Texas Public Hunting Lands (Off-season)

GwarFreeq

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Location
Killeen, TX
Has anyone in Texas tried MD'ing in the Texas Public Hunting Lands?

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0112a.pdf

They aren't State Parks, but are managed by Texas Parks & Wildlife. They are available for hunting, but you can also get a limited use permit for activities such as: Nature Observation, Camping, Hiking, Birdwatching, Fishing, Photography, Scouting, or OTHER.

I'm leaning towards just spending my $12 for the annual Limited use permit and just giving it a try. Worst case, I still have a bunch of places for hiking, camping and fishing.
 
Has anyone in Texas tried MD'ing in the Texas Public Hunting Lands?

https://tpwd.texas.gov/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0112a.pdf

They aren't State Parks, but are managed by Texas Parks & Wildlife. They are available for hunting, but you can also get a limited use permit for activities such as: Nature Observation, Camping, Hiking, Birdwatching, Fishing, Photography, Scouting, or OTHER.

I'm leaning towards just spending my $12 for the annual Limited use permit and just giving it a try. Worst case, I still have a bunch of places for hiking, camping and fishing.

Seems like a good investment for 12 bucks. Good luck
 
I would contact Texas Wildlife & Management first. They are very strict in their rules. In your Map Booklet under General Conduct look at the words, Disturbs or removes plants, wood, rocks, gravel, sand, soil, shell, artifacts or other objects from public hunting lands without proper authorization.
They don't give warnings, they mean business. look before you leap. I would have already been hunting them. You might be able to get in touch with the land owner that leased it out to them and make separate arraignments if its a good location possibly. Good Luck.
 
I would contact Texas Wildlife & Management first. They are very strict in their rules. In your Map Booklet under General Conduct look at the words, Disturbs or removes plants, wood, rocks, gravel, sand, soil, shell, artifacts or other objects from public hunting lands without proper authorization.....

I love it. I absolutely love it. If these type "catch-all grey boiler plate " verbiage means "no md'ing", then .... I got news for you : It's not just in this one location. It's EVERY SPECK OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE ENTIRE USA.

Because I guarantee you that: Such language exists in every single city and county and state and federal park EVERYWHERE. Yet.... oddly ... there are scores of show & tell posts where persons gleefully post their show & tell from (gasp) Parks. How can that be ? *Certainly* they must have "disturbed" and "removed" the "soil" blah blah.

And if/when you can find authority figures to say that you have fallen afoul of these things, then : CONGRATULATIONS : You are the latest victim of "No one cared till you asked" phenomenon. :roll:

....They don't give warnings...

Ok, what do they "give" ? Tickets ? Arrests? Jail ? Confiscations ? Then I'm sure you have examples (links) of these type things that occur for routine such-sites, where no-such-specific-rule exists. Right ? Please let me see the links. Me thinks we will hear the sound of crickets.
 
I love it. I absolutely love it. If these type "catch-all grey boiler plate " verbiage means "no md'ing", then .... I got news for you : It's not just in this one location. It's EVERY SPECK OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE ENTIRE USA.

Because I guarantee you that: Such language exists in every single city and county and state and federal park EVERYWHERE. Yet.... oddly ... there are scores of show & tell posts where persons gleefully post their show & tell from (gasp) Parks. How can that be ? *Certainly* they must have "disturbed" and "removed" the "soil" blah blah.

And if/when you can find authority figures to say that you have fallen afoul of these things, then : CONGRATULATIONS : You are the latest victim of "No one cared till you asked" phenomenon. :roll:



Ok, what do they "give" ? Tickets ? Arrests? Jail ? Confiscations ? Then I'm sure you have examples (links) of these type things that occur for routine such-sites, where no-such-specific-rule exists. Right ? Please let me see the links. Me thinks we will hear the sound of crickets.


I wouldn't ask if detecting were legal....

Camping is allowed. Camping will "disturb" more than any metal detectorist.
 
... Camping will "disturb" more than any metal detectorist.

And do you know what the difference is between those campers and md'rs is ? Those campers didn't go ask: "Hi, can I Please disturb the soil ?". Yet for some reason we md'rs feel that we're supposed to go ask "Can I ?" on our end.

Shame on those campers for not asking ! :laughing:
 
Great timing on this post. I've been away from metal detecting for a while and I'm itching to pick it up again. I moved to Texas a few years ago and just don't know where I can go.
 
I love it. I absolutely love it. If these type "catch-all grey boiler plate " verbiage means "no md'ing", then .... I got news for you : It's not just in this one location. It's EVERY SPECK OF PUBLIC LAND IN THE ENTIRE USA.

Because I guarantee you that: Such language exists in every single city and county and state and federal park EVERYWHERE. Yet.... oddly ... there are scores of show & tell posts where persons gleefully post their show & tell from (gasp) Parks. How can that be ? *Certainly* they must have "disturbed" and "removed" the "soil" blah blah.

And if/when you can find authority figures to say that you have fallen afoul of these things, then : CONGRATULATIONS : You are the latest victim of "No one cared till you asked" phenomenon. :roll:



Im normally a don't ask don't tell detectorist, but I would ask in this case. A lot of that property is private property leased by the state for public use only for the exact purpose of hunting. They make it clear you can't remove artifacts they make it clear that no activities are allowed unless they are specifically allowed. They also make it clear that any activities outside of those allowed you have to have permission from the landowner. It's not the standard do not disturb rules all parks have. Although it's leased by the state it is private property. The landowner retains all rights of ownership. In my opinion that's no different than detecting the neighbors backyard without permission.
 
Scooter-jim, let's unpack this bit by bit :

.......for public use only for the exact purpose of hunting. ....

Correct. And I am a member of the "public". So I will "use" it. And yes for the purpose of "hunting" [coins]. So what's the issue ? :?:

....... they make it clear that no activities are allowed unless they are specifically allowed. .....

