welcome aboard!!

as ducsauce said around here bowhunting is the way to go. i dont know much about texas, but here public land gets raided hard. exspecially rifle season. this is my first year bowhunting but every year on public land i see NICE bucks when im small game or fall turkey hunting(which is also bow season for deer!) so im pretty excited.

my advice..try to hunt places the normal man would not go. here that means hiking over an extra mountain or deep into a bottom etc. you gota think like a "weekend warrior" as i call them, and then OUT think that. think like a deer. where would you hang out to feel safe?? if there is small game and fall turkey hunting where you hunt and you find alot of guys do that where you plan to hunt set up so they drive the deer your direction. find bottlenecks and funnels. find their exscape routes. find their sancuaries and bust them! the state game lands i plan to hunt this fall is a popular grouse and turkey spot. if im not IN the thickets watching runways then im going to be right on the edge of the thickets trying to intercept fleeing deer. after you hunt the land enough youll find out how many guys hunt there. what they are hunting. where they access..the paths they take etc. my closest spot on public land is about a half a mile hike. the reason being is that is where the backside of the thicket is. good luck..dont scout it out TOO hard youll end up running the deer off before you get to hunt(but your season might start later then ours...you may be early enough..i wouldnt scout within a month of so of the season though..