Tried to do some searching but didn’t come up with a definitive answer.


One of our larger pastures has public roads on three sides. Recently the hogs have been setting up shop in the pasture.

The two laws I’ve come across say you can’t hunt from a public roadway and you can’t shoot across a public roadway.

Am I allowed to shoot using my fence as a rifle rest or do I have to jump the fence and walk a certain distance away from the fence. Shooting is into a 100+ acre wheat field, so not issues with bullets leaving the property.

You need to have your feet specifically on your property, shooting within your property. Cannot shoot from public road or the area on both sides that is public.

Texas Parks and Wildlife Code

Sec. 62.0031

Hunting From Public Road or Right-of-way Prohibited

Except as provided by Subsections (b) and (c), a person may not hunt a wild animal or bird when the person is on a public road or right-of-way.

I have always interpreted it as if I was driving down or walking down a public road with a firearm, I see an animal on my ranch from the public road and go jump the fence so I'm standing on my place before taking the shot, I was hunting from the public road. If you want to know their interpretation of the statute, call your local game warden.

What he said makes the most sense. Here’s how you can contact your local game warden.

https://tpwd.texas.gov/warden/game-warden-list.phtml

As long as you are on your property when you take the shot, I don’t see what the issue would be. They would have to prove you saw the hog from the road and not your property. Kinda hard to prove that I would think.

I was discussing the statue and the spirit of it, rather than how to get away with violating it. I’m fairly certain that if a game warden sees someone stop on a county road, get out of a vehicle with a firearm, climb the fence with a firearm and immediately bark off a round at an animal, they will be getting a ticket for hunting from a public road.

What if his fence line is set back off the property line.......would he have to jump the fence?

I agree, but I don’t think the statue and spirit of the law was intended for individuals on their own property. Maybe for deer or other game animals, but certainly not for nuisance animals such as hogs as the op stated.

I think the spirit of the statute is that public roads are for everyone to travel on as safely as they can, without some of those people jumping out of a vehicle with a firearm and shooting at anything, regardless of if they climb over a fence to their own property or not.

I understand. My definition and idea of public roads here in chunk a rock Texas are different from someone from an urban area. I can see where safety is an issue in a heavily populated area. I was basing my opinion on someone who knew better than to shoot a hog on their own property in an unsafe manner that would endanger others.

I haven’t checked recently but there used to be a big difference between “improved” roads and gravel…you had to be a certain distance away from an improved road. Not sure about it now. Also, a bullet will definitely leave a 100 acre field if shot high enough…

I’ll say this, I got hit with a $450 ticket for shooting on my own land about 30 feet from an old county road the county hadn’t maintained in the last 15 years that ran through and dead ended with me completely owning it on both sides and the end by at least 3/4’s of mile. It was cheaper to pay it rather than fight it so it all boils down to what prick GW you run across.

The days of innocent until proven guilty are way over and it all boils down to what kind of mood Barney Fife’s in, legal or not if you get the ticket you have to fork over several grand to fight it so its a loose loose situation.

Damn….and here I thought GW’s could exercise good judgement and have a little common sense.

I have a property where a county road bisects my property 4 ways. Water naturally springs on all sides and we hunt ducks from the embankment. I called the local GW and asked him to inspect my location and see if I was legal. He called me a few weeks later and said I was good to go as long as I didn’t shoot over the road. He did end with “if I ever get moved out of this county, you need to check with my replacement. He might not see it the same way”.

I did to prior to this encounter, it left a bad taste in my mouth to say the least.

Old GW's and common sense are long gone. New GW's need street creds (#'s of citations) to be taken seriously in the locker room.

And get on TV

If that were my property w that situation...id use that fence as a rest all day

I got a chicken S ticket I had to beat in court

He had to stretch to write it and at the time and I told him he was wrong

Just had to burn a day of vacation to prove him wrong

But my FIL had a bad encounter last year w a different GW, no ticket but dam the GW thought he had just made a big bust lol

Apparently he was unaware we owned the dam land my FIL was hunting on lol

Hands up, don't move....big bust....needless encounter

We were leaving the ranch and I was locking the gate when a warden shot out in front of me with lights on and chest out. He was all worked up and asked me all manner of questions about whether I was road hunting. I was still on the ranch property and that Barney went to searching my truck. I guess leaving a ranch is probable cause.
After his tirade and threatening me with all manner of tickets, I told him that he would be better off waiting for people to get out on the road and watch to see if they would road hunt. If I was a road hunter he never gave the chance.
Yup, idiots are out there.

From the actual Parks and Wildlife Code here is the definition of right of way.

Sec. 62.001. DEFINITIONS. For the purpose of enforcement of the game laws of this state:

(3) "Public road or right-of-way" means a public street, alley, road, right-of-way, or other public way, including a berm, ditch, or shoulder.


