Hunting in Loving County: Mostly Private Land

Mule deer and pronghorn antelope work the creosote flats and low ridges out here in the Trans-Pecos desert. Pronghorn are the harder tag to come by: Texas Parks and Wildlife runs the harvest on a permit basis and hands those permits to qualifying landowners, not to the general public.

That landowner piece is the whole story in Loving County, because there is essentially nowhere here that isn't somebody's ranch. Public ground open to hunting barely exists. No permission, no hunt. It's that simple, and a handshake with the person who owns the fence line is where any season starts.

There's a TPWD wildlife biologist assigned to this county who tracks the local herds and can talk you through the rules and the current season dates. Their contact lives on the agency's Trans-Pecos county listing. Give them a call before you ever load the truck, because half the time the biologist can point you toward a ranch that's looking to fill tags.