I have one of those "dumb yankee", questions for you Texas guys out there. I hear a lot of guys refer to, "the hill country", What part of Texas is that referring to? I hunt over in the Kilgore area with my son-in-law and his family. The area is referred to as, "the big piney", for obvious reasons.
Until my daughter married a Texan, I didn't know much about the place, but I am really enjoying the trips there, except for the fact that my wife keeps wanting to go in July. I really can't recomend east Texas in mid-summer, unless you're partial to free saunas In December and January the weather is a welcome respite from the deep freeze we usually have in the mid-west. Although for some reason, some of you guys seem to think 30-40 degrees is cold

The "Texas Hill Country" is roughly in the center of the state, north of San Antonio and NW of Austin. Roughly 100 miles thick. Hills 200-300 ft high for the most part. Largely covered with cedar and oak trees. Great whitetail country and generally a pretty area.

Yep, Texas is hot as the gates of hell during the summer months. But we must all be crazy as we shovel down lots of salsa and that only makes things hotter yet! I've found cold beer to be the best antidote.

The Hill Country is a large portion of the state that extends from West of Austin down through Fredricksburg, Kerrville and Leakey (which are 60 miles or so West of San Antonio). When you get to the Laekey, Vanderpool, Medina, Tarpley and Bandera, area there are some baby mountains in here that will go 1000 ft tall. Lots of scrub Cedar and oaks here.

Lots of free ranging exotics in this country. I shot a Corsican a few months ago down here. Just out hunting, didn't have any idea what I would find. We saw Aoudad, Blackbuck, Axis and Corsican. It is a very pretty area.

[ 06-14-2002, 22:27: Message edited by: Buffalobwana ]

Here's a map that I found:

http://www.txinfo.com/products/hillcntrymap.html

-Bob F.

Good map, BF.

Good work Bob. I really didn't know the exact boundaries.

It is (or maybe isn't) a coincidence that this area is where most of the exotic game ranches in Texas are located. The dificulty of putting up game fence here is probably the greatest in all of Texas.

Very pretty country.

Texas Parks and Wildlife divides the state up like this:



Region 1- Panhandle Plains
Region 2 - Prairies and Lakes
Region 3 - Pineywoods
Region 4 -Gulf Coast
Region 5 - South Texas Plains
Region 6 - Hill Country
Region 7 - Big Bend Country


But they also used to use this map a lot:


The Federal government and the TxDOT recognize the following byways:



Texas Brazos Trail
Texas Forest Trail
Texas Forts Trail
Texas Hill Country Trail
Texas Independence Trail
Texas Lakes Trail
Texas Mountain Trail
Texas Pecos Trail
Texas Plains Trail
Texas Tropical Trail

But this is my personal favorite:



Texas...the only state to kick another country's ass!

WOW! thanks for the info guys, that's more than I expected

Awesome maps!!!
I didn't realize how extensive the boundaries of the Hill Country were; and I live here 375HnH, come on down and pay us a visit. You'll find lots of good food, friendly folks, and great hunting and fishing.

thanks , never know when you will learn something . always thought the texas panhande was at the bottom great maps .wouldn't want to be there in summer but when the temp gets liveable about 40 degrees F. and the rutt is on !!!!-- herb

Recurve - don't forget about summer for Axis deer.... I had a great hunt in July for them several years ago.... and yeah, it was HOT!

I was raised in the big bend country (Marathon, Texas) but have been living in Idaho for 22 years with regular trips home to replenish my soul...

I got to tell you 30 degrees in that South Texas brush or in the hill country is as cold as I have ever been, it soaks into your skin and just won't go away, it will shake you out of a deer stand....Give me an Idaho blizzard any day...

West Texas is high and extremely dry and may be the best climate year around in the world......

The Texas hill country is defined by what they call the Edwards Plateau and Llano Uplift. Best I can remember from my geography class was that the hill country was formed when the hill country area was raised higher than the land to the east and south(gigantic earth quakes I suppose) and erosian over the eons carved it into hills. I-35 from San Antonio to Waco and U.S. 90 from San Antonio to Del Rio(Mexican border) basically mark the area of the old inactive Balcones Fault that originally created the difference in elevations. It is beautiful country, very rough and rocky and hell to build a fence in. If I'm correct on this, the hill country and south Texas brush country were mostly grasslands when the white man first arrived. Then their cattle grazed down the grass allowing the brush seeds to sprout and thus was born some really great deer habitat. When I visited Tombstone, Arizona I believe their history was simular in that the area was pretty good dry grassland country but the first ranchers overgrazed it and turned it into sage brush country.

God bless the fallen heros of Texas!

My parents have a small ranch outside Leakey and the area is lousy with exotics. Lots of escapees from the numerous wild game ranches there.

Most Texans consider Colorado to be Texas Hill Country..........

Longpig,

I would like to know more about the axis deer hunt. The guys I hunt with down there are pretty much the Take it or leave it good old boy type of deer hunters, and most of the questions I have asked about exotics, they don't know much about. One of my son in laws' older brothers is the only one that new what nilgai were. I would like to chase them one of these days too.

