Due to the COVID-19 outbreak I've found myself with a little more time to possibly get in the woods turkey hunting. I've been combing through the public hunting options near Houston and Austin but when I open the PDFs, none of the areas have turkeys listed in the game rules section.

Is this because they don't allow turkey hunting or do the normal season rules apply to all public areas in the region?

I know I'm getting to the game late so any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!

There are a few TPWD spring turkey hunts. Might be tough to draw one at this point, but maybe a lot of people are cancelling plans.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/public/public_hunt_drawing/hunt-category-details.phtml?OCat=GTS

Good luck if you can get on one of these hunts.

Thanks for the information. I didn't realize all of the public land turkey hunts were draw hunts. Guess I was more late to the game than I thought.

Public land turkey hunting in Texas is a joke. Probably not a good time for extensive travel but I would go out of state.

I'm picking up on that the more I read on the forum and elsewhere. May still use it as an excuse to get in the woods but I'm tempering expectations for sure.

The draw hunts for turkey have been over for a while. Also, TPWD just sent out an e-mail that no stand by positions will be had for any of those hunts.
Best bet is find a private landowner or look out of state.

Thanks for the information. I'm going to start going through the classifieds to see what's out there.

I am attempting a texas public hunt in 2 days. Unfortunately I have not gotten to scout the area in person, just maps. I also have not been able to find any information about anyone turkey hunting the land. I probably won't have any luck, but it will still be better than sitting around the house.

Best of luck to ya! Have a great story hunt at least!

Turkeys were not gobbling today. As I was leaving, someone fired a shot and a turkey gobbled close. I set my decoy out and called and then waited. Had to go as my wife was picking me up. As I stated walking I ran into the tom. Not very happy about it. Also had run in with hogs 4 different times. One of them did not want to back down. My heart was pounding, but I was ready to give him 3 shots of full choke!

You're luck was better than mine. I left Friday afternoon and ran into a blinding rainstorm. The further northwest i went the worse it got. I didnt bother to set up the truck-tent, i just slept in the back seat and it rained and thundered most of the night. And it got down to 38 F. I wasn't equipped for that.

Yesterday morning I made breakfast and coffee. Right when I started eating a big blast of thunder hit so I packed up the stove and retreated in the cab just as the next cloudburst let loose. I called it a hunt and came home. Well, at least I got out of the house for awhile.