WRONG

I think only HF vs. LF fires this bunch up more than "Is east Texas different?" My family owned land outside of San Augustine since 1899 that I was responsible for for quite a few years until I sold our share of the surface (50%) to a neighbor that just knew he could deal with Mom's insane cousin just fine. Them people'r differn't. I don't care what you say. My wife's boss for many years, an MD, was born and raised in San Augustine. He will tell you, those people are plumb frickin' nuts...and inbred.

My experience with east Tx is that nothing is safe and that meth rules.

I had a lease in Dayton, TX which I left after one year. I got tired of seeing spent shell casings to calibers that I don't own in my stand. We also got tired of finding locals wandering around telling us that the owner told them that it would be ok if they shot a hog or two.

I had the next lease outside of Splendora. A fair amount of hogs and very few deer. The lease folded the weekend before the season as the managers neglected to pay the timber company who owned the land for the lease that year. We had 1 day to remove our stuff. Every game camera was gone already by the time we got out there.

I stopped hunting deer and hogs in TX for a decade or so after that. I bought some land in central TX last year. So far, no issues. I don't really like going east of 59/69 at this point

How ?

Yep!

Im almost positive i can answer for tlk. He doesnt think the poaching is the same in other regions of the State as it is in ETx. I think its worse in ETx too but I dont want to get into the debate too much. If Im wrong im sure tlk will correct me.
I will add that i have hunted in almost every area of the State and never had a poacher that I am totally aware of and never had anything stolen.

Bad folks everywhere,just depends on where you cross paths with them.Had all the copper wire stole out of the camps outside of Nacogdoches, they stole tv and a/c out of the camp in Brady maybe they were just trying to get money to feed their kids(NOT) but I wish that were the reason.But 99% of the folks I've met in this great state have been good folks just trying to make living and raise their kids better than they had it when they were growing up.

He is a disgrace and does not deserve to wear a badge.

I should have added, we have had some bad dudes/methheads near us for years. Neighbors will be the most important. Are they good? Will they watch your land? Who knows. Drive around and check all around for trash and mischief. That's not confined to east Texas BTW. Beautiful in those piney woods and hardwood bottoms. My Dad grew up in Mount Vernon. He used to ramble far and wide hunting, trapping, fishing.

I've hunted Duvall, red river, brown, lamar, McCulloch,
cass, mason, young, sutton, sabine, Morris,
freestone, Cooke, coke, anderson, fannin, houston,
van zandt, and trinity counties in my short life.

Any of those that didn't have somebody living
on the property full time usually had trespassing.
It wasn't always obvious, sometimes things
might just not be "right ", or nothing might have
been stolen, but if you're not right there with
it, you can pretty much rest assured that some
one roams around and eyeballs the goods.

I've found tracks that didn't belong. ATV'S,
truck tires of an odd pattern, toilet paper,
socks used as toilet paper, beer cans,
cold drink cans, water bottles, butts, roaches,
snuff wads, a cushion left behind in a hurry,
odd shotgun hulls, spent rifle brass, clay
pigeon fragments, a decent water trough
that got made into a useless one, various
parts of one of my missing game cameras,
a pocketknife, GI surplus ammo box, etc. etc.

It's a shame you can't leave a place or leave
something lay without somebody coming
along and putting their filthy paws on it.
I've always been of the opinion that you
know exactly and precisely what belongs
to you and what doesn't, and you don't diddle
with something that isn't yours.

Unfortunately, it just ain't that way

The ones I've been at close to the rio, you had to keep
a sharp eye for border jumpers and make sure the
blind didn't have somebody asleep in it.
And you want to make sure la migra knows you're
there and who you are and what you look like.

You'll have to spend tens of thousands to try to
get away from the BS
You're not going to drive in a day's time and
leave it behind
Not in 2020

I've never hunted East Tx, but I can tell you there are plenty of poachers in South Tx. It always sounds like there are more meth heads in East Tx, though.

Thieves are a bigger problem. I’ve never been on a lease in East Texas where I don’t have a ladder stand or feeder stolen. I’ve also had one box blind shot up and another burned down. Small bordering properties, easy access from the neighbors and a lot of unfenced timber land. Swore off of it five years ago. I now lease in Arkansas and haven’t had any issues. Three hours from the house, less pressure, and lower cost per acre.

I grew up in South Texas and hunted in Willacy, Brooks, and Refugio county. It pains me to leave the state to hunt but from this area, it’s at least 3-4 hours to get to the deer density and the prices are considerably higher.

I will second what was said about neighbors. Good ones give piece of mind.

that untold story.

Like Cast I was raised in Harrison County and had a place west of Marshall. I had people crossing over and cutting fences to hunt my place and the place behind me. Had one bunch that said Pipelines and High Line right of ways were public property. When we had nightclub less than 4 miles from my house and I got broken into enough times that when I walked into the glass store they knew what size window panes I needed for my front door. We moved may years ago and I have heard it is better there now. Good luck on your land, put up cameras watching cameras.

That is an ironic statement coming from someone in Johnson County!

Here is how i look at it. The problem isnt necessarily a regional problem, it is an absentee landowner issue. If someone knows that the owner doesn't live in the area, and there are no tenants on the property, the risk of getting caught is low. East Texas happens to have alot of properties fitting this criteria, but other parts of the state are not immune.

I do not live in East Tx nor do I know much about it. But this wonders me. I live and have lived in this part of the state for my entire 73 years. I have driven through most parts of East Tx. many times. There is a lot more for WT to eat there than where I am. So, why aren't there more deer?

I have been on this forum and several others for a number of years - I had seen way more poaching/trespassing/theft threads from ETex folks than anywhere else.

I have never hunted ETex so I admit I am not familiar with it - of course other areas of the state have some of the same issues but overall the ETex poaching threads far outnumber anywhere else in our state - just sayin

I would like to know where you get your information on deer density. It got up too high (per TP&W) several years ago and had a crash during a drought and mast crop failure but has recovered to a safe level per TP&W. Granted we are not as high as around Fredericksburg or Mason but it is nothing to see 10 to 20 on our morning one mile walk around our neighborhood. There are large tracks of timbered land all around us that get hunted, have seen several nice 10 points taken by neighbors. The most we have counted in the hayfield behind our house is 35. There are at least 10 feeders in our neighborhood and they all look like this almost every night right after dark.

Shhhhh... let them think we dont have any deer. Yall keep going west to hunt, we dont have many deer, and the only deer we do have get poached!!!

This exactly - absentee landowners - coupled with the simple fact that east texas in most areas is much more densely populated than say Barnhart, TX.

Poverty + drugs + high ratio of locals/absentee owners = poacher and theft problems.

Another factor to add to the matrix if we want to dive deeper! We have alot more smaller acreage tracts out here. You dont see that many big, sprawling ranches out here. Most tracts i deal with in my area are less than 50 acres.

There are many, many more property owners in east texas, a large number of those are absentee. So there is alot of land out here that doesnt have any oversight. Many land owners i deal with have never even laid eyes on there own property.