OK, now that you know where it is here is why you hear so much about the area.

It has the highest deer denseties in the state. Very common to see twenty or more deer from your stand.

If you look in the Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, or Austin, paper in the classified adv section for day hunts for deer and hogs, the hill country is very well represented. You will get the best prices for weekend hunts. You will also get the best chance of tagging a deer. Many of these ranches offer exotics to go with the whitetails to make a nice combo hunt.

The down side is small deer and small antlers in general. Before some of my fellow Texas hunters start cocking their six shooters because of that statement, let me explain. Some ranches are managed for big racks. They will have lower deer densities and much higher prices!!! Other ranches are managed for volume. They will have higher deer densities but smaller racks and more reasonable prices. However the chance of spotting a wall hanger on any of these ranches is always there. On the ranches with very high deer populations the deer tend to be rather small in body size. 100 to 110 lbs field dressed is about average. This can go a good bit higher on some ranches but those are average for the Edwards Plateau.

Other ranches are not managed at all. It's a crap shoot. So ask for references.

All of the information above is pretty accurate.

Geographically, what most people consider the Texas Hill Country pretty much encompasses the geological regions of the Edwards Plateau (a limestone or sedimentary rock area characterized by white or chalky looking rock outcroppings and hills which represent the less eroded benches of subterranian reefs) plus the Llano Uplift or Central Mineral Region (an igneous intrusion of granitic rock through the limestone).

Live Oak is predominant in both areas, with Alligator Juniper (locally called cedar) the predominant invader species in the limestone areas and mesquite the predominant invader in the granitic areas.

Soils, especially in the Edwards, are generally thin and poor and therefore little of the area is suitable for cultivation. Elevations range from about 700 feet along the eastern boundary, or Balcones Fault, up to about 2400 on the western fringes. Relief in some areas will be as much as 500 feet between valley floor and hill top.

The ranch of President Lyndon B. Johnson, located between Johnson City (named not for the President but a relative of his) and Fredericksburg (home of Admirial Chester Nimitz) is pretty close to the center of the "Hill Country".

The Hill Country offers a lot of hunting, and is of course famous for its whitetails. But in truth, even on the best-managed ranches, the chance of finding anything in the 125 B & C range is slim. That doesn't mean that the hunting is not well worthwhile, it's just not big-time trophy hunting. Many high-fenced ranches have large populations of Asian and African deer and antelope. Most of these high-fenced ranches are NOT large enough to be considered fair chase hunting. Lots of escaped exotics roam on non-high fenced ranches, also.

Hogs are becoming more numerous in all parts of the Hill Country. Like the deer, due to weak nutrition avalability, they don't (usually) grow particularly large, but are certainly worth hunting. (A hog was killed in Mason area by a bowhunter which appears to have topped 800 lbs.!)

The deer season in the Hill Country runs faily late, starting in early November, and continuing with a special antlerless and spike season in most counties running through the third week of January. The late season makes the Hill Country, where, outside of brief cold snaps winter weather is very moderate, an excellent place to hunt and vacation after the Northern states are "frozen in".

On the above map where it says Alamo March 6 my old ranch is exactly where the 6 is...

One must not for get the Big Bend Country where Mule deer are really abundant and the Plano where the deer feed on Chemisi brush and get bigger n hell....We shot a 233.5 two years ago and have a number of bucks that big on the ranch near Kermit..I will have that lease next year or at least in a couple of years hopefully.

And don't forget the antelope around Marfa, some dandy heads come out of that country.

This big land of 100,000 plus acre ranches, all privately owned is called the Trans-Pecos and is heaven to some and hell to others.

Springtime (March thru May) in the Hill Country is really something! You will get a lot of wildflowers and such that are really pretty, plus it's turkey season.

Parts of the Hill Country are also on one of the Monarch butterfly migration route. I have seen an oak tree that looked like it was alive because of the hundreds of butterflys that were covering it.

The exotics can get to be a problem when they bust loose from somebody's ranch. I have had to cull out several blackbucks and axis deer that were starting to take over parts of my in-law's property.

375

375 - I hunted a 4000 acre fenced operation near Kerrville several years ago. The guide service I used is out of business. In any case there are lots of guides/outfitters out there wanting to get your business. The important thing to remember is that probably more than half of Axis rut in the summer and there are not very many hunters in the summer so your chances for a real big one are better then. The drawback besides the heat of course is that there is a lot of vegetation. Hunting spot and stalk is the way to go. The wierd thing I noticed is that many of the axis were mixed up with groups of whitetails, and they are SPOOKY and since they hang out in groups they can be very hard to approach... no, the two species do not interbreed. Trophy fees for BIG >33" axis are $1000-2000. They are good eating though I prefer fallow or red deer venison. BTW I used a .243 w/105 grain bullets one shot @~80 yards.

While we're on the subject of Texas, what about the panhandle? Any game to be had?