In the past when I was doing something that I felt had the potential to be interpreted incorrectly by a GW or that I did not understand, I would email my question or scenario through the TPWD website directing the question to TPWD Law Enforcement and request a written response. For example I had a GW warn me I could not hunt ducks from a skulled canoe despite having no motor or sail. He told me it had to be anchored or beached. Another told me I could not have lead shot in my vehicle on an area where all hunting required non toxic shot despite me only having steel shot on my person while out hunting. I knew both were wrong. I wrote TPWD and got written responses from the top with the correct regulation references. I printed them out and kept those in my glove box while hunting those areas to present if it ever came up again. Know that some regulations are too vague to give a written answer and are up to GW interpretation by design such as how far you can hunt Dove from a feeder for example. So don't be surprised if your answer even from the top is to contact your local GW.

No.

IF the fence is set back (off the easement/right of way) enough that a person standing the other side of it was wholly and legally on their own property (or property the had permission to be on) then it would be no different than shooting from or about a 'cross fence' further within the property lines.

You'd likely have to PROVE the boundaries in court if you received a citation. So consider whether or not it is cost effective.

By public roadway is it a County Road or asphalt road? A lot of times the metes and bounds description goes to the center of the County Road. However, if it's a hard top road the property boundary goes right up to the edge of the road easement which is usually where the fence is located.

I may be wrong for Texas but if you are driving down the road, get out of your vehicle and get off of the right of way to shoot that is not hunting from a road, not up here anyway. Once you get off the right of way you are legal to shoot if you have permission and do not shoot across the road. Folks hunt public lands that way all the time.

Based on my utility mapping work in various states including Texas sometimes roads are easement/ROWs held by the government with private land metes and bounds going to the centerline, other places the road is its own parcel owned by the government. The physical location of the road will be within that parcel (hopefully), but that parcel will likely extend to include some shoulder/ditches/culverts/etc. It's hard to make generalizations with all these different possibilities. Fences can be well within someone's private land which makes sense since you'd want to be able to maintain it from both sides but that's just another variable adding to the confusion.

You provide a good argument NTXtrapper.

Would your opinion change if you saw game from the road but then went through a gate on the property to engage, or because you scouted from the road you still feel you are breaking the intent of the law?

EXACT question I have considered, but I just do not feel like testing the limits. The metes and bounds for a property I hunt is "to and along the centerline of County Road XXX." I know the county road is prescriptive right of way; there is no document assigning the width of the county road or the area that the county maintains. It would be a legal battle not worth my effort to go to court versus paying a fine to say the county road ends at the bar ditch, or pavement, or fence.

Having the knowledge of something doesn't necessarily equate to wisdom when pushing the envelope of legality in my world.

Yes, my opinion would change completely. That sounds like what a safe and responsible hunter would do. However, creeping down a county road at night while running a spotlight or thermal, with a loaded rifle accessible to the occupants, would probably not work out too well though if stopped the GW.

I really do not think this rule is targeting private landowners. A landowner can stand a foot inside of their property and hunt all day long legally and safely. Hopping the fence and being inside of your property by twenty feet or opening the gate and being twenty feet inside is no different. This is not a matter of the location of a landowner when he sees an animal.
Having a gun in a truck on a roadway is what we do. I carry a loaded gun all day long on public roads. So, this is not a matter of the safety of a loaded weapon on a road.
I really think this is geared toward poachers that would attempt to take animals from a road or shoot onto private or public land and take animals illegally.

It doesn't matter if you spotted the animal from the public roadway or not. What matters is that you are standing on your property and not a state right of way when you pull the trigger.
That said, most fences on these public road ways are set back a foot or two. My front fence is only set back about 12" so it'd be pretty hard to be completely on my property if I was using my fence as a rest.

wish I could still jump a fence, the last time I tried, I separated my shoulder

While my fence is set back from the road, I own well into the right of way (ROW). I can be on my property and breaking the law by hunting on my property if I am shooting from the ROW. What I don't know is how far back my fence is set from the ROW at any given point. A couple of places, it would not be a problem. Some would be sketchy.

I don't see what the violation would be. You have every right to be on the road, with your firearm. Is it your opinion that you were engaged in the act of hunting while on the road, and observed the animal that you ultimately shot after crossing your fence, onto your own property? You would be within the law, and not cited IMO. I am not a LEO, but do know any law has to be enforceable. Under the circumstance you describe, you couldn't even be driving, go through your gate, proceed another 100 yards, get out and shoot the animal, you "hunted" from the road. Walking, driving, 1" or 100", doesn't seem to matter as long as you are on your property. You were not engaged in the act of hunting until you shot, you were just using the road for the same reason anyone uses a public road.

Edit to add: “Hunt” means capture, trap, take, or kill, or an attempt to capture, trap, take, or kill.