If you're hunting public land in Texas, I'm guessing you're talking the National Forests in East Texas. Go in at least a mile and you'll be fine. Don't hang a stand in a highly traveled place. I accidentally left a climber out for a year (end of the season and I had a family emergency and had to leave the woods in a hurry) and it was still there a year later. That was two miles in, though.
The fact is, you don't need to be in a tree. Hanging one in the right position on public land (even just on the right side of the right tree) requires a huge amount of scouting and missed opportunities along the way. If you're hunting from on the ground and in the wrong spot, you move. You are not doing that with a tree stand without blowing out your hunt area for the day. Also it's a noisy heavy piece of gear to tote around.
When I first started archery hunting whitetails and pigs on public land, I found I lost about half my hunting time repositioning and moving my stand, especially when I was learning a new area of land. So I stopped using a stand.
Those $20 Tent peg type turkey blinds work great. I usually have one with me but at this point I kill most stuff still hunting because I've switched over to a crossbow for archery season (I still shoot mostly trad when I'm just shooting). In fact, if you want to spend money on gear that will really help you kill deer during archery season, forget the tree stand and buy a crossbow. Otherwise you'll do fine with the $20 turkey blind.
