Annual Public Hunt land.... anyone use them

what is your experience with them? not looking for your secret areas. do they hold the birds that is advertised?
is the habitat huntable? how are the crowds?

if a spot doesnt or cant support the birds as advertised does TPW continue to include it in the program?

Yes, they hold a few birds - if you're talking quail, probably no better or worse than the rest of the state. Most are large properties that is huntable. Crowds are heaviest on the weekends, but I haven't seen so many that I had to go home. The small pheasant areas in the panhandle are heavily hunted, I have private land up that way, so I haven't hunted the public land. I've hunted snipe on a few of the areas with good success. I think TP&W tries to keep close tabs on their game populations, and if there's not enough game to hunt, they take it off until their numbers get back to a huntable population.

Personally, I think the $48 annual hunting permit is a bargain.

+1. they can get crowded but like DoubleB20 said, they're big enough to where it's not too much of a problem.

I had a first hand report of a good woodcock hunt on the Sam Houston WMA.

bill
any idea how they manage around deer hunters?

Public land inst terrible but the Chap is only open a handful of days a season for birds.

I think this was after deer season. My friend ET with the red setter pup got the invite. He doen't know exactly where they were, but it was on the Sam Houston WMA. They moved 17 in a half a day. Pointed 14.

I have gotten in past years when I didn't have a lease, but usually I just wished I had gotten a lease. I've had luck on duck and doves. I've seen a few quail and woodcock too. For 48 bucks it's not a bad deal, but generally if there's good hunting it's going to get significant pressure. If you dove hunt it's probably worth it just for that though. Also if you hunt game that's not as popular...like rabbits or woodcock, it's probably worth it.