I have lived ( because of either my Father's occupation or later my own) in Africa, South Ametica, and within the US, on both coasts and the South. I say this because I have seen and participated in different hunting cultures. I consider myself a native Texan and I can tell you beyond a doubt that there is great misconceptions about hunting here. I spent a lot of time out west, there is no stream between Mt Adams and Mt St Helens I haven't put a fly in. There is no gorge in Klickitat, I haven't glassed for deer or Elk. Guys who hunt like that like, will not understand until you come to Texas and comprehend for yourself what "all private land" looks like.
I live in Houston. I have paid for the state permit to go hunt Sam Houston Natl Forest, its a joke, never doing that again.
I was blessed to have an army buddy that had married into a large South Texas ranch. He invited me to be a hunter in their management program. ( they were losing hunters for money, and wanted to increase deer quality, so they thinned the herd. This was a legal land owner program in concert with the State, so no butt hurt comments) The end result was that for several years I got to shoot a " lot" of deer. ( btw, theres no substitute for getting better at the shooting aspect of hunting than to take lots of shots. I shot deer at every conceivable range, in cover, in open, flat or high angle, from every possible approach, broadside, quartering, even facing away. The results of this experience are a whole different thread). The point of this is that, I bought land in South Texas to hunt, after falling in love with that particular region around Rock Springs, where there is free range axis, blackbuck and audad. Also behind high fence, there is almost any species you want to shoot ( and are willing to pay the price of supply and demand).
What a lot of guys not from Texas don't get, is having exotics. Year round hunting of non-native species is big business… and to tie the different points of this short novel together hog hunting has developed from eradication of nuisance animals into being the poor man's exotic. It offers hunting opportunity outside of our generous whitetail season, and instead of the free hunting of yesteryear when ranchers treated hogs like varmints, ranchers now know that every pull of trigger is a dollar sign. They are not going to give away, what they can make money off of.
The second Thing I learned from buying land in South Texas, is that there is a big difference in hunting experience, based on ranch size. My buddy gave me the "large ranch" experience (20k + ac). But all I could afford was 60 acres. I eventually sold the 60 acres, because every a-hole around me on 4 sides, shot everything in sight.
When you say you want to hunt hogs in Texas, for better for worse, understand that you are going to pay, because its a commodity that others are willing to pay for. And 2, you are going to pay within the spectrums of bad-good hunting, to hunt a larger ranch. Theres a reason some hog hunts are structured like big game hunts and cost the same. Its replacing that ranchers deer income, outside of deer season, and he has to make money from having the acreage. You will not have the same hunt from bubba that charges you 100 bucks a day to go to his back 40, as you will hunting several hundred acres, on up.
