Texas is covered with ranches that offer entry-level deer hunting to fully outfitted hunts for Boone & Crockett-class bucks. (Shutterstock)
October 14, 2024
By By Darron McDougal
This whitetail hunting forecast for the state of Texas is part of Game & Fish’s “Great States" project identifying the best deer-hunting states in the country. Read more: America's Top Whitetail States Big Hunting Opportunities in Texas With a land mass totaling more than 171,000,000 acres, the Lonestar State hosts an abundance of wildlife across 10 ecoregions: the Piney Woods, the Gulf Prairies and marshes, the Post Oak Savanah, the Blackland Prairies, the Cross Timbers, the South Texas Plains, the Edwards Plateau, the Rolling Plains, the High Plains, and the Trans-Pecos. Despite its colossal size and booming whitetail population, Texas isn’t a very DIY-friendly state.
Blaise Korzekwa, the White-tailed Deer Program Leader for the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department (TPWD), explained, “Most deer hunts on our Wildlife Management Areas (WMAs) are drawn hunts. WMAs with the greatest potential to harvest a mature buck are the Chaparral WMA in South Texas, which consists of 15,200 acres in the South Texas Brush Country consisting primarily of Tamaulipan Thornscrub, and the Matador WMA in the Western Rolling Plains, which consists of 28,183 acres of mesquite uplands, rolling hills, and shinnery oak rangeland. Hunts on Central Texas’ WMAs and State Parks are also high in demand due to the excellent deer densities and increased harvest odds.”
DID YOU KNOW?
DISEASE FREE Portions of the Trans Pecos, Panhandle and South-Central Texas have had CWD-positive detections in free-ranging deer.
If you want to hunt on public land without the hassle and steep odds of drawn hunts, check out the 162,984-acre Sam Houston National Forest WMA in East Texas. “Owned by the United States Forest Service, it contains a mix of loblolly and shortleaf pines,” Korzekwa said, “as well as various hardwoods.”
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Texas is also covered with ranches that offer entry-level deer hunting all the way up to fully outfitted hunts for Boone & Crockett-class bucks, depending on your goals and budget. Speaking of trophies, the top trophy counties according to the Boone & Crockett Club are Maverick, Webb, Dimmit and La Salle.
It’s estimated that more than 5,000,000 whitetails roam Texas’ confines. “Deer densities are estimated at the Deer Management Unit scale,” Korzekwa shared. “DMU 6 has the state’s highest density and covers Llano County and portions of seven other counties.
Texas allows for the harvest of up to five deer per season, no more than three of which may be bucks. (Shutterstock) “Texas’ hunting season tends to be dry, so deer will continue to consume browse (woody plants) during the hunting season, as these are the most stable component of a Texas deer’s diet,” he continued. “Depending on prior rainfall conditions, Texas’ many oak species will produce vast acorn crops, which attract deer at a high level. If the ground still has sufficient moisture, cool-season forbs can be abundant and will often be the first choice when available.”
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THAT'S A FACT
PUBLIC ACCESS Despite having the largest whitetail harvest total, Texas only has 1,127,601 acres of total public lands.
With a Nonresident General Hunting License, firearm and archery hunters can hunt during the general season. To participate in the early archery-only season, archers must purchase a separate archery-hunting endorsement. “You’re allowed an annual bag limit of five white-tailed deer,” Korzekwa explained, “no more than three of which may be bucks. Nonresidents hunting on a property enrolled in the Managed Lands Deer Program (MLDP) will use the MLDP permits issued to the property, and this harvest doesn’t count towards the annual bag limit. Counties in the state’s eastern half have an antler restriction, which requires bucks to have a 13-inch minimum inside spread or at least one unbranched antler.
Because deer diseases are hot topics these days, Korzekwa provided some insights. “Every few years, a localized triangular-shaped region bound by the towns of Uvalde, Eagle Pass and Ozona experiences an anthrax outbreak,” he said. “The last large outbreak occurred in 2019. Mortalities vary during each outbreak, but the 2019 outbreak did cause population declines in localized areas within those Deer Management Units. Portions of the Trans Pecos, Panhandle and South-Central Texas have had CWD-positive detections in free-ranging deer. Population-level impacts have not yet been detected, but TPWD staff continues to conduct deer surveys in those areas to determine any potential impacts.”