Telly

The Panhandle is one of my favorite areas. Specifically the eastern part of the base of the panhandle. Where else in Texas can you hunt Mule Deer, Whitetail, Wild hogs, Aoudad, Turkey and quail?

There are some monster Whitetail out there. I have yet to shoot a Mulie that really impressed me, but I know they are there. I have 5 Whitetail in my office from 145 to 160 B&C that came from this area. These canyons hold some good hunting. The deer population is much less than what you would find in South Texas or the Hill Country, but I would not trade it for any place in Texas.

Just look at it. God made it, there is beauty all over the world, lots of good folks too! But By God ain't nothin' like Texas, our Texas! GIG'EM AGS.......Jim

Buffalobwana,

Don't forget the pronghorn and excellent varmint/predator hunting up north (up north being anything north of Waco)!

Bob

Bob,

Right! I was talking about a little piece of heaven within a 75 mile radius of Childress.

If you go farther up into the Panhandle, you can add Pronghorn, more Mulies and Pheasant. Super Whitetail on the Eastern side of the Panhandle all the way up. Starting to sound more like Wyoming than Texas!

I think pheasant is pretty popular in the panhandle. And quail is prettyu popular in the red river flatlands.

Well, take another look at that last Texas map...

The Western border - the Rio Grande river to its source - meant Texas originally incorporated half of New Mexico and Colorado, and a fair chunk of Wyoming. If Texas hadn't ceded away half the state when joining up with the US...all that prime hunting country would require a Texas hunting license to hunt....

TXLoader

The Texas Hill Country is goregous, unless you suffer from Cedar Fever or Asthma. My wife and I would love to live there, but 5 days in Austin both her and my boys are sick. I know people who live in Llano and Austin, who have never had clear sinuses in their life.

Ray,

If you was raised in Marathon, I know the roping the eagle story is true. I was raised in Rankin and it is common fact that only true cowboys live South of Commache Springs, known as Fort Stockton to the rest of the State.

Saludos...Frank

Yeah, the "Cedar Fever" (allergy to Juniper pollen) is pretty rough on some people, especially during the spring.

My son (27) has lived in the Hill Country since he started college. He has no problem with Cedar Fever, but now he can't breathe when we go back out to the Texas Rolling Plains where he was raised to hunt whitetails. There's something toxic in the air in nearly any location in the Lone Star State (I can't breathe in Houston's humidity).

Gringo,
Yep, and I lived at Ft. Stockton for a short time as I had a job there once...I always liked Alpine and Marfa. I went to grade school and one year of high school in Marfa. Good country...

I well remember Rankin, all the football players that had been drafted and come home were 6 ft. tall and 250 lbs. with grease in their knuckles and large muscles from working on Oil Rigs and some were 20 something years old and they stomped my young skinny cowboy a$$ all over the football field....I sure was glad to go home that night.

I agree with Scott on that 1836 map 100%.Just think how sweet that would be.

Lots of very good information here about the best part of Texas. I live in Kerrville, in the middle of the Hill Country. Our deer density is very high and on average antler quality is low. However, there are plenty of managed - read high fenced, protein fed operations here where you can have a reasonable chance of a 150 class whitetail. Ranchers in the region have been switching from cattle, sheep and goats to wildlife. The trend is to sell short-duration guided hunts. The days of paying a modest trespass fee or a season lease for access to land are about over for a lot of the Hill Country. Even the 125 class deer mentioned previously might run $1500.00. The bigger deer on managed operations aren't cheap. On the other hand, the exotics can make some fine hunting and are considerably less expensive. We have more free range blackbuck antelope in Kerr County than exist in their native range in India. Indian biologists come to the YO Ranch each year to study them. Hogs are a real problem here and are a blast to hunt at night with dogs. We have some knowledgeable pros here like Ray and Wendell who represent some good outfits, but if I can offer any advice or assistance to anyone researching the Hill Country, let me know. If you're passing through, let me know and I'll buy you a beer.

Gringo
We are neighbors, I was born in Texon half way between Rankin & Big Lake. When I was 14 we moved to Andrews TX Nortn of Odessa. When I lived in Texon not many deer. But there are plentiful now. Killed many jack rabbets. I learned to shoot hunting them. There is not much left of Texon I was threw there 2 months ago. Texas hunting has changed, Killed a lot deer around Ozona,Senora, Sherfield and Del Rio, in times past. There are deer around Andrews now.

I was raised in Belton. I moved out of Texas about 6 years ago and do miss some aspects of it.

I hunted for 20 years in Llano county, in that uplift country. I also cut my hunting teeth hunting down near Georgetown.

I've hunted just north of Ft. Stockton, in NM, near Jal and Eunice and try to get back there every year or two to tromp around in the sand hills and look for those desert mulies.

If I'm not going there, I'm going back up to Idaho and chase around the Salmon and Lemhi ranges for Elk or Mulies there.

I figure the reason Texas gave up those lands to get in the US was simple. They didn't want to make all the coloradan's jealous!