You dont have to spend a months paycheck to get a good deer in Texas, although it dosent hurt . You just have to do alittle research, your bound to find a good place to hunt. As far as the public land hunting goes, to tell the truth I know nothing about public hunting lands in Texas. There are several areas that over hunting, but I'm not the person to be asking. You might want to go to Texasbowhunter.com and look/post on those forums, I'm sure those guys could help you.