Best and Worst Public Land/Draw Hunts for Texas-Opinions Wanted

[jnewberry18]

always wanted to hunt black gap or elephant mountain, but never been lucky enough to get a permit.

[lordvader]

Worst for me was Honey Creek. That place was a joke, next in line was Chaparral, that place is way over rated. Lots of deer but to many ridiculous antler restrictions. They run that place like if it was an expensive trophy hunting preserve. Best places were Brazos Bend, we always limited out. Laguna Atascosa, no antler restrictions, ti's not an easy hunt, but then real hunting never is. Next year February 2021, I'll be hunting LRGV East Lake. Got drawn for the exotic hunt. Good luck to all who managed to get drawn this year. Stay safe.

[fakeworest]

First Drawn hunt win for me this year in my second year drawing and I feel super lucky as I didn't know you could enter in multiple hunts within a category. Balcones Canyonlands NWR General Deer which people on here have given mixed reviews. I'm looking forward to it though!

[da_pepper]

They are all terrible! Don't even try... no point. :-P

[WamBow]

I've been on several drawn hunts and have enjoyed most of them. The exceptions are Garner SP and Hill Country SNA. The Garner hunt was over managed and they gave you a tiny window to shoot from. The feeder was 60-yds away and the flags were 35-yds apart (This was a gun hunt, not archery). The main rule, "Don't shoot beyond those flags bc you might hit another hunter." ***?! Safety first my *****. Then they escort you to and from your blind EVERY hunt and you can't hunt all day if you wanted to. When we pulled numbers from a hat to select our spots the ranger running the hunt, Dave if memory serves, says, "too bad no one drew #7, that's a great spot." 1) why not put the numbers in the hat to match the number of hunters, insuring the "sweet spot" gets drawn?!? 2) Why say that out loud to all of the hunters after they've drawn?! total **** move IMO. Will never put in for Garner...not worth the 3 bucks. It's like hunting prison. Hill Country SNA was pretty good as far as how the hunts are managed. You're given a spot and they'll let you hunt all day or even change spots. The problem here is that they have an annual "adventure race" the weekend before the last hunt. That's 1,500 trail runners with trail and race managers throughout the park the weekend before that hunt. Of course that was the weekend I drew and paid for before doing the research...my fault. Needless to say one deer was taken in a far corner of the park. I saw some turkeys but no deer and I hunted all day and changed spots with no luck. My question is, "Why schedule that hunt after that adventure race weekend?!" Other than those 2 I've had awesome hunts at other parks and I'm glad they offer these drawn hunts.