Black Gap WMA - extreme south Texas?

cjdavis618

New member
Thinking about making a week long trip there for some predator hunting. Anybody ever hunted there or know anything about the area?
 
Most hunts ,other than dove and quail (APH hunting permit), require that you be drawn via the public hunting draws. Predators are not listed in the APH program. You should check with the management area to verify the status on predators. Most of the hunt application deadlines have passed for drawn hunts in TX.
 
Coyotes are included as legal game when you are drawn for a Mule Deer Tag. That deadline was Sept. 6. The drawing has already taken place for this year.
 
Sorry, no predator hunting at Black Gap, or any other WMA to my knowledge. I was there on a blue quail hunt a few years back, when I asked about predators, I got a very strong NO! I was also told not to kill any snakes or skunks either, nothing but quail. The bunnyhugers run the Texas Parks and Wildlife high offices, and they think of the WMA's as parks-wildlife sanctuarys, they would love to end all hunting on "their" land.
 
Cowboss,

I have bowhunted the Kerr once, that was enough! I told them if they ran this place for paid hunters they'd go broke! Nobody killed anything out of around 25 hunters. You hunt half a day(start at noon), then a whole day, then another half a day(out by noon). No corn, protien pellets allowed. I could have shot a doe or the spike buck that was with her, or the fawn I saw the last morning. There were four of us on a 300 acre pasture, there was a buck seen, but no shots taken.

Hunted Walter Buck with a bow, same thing, I saw one small doe, my three friends saw nothing. Funny thing, the park where we camped was full of deer every night. We camped next to a bunch from Fredericksburg, we knew most of them from 3D shoots, and they saw little too.
 
Quote:Sorry, no predator hunting at Black Gap, or any other WMA to my knowledge.

Coyotes are allowed on several WMAs and some public hunting units. Some areas also allow coyotes to be taken on draw hunts. It varies by area.

As you might expect from a state that only has 2% of the land area open to the general public, if it was "come one, come all any time you want and kill anything you want" it would be extremely overcrowded and nothing would be left to hunt.

Some of these units are the only public hunting for hundreds of miles. They have to have some restrictions, and these are usually the areas that have draw only hunts for big game.

Areas in East Texas (where there is more and larger blocks of public land) are usually more liberal in seasons and access.
 
It actually has 115,000 acres. Black Gap is also one of the few places in Texas that has bighorn sheep.

The area does offer dove and quail hunting as well as rabbits concurrently during these hunts and fishing year round.
 
Ive never hunted Texas but its obvious its a pay to play state. Heck they prolly even charge to hunt rats and mice. I'd suggest looking at New Mexico it has tons of public land and plenty of coyotes.
 
Funny, one place on the TPaW site, it says in the hunting guide 115,000 acres, and on the Black Gap webpage it says 103,000.

It's big and rough. If you go, you will need good leather boots. Everything has thorns, big thorns. I wore chainsaw leggins, yes it's tough country! The quail kicked our butt.
 
9horses,
Sorry, to here about the lack of success on the Hill Country WMA's. 'Hammer is correct in his reply about the public lands issue and why some management areas provide different experiences. If, you do the research and get lucky, you could have the chance to be hunting next door to a ranch that charges 5 grand for a whitetail deer hunt. If, you are real lucky a sheep hunt that would be 70 grand.
I have been on some great hunts on 'OUR' manegement units.
But, there are some units that provide just a place to be outside and almost a zero chance of success.
 
I'll admit I'm looking at state run land through different eyes, as I was blessed to grow up on a ranch that has good hunting. We have managed the deer herd ourselves, and hunter sucess is close to 100% every year. My hunters go home happy every year, having had the chance to see and kill a good buck, and all the does they can legaly kill. In a good year we kill several 18"-20" bucks, with field dressed weights of 130 lbs. No, they're not monster deer, but my hunters are happy, and they see and sometimes kill a 160 B and C deer.

The state runs their WMA's at a deer to 10 acres, with a 2 doe to 1 buck ratio. This inclues spikes and young bucks which you can't kill.(and shouldn't) With those low numbers they raise some big deer, but finding one with only two days to hunt is hard. So their sucess rates are low, and don't be fooled by what they put in their manual, they count killing a doe or spike or pig. The number of trophy bucks that are killed you could count on one hand.

Sorry to the OP, rant over!
 
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