Texas prides itself on being the biggest and best at everything - and that includes hunting for whitetail deer. And deservedly so - the state estimates that Texas supports about four million whitetail deer - a quarter of the nation's population - and prides itself on their game management programs for whitetail deer So if you're looking to hunt, Texas is a great option.
The weather in Texas is always unpredictable, however, so if you're headed there to hunt whitetail, be prepared. Average conditions for the month of November are morning lows from 35 to 45, warning by afternoon into the 60's or low 70's, with a lot of light rain and wind. December is colder, but there's less chance of rain - excellent hunting conditions.
A sportsman can hunt deer in Texas for years and never have the same experience twice. The mountains and canyons of West Texas offer mule deer and whitetail the same day. There's cactus-and-tumbleweed desert landscapes near the Mexican border, offering some of the best whitetail racks in the country. The Hill Country offers the deer hunter a panorama of rolling hills with sparkling streams, with smaller deer - but an awful lot of them. In the famed Texas Panhandle, hunters can bag some of the heaviest deer in the state along the Canadian River, or travel to the region called the Possum Kingdom, west of Dallas-Ft. Worth, where hunters find thousands of deer every season. Even the heavily timbered land bordering Louisiana in East Texas offers good deer hunting.
One thing to remember, though, is that there isn't a lot of open Federal land in Texas - unlike many states, Texas held onto much of its public land, and an awful lot of the state is privately owned. There's also a provision in the Texas Penal Code that makes it a crime to trespass for the purpose of hunting - whether there's a posted sign or not - and landowners don't look kindly on trespassers. Of course, many ranch owners have hunting leases and will allow you to hunt their land (perhaps at for a price, perhaps not).
If you have your heart set on bringing down a deer on your trip to Texas, consider a guaranteed deer hunt on a private ranch. There are more and more of these types of leases available all the time, offering you a no-kill, no-pay deal on private land that usually has an abundant stock of well-managed, healthy game. Now, if you do shoot a deer, it won't be cheap - generally about $150 to over $200 for a whitetail buck. But you'll know you're not trespassing on anyone's land, you're sure to be in an area that sees lots of deer, and if you don't get a deer you don't pay. With the hunting in Texas for whitetail deer so spectacular, it's a reasonable price for sure thing.