How far west/east/north/south of the metroplex does one need to go to start encountering above average buck hunting, meaning an average to better chance of semi-frequently seeing trophy bucks on hunts. Two plus hours plus away on average?

You go an hour and a half to Eastland County, they have some good bucks.


Throckmorton and Shackelford have some great bucks as well.

Grayson, Cooke, Collin some areas of Denton counties to the North & east, 5 minutes to an hour or so depending on what part of the metromess you're starting from.
Wise, Jack, Young, Montague, Clay & Archer to the west.
Sommerville, Bosque, Hamilton parts of Coryell to the south.

You don't have to go far at all, just know how to pick the right place / area.

Like Rustler said, not far. There are huge deer around Aubrey and Pilot point in the river bottom. It is about money more than driving distance. Literally, there are very few places that don't have hunters on them. Irion county which is what 4 hours has huge ranches with big deer but it will cost you to hunt one of those places.

10 min Lake Grapevine has some big ones but the hunting is tough and depending if you get a permit. In general, I say 2.5-3 hours W or NW gets you is some consistent chances of bigger deer. 4+ hrs SW.
Trophy is all in the eyes of the beholder. 2 minutes from downtown Albany has a couple of large ranches with some Trophy deer

Not far.......Collin,Grayson, Tarrant and Denton have great bucks, but access is another story. Rarely available to the public to lease.

Free range big deer available to lease I would say about 3-3.5 hours north to northwest would be closest.

3 min from Southlake

Good bucks start around Eastland heading west from DFW.

I've seen some pretty nice buck in the Haslet area, so not far. Of course, access for hunting is a different story.

My thoughts exactly.

You don’t have to get out of the metromess......but access to those very select areas is costly

Or free if you draw.

I've seen some monsters at the local deer processors in Coleman County. Hunted Throckmorton many years ago and saw quite a few mounts/racks from local deer that were way above average.

There have been some absolute monster LF deer killed in Collin county (Mckinney). It's bow only, and tough to get access to land to hunt but they're there.

Northern half of Clay is really good. Low population, large spreads. Good genetics. Every county has pockets of good deer though it seems. Our lease neighbor killed a giant freak last year. No idea how to even score it and less than 2 hours from DFW.

If you don't mind paying for it, Grayson County has giant bucks in certain places.

I know of an incredible, proven, 42 acres for sale in Grayson. Right at an hour away from Downtown Dallas. But, it's expensive. It's had multiple 200'' bucks and a lot of 170+ taken off it in the past 10 years. Huge buck taken off of it last week. Here's the one...

Pretty good for it's proximity to DFW

Lake Worth, Eagle Mountain has some big brutes. I’ve seen more dead bucks on Hwy 199 between Lake Worth and Springtown than I have ever seen anywhere else this year.

What a STUD

Not very far at all if you have the right spot.

I can name a few smaller acreage spots that routinely get 150’s and the occasional 160 plus

When I say not far I mean these spots are 35 minutes out of Ft Worth

Parker county has some great bucks also just have to do your homework..

As other's have said, not far at all but knowing where to go is key. There have been some huge deer killed in collin co. But getting access to where some of these deer live is not easy.

https://www.pressreader.com/usa/the-dallas-morning-news/20190609/282716228498743

ive seen alot of dead does on the side of the road