Hello, my name is Dan. I've been lurking on AR for a few months, though I haven't gotten around to posting until now. I'm going to be moving to the Fort Hood/Killeen area within the next few months. I've never hunted anything but squirrel, and even then, only on a few occasions. I'm an experienced shooter with a rifle and a shotgun.

I'd like to join an annual deer lease, but most of the ones I've looked at on leasehunter.com and hightechredneck.com are only day leases, or are too expensive. I'd like the lease to be 500 to 5000 acres, and cost less than 1500 dollars, and ideally less than 1000. Is this a reasonable expectation for that region? My primary focus will be white-tailed deer, but I'm also interested in hog, turkey, squirrel, and rabbit. Thank you all for your advice in advance.

decent leases in Texas start at $2000+ and go up from there. very expensive down here. good leases are $5000-$10000 per gun per year.

What about availability? Do most of the annual leases fill up by this time of the year? When is the best time of year to find a lease with an opening?

You'll have to get to know someone on a lease and then wait for a spot to come available.

Daniel: maybe this will help, it's a new website sponsored by the Texas Parks & Wildlife:

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/exptexas/programs/hunt-texas/

BTW: welcome to the forum, and welcome to Texas!

Daniel,

Most all of the land in TX is privately owned and leases tend to be pretty expensive. My suggestion would be to join a couple of org. like TX Woods and Waters. The members may have some inside tracks on decent priced leases.
Another suggestion would be to contact TX Parks and Wildlife and start entering for the draw hunts. While it's not a lease, it's a good way to do some hunting that is cheap. It will probably take a few years before you can actually get drawn but a lot of folks put in as an inexpensive means to be able to hunt.

Pretty sure they have draw hunts at Fort Hood, right where you will be. You could look for a lease on Deertexas.Com but they charge for a subscription.

Best way to get on a good lease is by knowing the guys who are already on and getting the call when someone drops off.

Daniel, welcome to the great state of Texas the home of the most expensive and fun deer leases in the nation.

Best to get to know some people quick if you want to hunt this season - just a month off for rifle. Another avenue not yet mentioned is to get on line with Chambers of Commerce in say Laredo, Kerrville, Mason, Cotulla, Freer and be very wary! Yes, we do have some crooks even in Texas.

Best of luck and if you have specific questions once you begin just let us take a shot.

Welcome to AR and to Texas.

Yes. hunting in Texas is expensive, and this time of year is not the best to be looking for a lease.

You do have options, more than some folks would lead you to believe.

What are you looking for in the way of a place to hunt?

Are you after trophy quality animals, or will shooting any deer be good enough?

Depending on what you are after, there are day lease operations with Managed Lands Deer Permits that offwer some really reasonably priced hunts on does and what many consider cull bucks.

How important is hunting to you????

How important is being succesful, and or shooting what could be considered a "Trophy" to you?

There are hunts that are done at Fort Hood as another person mentioned, you will just need to look into that when you get down here.

It may or may not be too late for you to get in on those hunts this year.

Are you strictly a firearms hunter or do you also use archery equipment?

Archery hunters usually have an easier time finding hunting opportunities than firearms hunters do, especially on Public Land here in Texas.

While the AR is a great site, once you get to Texas, you should check out some of the forums that are based in Texas.

You may actually be able to find some good deals on hunts, up to and possibly including invites for free hunts for does.

For a new comer to Texas, our system down here is hard to understand and deal with, but it does work, in spite of how some people feel.

To folks that come from states with large amounts of Public Land, it seems to them like they have died and gone to Hunting Hell.

Just be patient, and keep yourself open to opportunities.

Try this website for info on hunting at Fort Hood.

http://www.hoodmwr.com/sportsmen'scenter.htm

You don't have to be in the military to hunt there but there are specific rules you need to follow.

I have not hunted there but have looked into it some.

I've hunted on other military bases besides Ft Hood. Hunting is available but you don't have the choicew that you might have elsewhere. And it's doubtful that you would get to hunt the same spot over again. Still I'd check it out were I in the aea.

Here is another site that has lots of worthwhile information.

www.texashuntingforum.com

Thank you for your input. Is it correct to say that ALL public land hunting is draw only?

Crazyhorse - I'm only looking to hunt with firearms at this point. I have very little archery experience, and I figure it'd be best to climb one hill at a time. As I stated in the original post, I'm new to hunting, so I would be interested in cull bucks, and does. My goal for the next year or two is just to get my feet wet. At this point I'm mainly hunting for meat.

Contrary to popular belief there is public land in Tx. While I'll admit it would be a long drive for you there are four national forest in east Tx. Not great hunting but there are deer and hogs in all of them.
You can look them up on the Tx Parks and Wildlife website.
There is also other public lands for small game hunting under the Annual Public Hunting Permit.
Just a thought

There lots of leases that are annual. I would look for one that has hunting opportunities year around - like hogs - or exotics in certain parts of the hill country - Edwards, Real, Sutton, Kimble, Gillispie, and Kerr are good counties for this; with Edwards and Real being the best. Try the Chamber of Commerce for these counties for leads.

Prices vary. Some are really good deals, some are crazy. Value is not only defined by cost/acre, but also the game quota and the available species. Look to pay a few dollars per acre to $20/acre.

I'd generally target something that is $8-$10/acre, annual, you feed and manage yourself, and you get a good smattering of animals depending on the number of acres and lease members.

Like I stated, check out some of the other forums that deal more directly with Texas.

Recently on one of them there was one person that was offering doe and cull buck hunts at really reasonable prices.

In fact if I remember right his price on cull bucks was $200.00.

Also, being involved on the more regional sites open up doors for places where people may let you come out and shoot a doe for free.

I shot 6 and my wife shot 1 last year, and all we were out was getting out to the properties.

While Texans are quite proud of their buck white tails, on many places not enough does are taken and some folks will let you come on to their property to shoot one of those or even a couple of them. JMO.

You can find leases that are more affordable. You won't be taking 140+ deer, but you will fill the freezer and can take some nice bucks. Here is another place to look: DeerTexas.com Link.

Be sure to sign up for the e-mail notifications. The good leases will go pretty quick.

Good Hunting,

Bob