Land in Texas

[johnwilliamson062]

I would like to start looking for a large plot of land in Texas to split among some guys/families for hunting, camping, hiking, wasting time and money on, and possibly some guys would retire there etc.

Must have water.
Must be over run with hogs.
Must be out in the middle of nowhere.
Must be big. 1000 acres+ at least(which might actually be small by Texas standards but would practically make you a land baron in Ohio).

Location preference given to Big Bend area.

Anyone local have suggestions, pricing estimates, trustworthy realtor(not your BIL), etc.

Montana has also been discussed, but we were turned off by the Winters. Any ?Montanians? want to claim it is the place to be I will listen.

[XLT]

"Big Bend area" has a lot of variation to its meaning. Brewster county is pretty large... and Big Bend itself is awesome because of the variety just inside it's own borders...

There are parts of West Texas that have not a single real feral hog on them... just javelina.... don't know if they will spread there, but it seems the stop at some point moving West.

Look at www.landsoftexas.com and you can search by county...

Brewster, Culberson, Hudspeth are pretty inexpensive... Edwards county near Rocksprings is good value right now also... not quite hill country, not quite desert... ~ or >$1000/acre. Of course, you can get WAY cheaper than that, but it's worth even less than you will pay for it, if you get my meaning.

Water seems always to be an issue, but 1000 acres can be had for pretty stinking cheap in West Texas...

If you want hogs, though, East Texas is probably the place to be can't stand the humidity there though, myself...

[fisherman66]

Must have water.
Must be over run with hogs.
Must be out in the middle of nowhere.
Must be big. 1000 acres+ at least

Art might have sum good input as to your prefer'd area. I tend to agree with the East Texas recommendation, but that much land is going to be extremely expensive since there's no real "middle of nowhere" land except far southwest Texas.

[johnwilliamson062]

Myself and some of the others possibly involved in this have spent some time on the Rio Grand w/ in Big Bend. We love it. We have all traveled and there is a general consensus the scenery in Big Bend is the best. Being close enough to take weekend trips or such would be REALLY nice.

How does a 223 work on Javelina?
Going on hog hunting trips to east Texas might be better than moving our buy there.

[XLT]

.223 would work great on them, imho.

The only trouble is getting the fleas off enough to touch them

but there is a limit, though no season on Javelina in most counties. Usually two animals per year, as opposed to as many as you can shoot with feral hogs.

I agree the scenery is nice, its one of my favorite places to visit.

[XLT]

Also, you wouldn't have to make it all the way to East Texas... just head East or Southeast a bit and they start to show up again.

[johnwilliamson062]

but there is a limit, though no season on Javelina in most counties.

Surprised. They are everywhere in Big Bend.

[XLT]

well, of course, in the National Park... no hunting... but TPWD still lists a limit on them in that county

We have the same limit in El Paso, and so does Hudspeth


http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild...ounty=Brewster

[Art Eatman]

Look on a map: West of a line from Del Rio north to around Abilene, you won't find ranch land with enough water to notice, really. It's pretty much windmill-wells.

From hearsay, Presidio County has more feral hogs than southern Brewster County.

We had a sort of "land boom" for a while, for the Terlingua Ranch 20- and 40-acre tracts. Prices jumped from around $50/acre on up to (commonly) $250/acre on average. Sales slowed down a bunch, last year, so I've no idea about the current asking prices.

If anybody is really serious, though, I strongly suggest taking at least a week, driving around and looking the country over. Talk to realtors. Get a feel for the very large area. But one week is just a surface scratch.

Brewster County is the size of Delaware. Other west Texas counties will run 2/3 to 3/4 that size; we're four million acres. Del Rio to Alpine is 200 miles. Alpine to El Paso is 220 miles. From Terlingua to Odessa is 240 miles.

You might check far southwest Presidio County, or southeast Culbertson County. Down along the Rio. You could hunt cougar, mule deer, javelina, wetbacks, narcotrafficantes, blue quail and whitewing dove. There's some seriously lonesome country around there. But, mail delivery two days a week.

