It does seem strange to those of us in states with big expanses of public land that almost everything is private land in Texas. But probably fair to say that the best hunting in every state is likely on private land.
I wish my cattle ranching great grandfathers and uncles had held on to their place in the mountains in southern CA but they didn't. We still have a small place and I always had better opportunities than public land hunters so hard to complain. I have let friends and brand new hunters or kids hunt the family place for deer and the place I live on for turkey and never charged a dime, but never allowed or invited any jackasses either.
I can hunt elk on public land in CO for about 1/4 the cost of west Texas and by putting in the extra miles and packing them out boned instead of whole from a couple miles in have better than 80% success on killing at least one elk, cows are very tasty and make a nice consolidation prize if you don't get a bull. For $25K I can hunt/kill a bull not in high fence but pretty much contained a couple of hours away that I'm sure is similar to the West Texas hunt except it still has very rugged terrain.
I don't think that I would ever kill an elk in a petting zoo high fence operation but when I can't climb the hills any more a flat ground hunt in Texas would be an OK option as would some in the other states where Ranch elk are hunted. Heck the same herd we bust our ass to hunt can be hunted from flat ground guided if you write a check for $5K but then I'd have to deal with a rancher who I know is a complete jackass.
