Public hunting here in TX is a joke!!! Most of the land is in East Texas where there are less deer, in general. And the quality of deer is generally lacking....except on the high-fence operations.
Most of the public land in south and west Texas is by drawing only($3-5 to put your name in...can't remember exactly how much). The best pieces have draw rates of 10% or much less. Then, if you do get drawn, many of the hunts are by assigned blind.....the same blind every other hunter to hunt the area has used.....think the deer know where they are???
Then the very best "public" hunts are $10 to put in for and your chances of drawing there are miniscule. Something like 5000 people put in for one of the big game hunts and only ONE gets drawn.
With all that said, I am putting together a private hunt in Illinois with a friend.
Would love to hunt Kansas but all I here about are the big money hunts. Not many people want to share the info for good cheap hunting....cannot blame them. I might be tempted to guard those places with secrecy also.
Been invited to Oregon for public hunting but the investment of the trip and not knowing the area is daunting. But I will try it soon.
Happy Days,
Kyle