[precision_shooter]

1000 acres is small by texas standards. There is a ranch in south texas that is over 1 million (that's right M i l l i o n) acres. You do the math to figure out how many square miles that is. It is like it's own friggin state.

[Doodlebugger45]

I lived in West Texas for many years. Yes, the area around Big Bend is beautiful but a lot of it is public and a lot of the rest is not for sale if you want a big tract. Still, I love it around Alpine. Down by Marfa is some tough ugly remote country. I like it around Presidio as well. I haven't checked real estate values though so I don't really know what kind of deals you might run into.

That said, may I offer up another possibility, especially if you like hunting hogs? About 3 years ago I was doing a project down by the little town of West Columbia. That's about 60-70 miles SW of Houston. I had never spent any time in that neck of the woods. After about 8 months, the place kind of grew on me. It's not down in "the Valley" where all the retired people have driven the prices up and driven the culture out. The economy is fairly slow there, but if you're retired, that's just fine. Real estate values seemed fairly reasonable. There's a ton of history there and in Brazoria. The people are a mixture of white folks and hispanic but it seems like they all got along pretty well. It was just laid back. I am still thinking about doing the "snow bird" thing and spending 6 months out of the year down there to get away from Wyoming winters. It's not right at the ocean, but it's only about 30 miles away.

No, the scenery doesn't compare to Big Bend by a longshot.

BUT, the best news for you? It is absolutely filthy with feral hogs. If you had 1000 acres, no doubt you could eat for generations just on wild pork. If you were somehow able to put a dent in your own pig population, all you have to do is ask your neighbor if you can shoot some of his and you will be a hero. Those suckers are truly everywhere and are a menace.

Unfortunately, they also have a lot of water moccasins, copperheads, etc. which I don't like, but all in all it is a very liveable place. Small town atmosphere if you go into town, but if you need a big city, there's always Houston an hour or so away, or a better compromise is Angleton or such. It doesn't have to be West Columbia. There are plenty of little towns in that general vicinity that have a very rural lifestyle once you pass the city limits sign.

[mt_dren]

Any ?Montanians? want to claim it is the place to be I will listen.

I would opt for Texas vs Montana if you don't like winter...

mt_dren

[Wait, I'm Reloadin']

JohnWilliamson, maybe a bad idea but, why don't you look for a thousand acres in the middle of nowhere then buy four of them right smack in the middle, I mean if no one is gonna be there for a while....

[10-96]

Have you peeked around the S/E corner of the Panhandle? There are some pretty good looking properties that pop up from time to time around Childress, Clarendon, Memphis, and Hedley. Do a google search for those areas and an outfit called Round Mountain Land Company.

[hoytinak]

There's some nice land/houses around Palo Duro Canyon up here in the panhandle as well.

[dwwhite]

I think Art has made the best suggestion so far, come down for a while and talk to some realtors, ranchers, hunters etc.

I think that you will find that once you get west of US 277, (Del Rio to Abilene rt. mentioned by Art) it gets really dry really quickly. Land prices are less, ranging from $1500/acre down to almost nothing, depending on improvements. Prices also vary wildly depending on the conveyence of mineral rights. In Texas, an individual can own both surface and subsurface minerals, though this person may not be the owner of the land.

Keep in mind as well the size of a place like that. 1000 acres is roughly 1.5 square miles. If it doesn't have existing roads, you'll need to build them, and don't plan on just driving across the pastures down here, you'll eat tires like candy. Likewise, you may need fences, pens etc. if you plan on maintaining any livestock for the tax exempt status. Digging post holes in solid rock is expensive work, and a perimeter fence on 1000 acres can easily exceed 6 miles. And don't forget water. I was recently quoted $10,000 for a cased water well, estimated 500' deep. This did not include a pumping string or bringing electricity to the location, nor did it guarantee that I'd hit water, or that if I did, that it would be usable. (note that that price was on the high side, but a dry hole isn't much cheaper) There are many areas that do not even have recoverable ground water. If they do, you may be limited to only a few hundred gallons a day, if that.

