Can I hunt on my own land?

Hi Yall, I love this forum, but I finally have a question to post.
Just bought a house and land on 5 1/2 acres in northern Hays county, outside Dripping Springs. I have the smallest plot in the area, neighbors have 100 acres, 50 acres and 5,000 acres, closest house is half mile away. I know the 100 acres neighbor has an active lease next door.
My question is, can I legally take a deer on my own property and take it to a processor? How do I find out?
Oh, yeah, I've counted 12 does and only 2 bucks so far...not sure if this matters.
Thanks

As long as there is no land or hoa restrictions and not in city limits I am pretty sure that's a yes. I would call tpwd and have them email you the direct answer that way you have it in writing just in case. Also congrats on finding 5 acres in the middle of all that land. You just might have a gold mine come the rut. Good luck!!

Thanks for the reply and will do! We moved in last May and are loving it!

Can't see why not. I would just give you a little advice and be careful how & where you hunt and where you shoot. I would get to know the neighbors and give them a heads up. Be careful not to hunt to close their stands or feeders or have your set up in their line of sight and also try not to hunt the fence line. It will be hard not to on such a small plot but making yourself a good neighbor will go a long ways. Congrats!

Thanks! Met the neighbors, all good people. I started feeding in an area where I think it's clear. You're right though, should give everybody a heads up...plus they might be able to give some advice, lay of the land and all that,
Thanks!

Also be careful of the # of deer you take. If you, your brother, your kid and your father in law all take multiple deer it could irritate some folks.

Well you mention taking it to the processor so if your meat hunting I think the neighbors would agree.

Ask your neighbors about deer density and how many are in the area, if every one is over run with deer and you limit your self to taking a couple of doe for the first year or so.....

Then you might find your self both in good favor with the neighbors and invited to hunt with them as well.

Agree that I'd be really careful about overharvesting.

Unless the deer population is very high or no one else around you hunts, you're taking more than your fair share if you harvest a deer more than every few years.

I've helped HF out a couple of guys that were shooting 2 or 3 deer a year on their 10-acre ranchettes. The land just can't support that.

Check your county restrictions to see if they require a minimum number of acres to own to hunt on. Some do and some don't. Good luck.

I'm a Hays Co. Deputy

You can hunt it and take deer from your property.

Potential legal issues:
1) You cannot shoot across property boundaries without prior consent from adjoining property owners. This includes any projectile that might pass through your target and then cross the property line.

2) Make sure you get permission to cross property lines to recover any deer that happens to run onto the neighbor's property after being shot.

If you recover a deer from the neighbor's property without first obtaining permission to do so the evidence might appear to indicate that you shot a deer on their property and then dragged it back to your property. A little pre-planning on your part could save you a lot of trouble later.

I'd recommend head/neck shots on meat shots, unless you have neighbors permission to track game.

Maybe use a slug or buckshot to prevent a pass-through onto the neighbors land.

I agree with the others on the issue of pass through shots crossing the property line. If it were me, I would put up a tall tower blind so I could see the entire 5 acres, but more importantly, my shots would be at a downward angle.

Someone please correct me if I am wrong, but to my knowledge there is no law in the State of Texas that says your property has to be any certain size for you to legally take a game animal; as long as you are outside of the city limits.

i thought i read that tpwd requires you have at 10 acres to be legal?

No min on acreage just projectile tresspass laws.

The 10 acres is a common city ordinace for the discharge firearms. If out of the incorporated city, shouldn't matter.

You my friend have found a bird nest on the ground.Larger places surrounding your little slice of heaven.I would definitely build an elevated stand so your shots go downward.There are a lot of deer around Dripping but like was stated above just don't go hog wild.Congratulations.

FAIR SHARE?????? Because he has a small plot of land, he is not entitled to harvest his legal limit every year? He lives in the hill country, they are over run with deer regardless of what his nieghbors are doing he will never kill enough deer in his life time(legal limit's)to hurt the population around there.

Use some common sense.

The entire hill country isn't overpopulated. Notice I wrote "unless the population is very high". A high population of deer is about 1 per 10 acres. That's actually very high.

If he has 5 acres and he takes more than a deer every 3 or 4 years, he's taking more than his fair share. If everyone hunted at his pace, there would be zero deer left.

Yes, I am saying because he has a small plot of land, he shouldn't take as many deer as people with 20 times the land he has. Not really that controversial.

limit out if you want after all its your land.Feed and they will come.Be careful and have a good hunt.To many throphy hunters already takes the fun out of hunting.

As long as you don't complain when you get high-fenced out, by all means.

all good points, you should be able to harvest all legal deer, but if you do get high fenced out that would suck.

TPWD Annual says to contact the county clerk and ask about local government code 235.022. I am fixing to buy some acreage to build on and want to be able to hunt as well. so we will see if the county clerk says anything.

To give you guys an idea of where I'm coming from (and I've told this story on this site several times):

Buddy and his neighbor collectively have about 1000 acres near Grapeland or Grapetown (fredericksburg area). The deer population is solid, but not spectacular like it is in a lot of parts of the hill country.

Another neighbor sold his 50 acres as 5 10-acre "ranchettes".

We show up and there are literally 5 feeders, right on his fenceline.

We gave it a year to see if they were just wildlife viewing or actually hunting. They were actually full-blown hunting.

In 1 year, the population of deer was completely decimated.

We high-fenced all them out along with the other neighbors. They now have a 50-acre box between 5 of them where they can pray a deer accidentally wanders in.

It was the only option. While you may legally have the right to "limit out" on your 5-acres, you should expect some consequences for doing so. That's not being a good neighbor UNLESS the population can support it. At my buddy's place, it couldn't or even come close

Big difference in 5 10 acre tracts and 1 5 acre tract surrounded by big ranches.

The same principles apply. If the population can support it, by all means. But it doesn't take many 5-acre tract owners bordering a huge ranch thinking it's okay to limit out before the entire population is ruined.

If he's the only one, it's probably fine. If there are a couple more on various sides of the larger ranches, they might be collectively pushing it.

good point

Look, The point is, its your land and you may do as you choose. Yes, if you, your son, your dad, and father-n-law all tag out, then its probably not going to be viewed very well by most people. On the other hand, if you take a limit, or you and your son take a couple a piece, it wont hurt anything. I dont hear anything being said about the hunters who only shoot bucks or those who only need 1 deer a year for their freezer. This happens all over, so you taking 3 or 4 a year will not decimate the heard. Just be a reasonable and enjoy what you have. I would and fooey on what others say.

Well I have been looking at all these big tag prices on leases happy to say I have my own land and I do good on deers and pigs. My hats off to you guys. Only two of us hunt on it but I will let some guys hunt pigs some times. . I have the money to pay but don't think my wife will let me.