They need to give three choices(regardless of weapon) only per species, with exotic being one species.

Texas has the longest seasons and most species choices of any state.

That's actually incorrect. We are #17 in total federal acres with almost 3 million.

You are looking at percentage of. Big difference.

Over half of our public land is ran by the National Park Service, whom is not hunter friendly

I like the cubing system. Now, I can finally get my alligator and pronghorn.

So, we have a good amount of public but most of them don't allow hunting? Is that what you're saying? I'm only counting public land that is huntable. I should've made that clear. I don't think Texas has the most variety of species to hunt unless you're counting invasive species or "exotics". I don't count non-native species because they shouldn't be here. From where I'm at I have to drive an hour or two to get to a public land to hunt whitetail, most other states dont require you to drive that long to find public hunting land, and even after those 2 hour drives the public land in Texas is pressured, unlike other states.

Don't get me wrong, I like hunting a hog or a axis deer or whatever cool non-native there is (as long as it's NOT on a high fenced property) I just don't think an invasive/non-native/exotic should be counted in the list of huntable game species because I don't think we should value them as much as native species.

Same here. Now maybe I at least have a chance to draw pronghorn and one of the better exotic hunts, since I am well into double digit points on those.

It took me 27 points cubed or 19683 points to draw Powderhorn GDE last season. Realize it probably took 35-40 years to get to those 27 points because I did not apply every year for various reasons. Before points were cubed I fully expected to die with never drawing a hunt in GDE because it got to a point I was never going to give up those points for anything other than a once in a lifetime type hunt. Before cubing I probably had better odds of drawing some state's coveted governor's tag. But know it is still not a given, I was unsuccessful on the previous year GDE draw with 26 points or cubed 17576 points.

My take if you apply for several hunts in a category every year and want to draw several hunts over your lifetime, the cubing gives you great if not guaranteed odds of doing so. Yet you do still have a chance of drawing one of the primo hunts. You will not likely ever get to double digits on points and the double digit point holders that know about the cubed points are not applying for most of those hunts now.

If your main goal is to only draw one of the more coveted hunts like the Chap GDE, though you could still draw it with one point, with cubing you will at least have a decent chance of of eventually drawing that hunt once or twice in your lifetime. But IMHO you would need to avoid applying for most hunts in that category to get there. Otherwise you will likely draw a hunt or two long before you ever get into the high cubed points needed to have a good chance at drawing one of those once in a lifetime type hunts.

Becareful with your invasive ideology, Mountain Goats are invasive in most their range now, same with turkeys. Rocky Mountain elk in NM and AZ aren’t exactly a native genetic subspecies to that land, and there is said to be only one pure Native genetic WT herd in the US, the King.

Just because you have a large percentage of Public land doesn’t mean much of anything if you cant draw a tag, not to mention even drawing a tag can mean very limited time in the field. Not only does TX traditionally have highest license numbers that actually hunt, we are the top of the country in time a field hunting.

I hunt a lot out west on public in multiple states it’s not always as blessed as it’s made out to be. There are pluses and minuses to both systems.

Texas has one of the most affordable public hunting and longest season dates in the country. I can’t think of a cheaper NR application state also

The animals that are native to the continent but invasive to a certain area shouldn't be compared to animals from an entirely different continent. The animals that are already in the continent but are just now moving into a specific area are either introduced by humans (which is fine in my opinion), or they're effectively filling a role in the ecosystem that was filled by another animal not too long ago. Take coyotes as an example, coyotes used to not be so abundant and widespread across the US but the wolves were extirpated from most of their native range so the coyote effectively filled the role that the wolf played in the ecosystems. Also, the animals from another continent brought over to the US don't have any natural predators in the US. A mountain goat introduced to a new area in the US is most likely gonna have similar natural predators if not the same natural predators in the area that it was introduced to compared to its original range, same with the turkeys, and elk. The turkeys, mountain goats, and elk are going to be interacting with similar if not the same organisms in the area they're introduced to compared to their original range, and the rocky mountain elk subspecies not being native to New Mexico or Arizona doesn't change anything ecologically if the states/areas they were introduced to previously had a population of elk. A species from Africa or Europe however has no natural predators in the US, the ecosystem isn't made to support them, they can compete with native species, etc. Do you understand what I am saying? I hope this helps you understand my thought process.

Most states with a lot of public lands have over-the-counter tags for certain areas/units with good amounts of public land. You don't have to draw. Just because you have long seasons doesn't mean much of anything if you have no property to hunt on. I'm 16, so I can't drive far to hunt on Texas's over-pressured public land, I have no private property to hunt whitetail on, and with the youth hunting program there are a lot of high fenced hunts which I don't want to participate in because high fences take away habitat from native animals and it's proven that high fenced deer spread disease to native deer. I'm not excluding myself from the youth hunt program entirely because it's a good opportunity to take advantage of. I just don't want to participate in high-fenced hunts for wildlife conservation reasons.