ORIGINAL: txjourneyman
Here in Tx there is precious little public land. 3% of the state is public land. That is the smallest percentage of the 50. Of that 3% not much is open to hunting. Free private land here in Tx is just about unheard of. If you want to hunt you have to be a family friend or you will pay for it, and pay dearly. Our population of hunters is on the increase rather than a decline as many states are experiencing.And throw in the states many high fence "trophy" ranches and it is just a mess for the average blue collar guy like me. I will continue to pay and pay more until I can't stand it. Then I'll go back to fishing.
You could move over here to Louisiana, we have plenty of public land. During bow season, I rarely see another hunter out in the national forest. We get overrun for 2 weeks after gun season starts, then most of the hunters vanish. In the past month I have seen 2 other hunters out there.