Trinity River - Mcguire
Number of Permits - 10
Number of Hunt Dates: 2
Number of Permits Per Hunt Date: 5
Total Area: Approximately 644 Acres
Min. Distance From Trails/Roads/Boundary Lines/Etc.: 100 Yards
Min. Distance Between Hunting Parties: 200 Yards

Total Legal Hunt Area: Approximately 289 Acres

The "RED" outline is the entire hunt area (Approx. 644 acres) Now, I've taken a map of the area and mapped the "legal" hunting area out - that is the "YELLOW" areas. By legal hunting area, I mean the area that you can actually hunt in, taking into consideration min. distance from the boundary line, trails, etc.. I do this because the map is used by my GPS so I know when I'm in the "yellow" area - just makes ensuring I'm in a legal hunt area easy smile There are basically 6 areas within the whole zone that one can legally hunt (I marked off that 0.21 acre area because it is technically a legal hunt area). The size of those areas (from largest to smallest) are as follows:

244 Acres
16 Acres
13 Acres
10 Acres
5.39 Acres
0.21 Acres

Maps Attached.

You know, given the shape of this hunt area, the areas I am interested in hunting are a pretty damn good hike from the parking area. Not certain how I feel about walking that many miles in bottomlands. Has anyone here ever hunted the Trinity River areas? Or scouted any of these areas? How's the ground, generally?

I spent all weekend in SHNF, so I didn't get a chance to get over there. I'm going to try and go tomorrow if there open. Granted I will be going to boars den and briarwood, but hopefully it will give you some insight. If it's typical bottom land it's thick with brush and can go from dry to unnavigable in a really short time frame. I'll take some pictures while I'm there.

That would be awesome - I'm sure there won't be much difference between those areas and Mcguire - they're all pretty close to each other. I saw that whole area got a lot of rain though, I'm guessing the current ground condition is not so hot. Some pictures would be awesome though, to give me an idea of what these areas are looking like.

For those interested in hunting Trinity River NWR - McGuire in the future, I thought I would provide a little update.

Map Update: Attached is a slightly updated map. The area highlighted RED has super thick brush and few decent shooting lanes. The area highlighted in BLUE is still pretty thick in brush in most areas but you can find yourself some decent shooting lanes.

Brush Rating (1 - 10 scale): 9 (Heavy Brush)

Shooting Lane Rating Average (1 - 10 scale): 2 (Mostly short shooting lanes)

Shooting Lane Rating Best (1 - 10 scale): 5 (Best areas I found had decent shooting lanes)

Observations: The biggest problem with this hunting area is the surrounding properties are heavily hunted. Along the southern perimeter alone (and I didn't walk the entire southern perimeter) I identified seven stands against the fence line with feeders sitting approximately 100 yards in (so at least they are shooting away from the NWR instead of towards it). If you can get out during archery season you probably have a decent shot at getting a whitetail. Once general season opens up though, you can count on the surrounding properties luring all the NWR whitetail over to their feeders and thinning out the herd substantially. Mud boots REQUIRED, this place is wet and muddy.

Whitetail Herd Health/Population: POOR

Whitetail Overall Hunting Difficulty: HIGH

Best Feature: Every day but one that I hunted, I was out there alone (no one in parking lot when I got there, no one in parking lot when I left, and I never saw another hunter on the NWR). The ONE day where there was someone else on the NWR, it was a GW running the trails on an ATV - which was pretty annoying, but I otherwise never saw another soul on the NWR.

Squirrel: Crazy heavy population of squirrel - you could easily limit out daily in an hour or two. The little suckers were everywhere, had a few run up close to me and stare at me for awhile.

Wild Hog: Insane population of hogs - If you want wild hog, you can easily find them here. Your biggest issue will be the heavy brush/limited decent shooting lanes. I'd say that if you wanted wild hog, you could 100% get them here.

Final Thoughts: Overall, I had a lot of fun on this NWR. It's not an ideal place to hunt whitetail by any means, but I don't mind a difficult hunt. I'll probably put in for it again next year with the intention to go hunt hogs and if I happen to get a whitetail while I'm there, then bonus.