Was wondering where everyone in the DFW area hunted. I' m originally from Louisiana and have had a hard time finding a place to hunt here. Is it better to go west, east, or south? Any good publications you could suggest to find a good lease for next year? Any good public areas within 2 hrs?

I hunt in East Tx.

There is corps of Engineers land around lake whitney but some of the area you need a boat to acess and a lot of the other areas see a lot of hunting pressure by guys who dont have an idea how to hunt.

My dad lives on lake texoma so I bowhunt for deer around there. Put in for Hagerman Wildlife Refuge Area (big bucks) you might get drawn. If you do youll have to go through a shooting qaulification test. Try this next year.
There are a few pieces of public land dotted in this area that you can hunt on any time. Youll just have to ask around their not vary well marked. Thought this might help good luck. Ill try to get more info. from my dad.

I bet it' s way too late to get in on Hagerman this year.

What little public land there is within a hundred miles of DFW is packed until near the end of general season, especially the LBJ Grasslands. Horse riders have dang near ruined that place for hunting. You might check into the Caddo Grasslands up by Bonham. It' s further out from the crowds.

I went down to the Crockett Nat' l Forest ONCE. There were so many Winnebago' s parked everywhere that there wasn' t any place to hunt. One pinhead even parked his motor home right on top of the ground blind I' d built the afternoon before! That was 20 years ago and I' ve never been back since. Maybe things have changed.

Most everyone I know has a lease. There are some ranches down in the Hill Country that do weekend hunts, but most of them are booked up for deer season, for several years in advance.

Best thing you can do is try to find a group of guys that are on a lease and looking for a partner. There' s always someone screwing up and getting booted off a lease, so there' s always an opening somewhere.

And check into TPWD' s Type II program!

Last lease I was on in Texas I found in the FW Star Telegram classifieds. That was down around Brady if my memory serves me still. Most of the areas I hunted were South and a bit west from DFW. A taxidermist I used in Denton(?) hunted some public land up by OK. Think it was around the Red River? One of these other guys probably already mentioned it tho.

Man Swamp Dawg, talk about deja vu. I used to live in NE La. for a while and hunted there regularly. The hunting around here is way different, unless you go back toward East Texas. I live in Arlington, so either PM me or e mail me and I can probably help you out.