Trouble finding a place to hunt.

[fanner50]

I moved down to Marathon Texas(from Montana) in March and have been trying to find a place to hunt some quail/doves with my lab Gunner. It seems like every place around here has a gate/lock and a no trespass sign. I make $8/hr working at an RV park and live in a travel trailer. Where do poor people like me get to hunt in Texas. The places I've stopped and asked look at me like I'm crazy. I didn't know that moving to Texas would mean I'd have to give up hunting. Any help would be appreciated. 

[texagun]

Check the internet for any state land near you.  I have the LBJ National Grasslands about 50 miles north of me.  It has about 36,000 acres of land to hunt on for free.  Look up "national grasslands" or "Texas hunting lands" or something similar.  There's lots of free land to hunt on in this state.

[Mohawk]

  Do an online search for bird leases in texas. Most are day leases and offer good hunting a reasonable prices. It's the deer leases that go sky high in pricing. Texas is 97% private but, as texagun stated, there is public land. All you need is an Annual Public Hunting permit from the Texas Parks and Wildlife, $40 or so, and a hunting license to be legal. There are also some good shooting preserves around the state as well.

[lostintexas]

There's also drawings for public lands hunts in TX.  Check out TX parks and wildlife's website and search for public lands hunts.  There are some good hunts here for everything from javelina to deer.  Good luck

[elmer]

You may want to start here: http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/public/

Some land is public and sometimes the TPWD has deals with landowners to allow hunting.

I would not advise wondering onto land without permission even if the gate isn't locked.

[S_J_KENNELS]

If you still want to find a place to bird hunt PM me. I know of some days hunts around the San Antone area. If it would help.

[radar]

Southeast of Marathon is Black Gap WMA.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/wma/find_a_wma/list/?id=2
Try this link and call them.
 More than likely you will have to pay to hunt on private land in Texas and it is usually not cheap.  Hunting in south or west Texas has changed in the past 10 years. Property taxes have increased, cattle aint worth much, oil prices dropped, insurance and so on. These things have put pressure on the landowners and the price of a hunting lease goes up. Of course lazy hunters that dont shut gates or trash a place does not help.
 I live in south Texas and know the prices of a decent lease are out of reach for the common working man. A decent lease to me is one with a yearly water supply, brush and 100 or so acres for one hunter. A lease such as this in Mcmullen county will run 2500-4500 dollars a year. That kind of money can buy a cow and have it butchered.
 A young fella told me the other day that his hunting lease is 7500.00 per year and he got a loan from the bank to pay it this year. Most of the high dollar leases are for corporate clients or big money men.
 Things have changed down here.