Discover the Hunting Opportunities With in Our Texas State Parks

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The question was asked, "Is public hunting permitted at Texas State Parks?" That's a tricky question that I can answer with yes. However, there are a couple of steps to go through before you can hunt.

If you're thinking "This is awesome I now have another place to go hunting at" think again, only the lucky few can get a permit to hunt and in some cases, you may not get to hunt at the state park or your choice.

First off you have to figure out, what kind of hunting is permitted and at what time of year is it allowed. The kinds of hunts that are permitted say, the Abilene State Park are deer-bow-hunts, deer-rifle-hunts, youth-deer-rifle-hunts, shotgun-duck-hunts, mentor-hog-hunts, and hog-trapping.

The Abilene State Park's Ranger, Candyce Johnson says "Yes hunting is permitted but one must sign for a draw hunt permit allowing only a certain amount of hunters the privilege to hunt at the Abilene State Park only. Further, all hunting is done during certain times of the year, at times the park is completely closed down due to hunting for the public's safety.

The deer-bow hunt takes place near Lake Abilene, and it's within the first few weeks of the regular bow season. The Adult deer rifle hunt is the first two weeks of December, with the youth deer rifle hunt the last week of December and/or the first week of January. Then there's the shotgun duck hunt in the last two weeks of January.

As for Mentor-Hog Hunts and/or hog trapping, these are arranged with our local state park. Ranger Candyce Johnson says "These are all pre-planned, but I wished we could eradicate all hogs in our State Park because there are so many and they're so destructive."

For more information on Public Land Hunting go to Texas State Park's website.