Anyone know of any decent public deer hunting within 2 or 3
hours of there that ain't a draw for a tag? I know that
for such a huge state TX don't have much public land.

He can get to the National Forests around Huntsville within 3 hours. Some pretty nice bucks there when compared to what I see in South Alabama. Should be within 3 hours of some stuff in Oklahoma as well.

Is he moving there?

Good luck with that. His options are slim and none, especially living in the Dallas area. Have him join the Texas Hunting Forum. Lots of info on that site.

He needs to make wealthy friends.

Born and raised in Dallas. It's a rich man's sport there. Most hunters have a lease in Central TX and it's an annual hang out with your frat buddies type of thing. Definitely not a way of life there. Sam Houston is 300+ acres of public land (3 hours away). That is the only viable option for public land. If the meth cooks and hobos camping out there don't get you, might have a chance. I have not figured out the terrain or deer there at all. I go there about twice a year and have never seen any deer unless it was munching in my parents flower bed.

Some nice lakes around Dallas to fish.

The only place I have ever been that was hotter than Alabama.

Best advice it to skip this year. He might pick up a weekend doe or axis hunt for a reasonable price. He needs to cultivate contacts and possibly get on a lease he can afford next year. Lots of people have been priced out. They just take a week off work and go hunt New Mexico or Oklahoma public lands.

Oklahoma is slap full of public land whereas Texas has very limited options. Tell him to join the Texas forum and some of the FB pages. There’s a good bit of opportunities posted there.

Well for a while at least. His company has a "traveling team"
that goes all over training setting up new machines
and such. He says he will probably be there through winter.

Hes not rich but makes good money and has no wife or kids
so I guess hes almost rich. He loves to fish too so that will help.

My good friend was forced to move there several years ago. He settled in Rockwall. He will be up hunting for the next 10 days so I'll pick his brain a little and get back with you.

I lived out there for awhile..if you gonna hunt on private..it will take thousands to hunt anywhere decent close to the golden triangle..east texas aint much more than here..but huntins similar also..west texas..northeast and northwest all offer purty good hunting..but they aint much in the way of public..tell him to look into state parks..some of them offer the best hunting and theres several in the hill country that allow a good bit of acess with opportunities for free range exotics…axis,fallow,four horn sheep..some baboons and kangaroos too..all escapees from ranches that have flourished..i was on my way to the big pink rock park..inside joke🤠..an seen several monkeys of some kind..ive nearly hit some big axis bucks up that way too. The whitetail are not huge but there are some nice ones in the hill country..not like extreme southwest texas tho.

There's the Caddo/LBJ grasslands just north of Decatur which is close to Dallas. I hunted it around 20 years ago, there's deer there but it's like most public land hunting, it can be crowded unless you go farther in than most people will go and that's if they still allow hunting on it. You can find meat hunts for exotics on just about every corner out there, last time I priced those, they were less than $1000 depending on what you wanted to hunt.

If he has time, have him check out Nilgai hunting on public land too, those things are tasty