slee

The wife may be getting stationed at Ft. Hood this summer, and I was wondering what the hunting and land access was like in the area? What can you hunt around there? Any info would be appreciated.

llbts1

I don't live in that area, I'm up in the DFW area. Hunting west and southwest of that area is great. No public land that I'm aware of, but alot of leases. I might suggest the Brownwood-Coleman area. I use to go to school in that area and there were alot of deer there at that time. Good luck, Larry

Georgetownboys

Slee. . . .most of the hunting around Fort hood is on private land. Not being ex-Army I have no idea if you can hunt on the fort or not. Once you get a "Deer lease" for access you may find we do Ok down here. Lots of White tail, Dove, Turkey, and Feral hogs, no season on them. Being from Wa. you may laugh when you see your first whitetail, just a bit smaller than those west coast bad boys. Also in Texas hill country they use mostly blinds and feeders in many cases although spot and stalk is done in some places too. Many counties are 5 deer per season counties, but I think the ones right around the fort are 1 buck only counties, gotta go west a few to get bigger numbers.

Take a look on the web and look up the edwards pataeu, The proper name for Texas hill country. You will find a game rich place to play.

slee

Thanks for the info. I've actually only been in WA for 3 1/2 years now. I was born and raised just outside Jackson, MS, so until 3 years ago all I'd ever hunted were whitetails. Blacktails, which is what we hunt around this part of the state, are usually a little smaller than MS whitetails, so they are probably about the size of TX whitetails. I've read that you can hunt on Ft. Hood, but I haven't heard how good it is or how much opportunity is there. It seems like the hunting regs are kinda complicated, or at least very specific to each area. I'll have to spend some time looking them over to get a better idea of what goes on.

lhook7

Slee,

I believe Fort Hood has land for service members to hunt.

ericshup

I was staioned in Hood from 96 to 98 and there were plenty of deer on post. The best way to hunt was with a bow. If you rifle hunt, Range Control will drop you off and pick you up from your stand and you dont have much of a choice.

Bow hunting, on the other hand, allows you more freedom. They have designated areas for bows, and its first come, first serve. You will get a certain area for the whole day that you can set up, move around on, scout, etc.

I would advise you to try to hunt any area in west Ft Hood. Less pressure, and the deer by/at the ASP are huge.

ericshup

Gone_Huntin

I live about 45 miles from Hood and it is open for hunting, although I haven't tried it yet. ericshup is right on from what I have heard as far as having much more freedom going bow rather than rifle. I have heard shotgun and blackpowder are done the same way as bow so I might have to give that a try. There are some nice deer in places on Hood from the pictures I have seen. Other than that most of texas is private land leases. The hill country around there is starting to get managed better in places so the quality of animals is on the way up in those areas. Nothing like South Texas but then alot less $$ for a lease in the hill country compared to down south and the hill country still isn't cheap. There are some draw hunts for WMA areas but the good areas usually take several years to get drawn. As stated before lots of hogs, dove and in places turkeys. You will find some lease that have some exotics as well.