Ok, sure. Let's take that for a test drive in a "real world" scenario : If bird-watching, or skipping stones on the pond, or frisbee throwing, or nose-picking, or walking backwards heel-to-toe isn't on that list of allowed things, then you would agree that you can't do those things. Right ?

........ They make it clear you can't remove artifacts ....

Yes, this is the perpetual one that gives md'rs fits. I admit it. But think about it : There is something akin to this in EVERY SINGLE park and speck of public land EVERYWHERE. The boiler plate verbiages that forbid "remove". And worse yet (yes) sometimes even use the evil word "artifact". Or put another way, I'll bet that for all the show & tell you see on forums, where members show stuff found in parks, I'll bet that if they data mined long enough, they would likewise perhaps find some minutia that talks about that. Or , for example, if I walk into my city hall park dept. and say "Hi, can I remove artifacts out of the park please ?". I'll bet I'd get a "no". Yet the fact is, I can detect the park till I'm blue in the face and no one cares.

Not denying that the word isn't there. Just saying it's probably EVERYWHERE, if we stood on one foot and squinted hard and asked enough people "can I?". The REAL issue is: Does anyone care ? And bear in mind that "artifact" is usually defined by the 50 yr. rule . Ok, fine, then you're only hunting for clad, right ? Of course this doesn't apply to obvious historic sensitive monuments. But sheeesk, for the middle of nowhere ? Is anyone really out there armed with a pocket calculator to jump out from behind a tree and start doing the math on the age of your coins ?
 
Scooter-jim, let's unpack this bit by bit :



Correct. And I am a member of the "public". So I will "use" it. And yes for the purpose of "hunting" [coins]. So what's the issue ? :?:




some of it is not public land. It is private property that the owner allows the public to come on for a specific reason. Some are deer hunting only, some hog only, no fishing, no bird watching or frizbee throwing allowed. Others are open only specific dates much of it is still farmed. It is private property and all artifacts, coins, minerals and anything else you can think of still belongs to the private property owner. Wildlife belongs to the state.





Ok, sure. Let's take that for a test drive in a "real world" scenario : If bird-watching, or skipping stones on the pond, or frisbee throwing, or nose-picking, or walking backwards heel-to-toe isn't on that list of allowed things, then you would agree that you can't do those things. Right ?




Yes you can not do those things. you can not be on the PRIVATE property except for the reasons listed on the land use lease. Many of them are farms that are happy to let hunters in to control crop eating critters after the harvesting is done, but they don't want a bunch of hippies playing frizbee in the cotton patch. Some areas they will allow bird watching others you can play frizbee, but the TPH is very specific about what is allowed and where it is allowed.




Yes, this is the perpetual one that gives md'rs fits. I admit it. But think about it : There is something akin to this in EVERY SINGLE park and speck of public land EVERYWHERE. The boiler plate verbiages that forbid "remove". And worse yet (yes) sometimes even use the evil word "artifact". Or put another way, I'll bet that for all the show & tell you see on forums, where members show stuff found in parks, I'll bet that if they data mined long enough, they would likewise perhaps find some minutia that talks about that. Or , for example, if I walk into my city hall park dept. and say "Hi, can I remove artifacts out of the park please ?". I'll bet I'd get a "no". Yet the fact is, I can detect the park till I'm blue in the face and no one cares.

Not denying that the word isn't there. Just saying it's probably EVERYWHERE, if we stood on one foot and squinted hard and asked enough people "can I?". The REAL issue is: Does anyone care ? And bear in mind that "artifact" is usually defined by the 50 yr. rule . Ok, fine, then you're only hunting for clad, right ? Of course this doesn't apply to obvious historic sensitive monuments. But sheeesk, for the middle of nowhere ? Is anyone really out there armed with a pocket calculator to jump out from behind a tree and start doing the math on the age of your coins ?





This isn't the standard no dig no disturb rule every park has. Those I ignore, these are very specific rules to protect the property owner. The modern clad still belongs to the property owner. Just because the property owner allows hunting does not mean the land is available to do whatever you want. Often on these properties you are assigned an area. You can hunt zone j-2 but you can't step foot on zone j-3 except to retrieve a critter shot on zone j-2. And you will have zone 2 all to yourself, no nose picking, rock skipping, bird watching, frizbee throwing hippies will be out there. No other hunters either.

I would detect the camping and check in areas that are state owned properties until told different, and I'm sure it would be no more than a scram, but detecting in some spots without permission could get you more. There are some areas where you are required to sign in just to bird watch. it's not just an open park.

AND their website says metal detecting is allowed in some areas with a permit. That would leave me to believe that metal detecting is not allowed in some areas.
 
...

AND their website says metal detecting is allowed in some areas with a permit. That would leave me to believe that metal detecting is not allowed in some areas.


scooter, this question got complicated, because in this case, if I understand the thread correctly, it's private land, yet public is allowed on/in there. Ok, I get that.

But if your above quote were about public land, I think we can agree that :

Just because one type park, or one park in-a-subset has a specific "allowance" for md'ing, doesn't imply that therefore other areas and other parks, that do-not-have that type allowance, must therefore be off-limits.

On the contrary, if a place is "silent on the subject" (not addressed either way), then ... it's therefore silent on the subject . Why doesn't "silent on the subject" mean: Not disallowed ? (for innocuous benign things, of course, like skipping rocks or md'ing). But yes, I agree that private land with hunter's permits could be a different shade of grey.

I can think of a GIANT swath of CA land that gives out hunting permits : Tejon Ranch . (very expensive to get the permits BTW). And I bet that some of those hunters might have flown a frisbee, picked their nose, and other such non-hunt related actions while there. But ... oh well :cool:
 
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