Educate me on Hunting Texas

Hello! My name is Erik and I am new here, I am AD Air Force, from New Mexico, and have been stationed in Europe for the last 4 years.

I have not been able to hunt for years but have hunted bow and rifle in the past. I've hunted Coyote, Fox, Deer, and Elk growing up, but I have not been hunting in 10 years. It is overwhelming to think about getting back into it but I want to so bad, so I'm going to do it. I currently have been shooting my bow regularly and just picked up another hunting rifle (7mm rem mag for future elk hunts) I've got the itch to get out there again. Europe has starved me from the outdoors.

I was looking at the WMA closest to my area and it looks like my chances are slim to none to draw for any WMA hunts.

What are other options? What can I hunt? Where? I'd like to get to know some other hunters in the area and hope to actually meet some people. I will be in the Wichita Falls, TX area.

I will also be putting in for hunts in NV, NM, and AZ. Really looking forward to being in TX though. Thank you for your time. I look forward to discussing these things.

Holler at me if you wanna hog hunt, I’m 1.5 hrs south of WF

I'm in Wichita Falls, if bird hunting sounds appealing at all to you then you can get some duck/ dove hunting in at Buffalo Lake/ Middle Lake near Iowa Park. I'm also involved with the local Ducks Unlimited Chapter and once Covid has passed there are some guys there that might be able to help hook you up with something. As far as hog hunting goes you can probably find some people to take you out for free if you reference you are in the military, look into the facebook page North Texas Piggin. Deer will be a longer shot unless you can find someone trying to burn some MLD tags or a farmer who doesn't care if you shoot some off his wheat field. The big thing here is earning people's trust to carry guns unsupervised on their land and its not always the easiest thing if you don't know them personally... but being in a very conservative area reminding people you are in the Military always helps! Plenty of outdoor opportunities around here if you know where to look!

Also being in the military see if you can put in for the elk hunts at Fort Sill in Oklahoma which is only like an hour away, it got cancelled this year but also make sure to sign up out on base every year for the Dove Salute (free dinner/ dove hunting) hosted by the Clark Birdwell Ranch every year. I've volunteered with it in the past and its a blast and pretty good hunting if you can shoot decent.

and thank you for your service

ta HF & for your service.