Also keep in mind Art's warning about land closer to the border. Illegal immigration and drug trafficking are facts of life down there. And don't plan on playing vigilante, even on your own property. The legal ramifications alone will scare you to death, not to mention the fact that help is often not just a phone call away, more like a phone call (if you have service) and and hour or two away, at best.

However, keep in mind too that if you make it down here, you'll find some of the prettiest, and frendliest country around.

PM me if you are interested in some names of real estate agents in the area. I'm not as quite as far west as Art is, but I can put you in touch with folks who will know of places for sale all over.

[2rugers]

What's the going rate for a fully guided

narcotrafficante

hunt these days Art?

I may be interested if the trophy fees aren't to much.

[johnwilliamson062]

I thought there were narcotrafficante bounties... If not maybe we will have to rethink our plans. So much for easy retirement income

[phil mcwilliam]

I'm looking at the same thing, but in Australia. For comparison 1,000 acres say between 5 to 7 hours out of Sydney of hunting(not farming) country with a river/creek will set you back around US$150,000 with no power or shed, to maybe US$250,000 with house & power,minimum.
Not all that relevant to buying land in Texas, but interesting comparison. If you have nothing to do one day checkout realestate.com.au & search rural property in Delegate- Gives you an idea of whats available "down under".

[Lawyer Daggit]

Sounds like farming in Australia. If buying large acreage ascertain what the cost of keeping it- fencing if required, weed control imposed by authorities etc will be before buying- some places this can be expensive.

As another entry said correctly, cheap land can be more expensive than you paid for it.

[Art Eatman]

A sorta-recent change by the legislature now allows the same evaluation for wildlife land as for livestock land. You don't have to run cows to get the agricultural exemption for land value.

Not many deer around here, but quail and varmints are worthwhile. Javelina have been halfway-plentiful in some areas.

The Terlingua Ranch deal is kinda interesting. One aspect is that large areas of 20- and 40-acre tracts are owned by people who bought back around 1970 to 1975, mas o menos, and have never been to their land. Oh, maybe back when they first bought it, but not since then. So, adjoining owners trespass at will, since it seems obvious that the actual owner doesn't care. Hey, how else do you think I've been meddling around across some 25,000 acres, these last 38 years?

Out of around a thousand landowners in my playground area, there are at most twenty to thirty who ever come out and hunt. They're only here during the sixteen-day deer season. That leaves 349 days for me.

Call it "code of the west". We don't trespass anywhere near where folks actually live, or around an area with a hunt camp. The "regulars" have come to know one another, so we can avoid conflict. So far, so good, for a bunch of years.

[langenc]

Land could also be overrun w/ Obamas friends--illegals.

[dwwhite]

And a point to Art...

I had forgotten about the changes in the tax law to allow exemptions for wildlife. You also make a good point about land access in your area. I've been there once, years ago, and it did seem like there might be a few absentee landowners

Of course, a point that we're not addressing, If the OP wants lots of hogs, and the associated unlimited hunting, the western third of Texas is probably not the place to be. There are hogs here, but 2-300 acres in SE Texas will carry a lot more wildlife and support more hunters than 1000 in far west Texas. Remember that in lots of places out here, you can stand in the middle of 1000 acres and see the property boundaries, and the neighbor's boundaries, and sometimes the neighbor beyond them. It's just pretty bare.

[Art Eatman]

This is some of my playground country:

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...4&d=1021342883

The white triangle off in the distance is about five miles away--airline.

An aerial view of the eastern side of the Solitario formation:

http://www.thefiringline.com/forums/...6&d=1021565164

The vegetation doesn't show from several thousand feet above it. The first picture was taken from near the top of this one.

Fun country, if you enjoy walking-hunting a dozen miles a day...

[ClayInTx]

The parts of Texas worth living in have already been “discovered”.