and stayed until dusk that evening. The deer crossing that deer were using all summer (it backed up to private property and there were feeders within 250 yards of the fence-line) was DEAD. Almost like someone told them the season had started. I stopped getting pictures of any deer on camera until well after dark at that same spot. I hunted EVERY weekend except maybe 2 weekends because of the holidays-both gun & bow season and saw a total of 5 deer during legal shooting hours. 4 does, and 1 buck that was barely legal. He was a very young 8 point, and about the size of an Irish Setter. It would be amazing if that deer went 80 lbs. The largest deer I have pictures of on camera from Sam is a 6 pointer that probably weighs 150 on the hoof. He looks like a very old deer-but is not legal due to the 13" antler restriction. For Sam he is FREAKISHLY large though. Of all the does I have on camera most fall within the 60-80lb. weight. Kind of like tan colored German Shepherds.

That's another thing-as long as I have hunted Sam they have had antler restrictions in place-yet in all the pictures of deer I have on camera, I have yet to see a legal shooter. There are some bad genetics in Sam. Lot's of basket-racks. I have a picture of a buck where the tips of his main beams are almost touching on top of his head. He will never be legal to shoot-and yet he is the one that will continue to breed because he will always be in the gene-pool breeding. I'm not against antler-restrictions per se-HOWEVER I think that when a deer reaches 3-4 years old, and his antlers are almost touching on top of his head-he should be legal to take.

I realize this is East Texas, and that if I really want to see quality deer-this is not the place to look. I don't see how antler restrictions are going to help in Sam if the 3+ year old deer all have narrow & short racks on their heads.

I have killed quite a few hogs though so I can't complain about that. There are some BIG hogs roaming around out there. Makes you wonder about walking through the dark in the middle of the night on the way to your stand with only a bow in your hands.. Scary!

Hopefully the DCNF has better quality of deer to hunt.

You find, or meet, someone who has killed a good sized deer in any of the national forest lands you better recognize that you are in the presence of a really good deer hunter, and remember whatever tips he shares with you.

Good luck!

You can't lump Sam Houston in with the other 3 national forest in TX. Period, in any way shape or form.

It's located an hour away from a top 10 in the US metro area...need I say more.

There are tons of quality deer on the other 3. The property here at the house borders a NF on one side and 9,000 acres of land enrolled in the AHP program and I see lots of good quality deer and in 5 years have run into maybe 10 hunters.

I also have a chunk of land that is landlocked by a National Forest and I wouldn't put it behind the property here that I have 100% control over.

I'm not even going to argue the antler restrictions with people who base it on single camera usage etc....when they don't look at county and region wide harvest numbers.

If you want to see decent deer on the remaining 3 national forest get a good quad map and mark a line 200 yards on both sides of every road a truck can travel and color those in. Hunt the areas not colored in.

If you can hunt during the week every better. But like I said I'm out there nearly every day of the week during hunting season in an unoffical and offical capacity and I rarely see hunters. If I do it's the same local who parks in the same spot and hunts in the same spot every time he is out there.

This year I think I'm going to start keeping and posting pics of deer over 140" that come off public land in East Texas that people would be shocked to see.

Right now is an exciting time to be out hunting on the NF in East Texas. Not only is the deer herd in top shape, pigs are more freaking abundant than you can shake a stick at (and this one I wish we could just make go away) but there's the possiblity now you can either see/see sign of animal that's been gone from East, TX for a long time....like almost a century. Well on at least 2 NF.

Wish I was a little more savvy with my hunt area selections when I was in grad school. I never even saw a deer on the Sam Houston NF. Saw plenty of deer in National Rec areas in West Texas, like Amistad and and Lake Meredith.