I imagine a lot of these new hunters are democrats, they are a different breed these days

lol... Trust me, in the Missouri Bootheel, we couldn't get enough hunters up there to matter. I'm an Arkansas Timber guy through and through, but the Bootheel is just as good! Super glad my in laws live there!

Long story short, I grew up in N TX, lived on the East Coast for 8 years after college, and returned home last year. What I see in the complaints about jerks and idiots on public land in this area can also be seen on the highways. The Metroplex (and the rest of the state, really) have seen a population boom. Just as there's not enough pavement on the roads, there's not enough hunting land to go around. It makes people impatient, selfish, and downright mean. And the problem is only going to get worse. I'm afraid for the future of hunting because of this. Before we know it the state will impose tougher limitations on public areas and land/lease prices will continue to escalate towards unaffordable levels for the vast majority of people. At a certain point, fewer and fewer folks - and more importantly, our kids - will be able to enjoy hunting.

I agree with this as well. I think we're impacted here by a lack of, or perceived lack of public hunting land when compared to other states. We're looking at 1% of the total land being public hunting land while states like Arkansas and Louisiana are 9.7% and 4.7% percent respectively. That's a huge difference.

A lot of it boils down to amount of area to hunt vs hunter numbers.

Respect and common sense are the other big factors. I would never set up one someone, so therefore I get extra pizzed if someone sets up on me.. nowadays you have to factor barney into the equation and find ways to avoid him and still kill burds.

I wish they'd shut hunting down at noon statewide as it used to be

if they shutdown hunting at noon that would ruin my afternoons at the coast

I wish they'd shut hunting down at noon statewide as it used to be

TPWD is doing their best to add public land in the face of rising real estate prices. However, it's just not realistic for them to purchase private land in large quantities, even when the state budget was in surplus with the oil boom. In lieu of that they've opened more state parks to hunting and have made some great acquisitions through major donations and purchase partnerships, like Powderhorn Ranch and Palo Pinto Mountains State Park, which will open in a few years.

I think eventually there will be lines at local TPWD offices to apply for permits for a lot more hunting areas than you need to today and additional associated red tape. When I was hunting Maryland and Virginia, the public land rigamarole was a huge pain on top of the fact that they had insane Blue Laws that barred hunting on Sundays in most areas. But it was what they had to do to weed out hunters that weren't serious or responsible enough to put in the offseason preparation.

It would be very interesting to know the average age of people posting in this thread.

The morality is, that there are way more hunters rolling in texas, and less and less public places.