Rank worst deer hunting counties

Other than the obvious populated counties, what are the worst counties based on your experiences.

Low Deer numbers
Poachers
Harvest limits
Price to lease

Something tells me The county I'm in will lead the list......

Not an AR fan so, any county with AR's.

Hmmmm....

Last study I read had high plains pan handle area as the lowest success rate (something like 25%) for whitetail and
Edwards plateau as the best (about 75% success rate)

Howard!!! Ain't seen no deer in year's, that's why I shoot a 300 Weatherby. I've got to reach all the way into Glasscock County if I want a shot.

Wherever I am at this year, or so it seems.

Red River Co. can be tough from personal experiance

Our last years lease in Throckmorton was absolutely horrible. Worst lease ever. I saw 2 deer in one hunt, and that was all I saw all season. Seriously, 2 deer total. But, I think it depends on your location within the county or the property you hunt. This property was set up bad, neighbors were bad (hunted our fence lines), and too many hunters for the large open areas we had.

I am now in Stephens County, outside of Breckenridge, and it's the best area and deer lease I have been on.

Lmao @ HWY_MAN! Too funny lol

your nose is growing Mike

OK to be honest once you pass the working pens going south your actually in Glasscock County.

Hunt Co...once bow season starts the deer leave the county.

Tried that too a long time ago. One season was enough for me.

The illegal dog hunting was still bad in Newton county until about 10 years ago. It made for some real bad deer hunting. But since the poaching was stopped by the wardens, deer numbers are on the rise. It seems like every year gets better.

i hunt RRC and see lots of deer

My first thought was "wherever I am hunting" too....

My wife says I am cursed and the deer laugh at me behind the trees.

I am bound to prove her wrong, eventually....

Our part of Wood County has progressively experienced tougher hunting the past few years.
And that includes spikes and does.

No doubt. When I was younger, I usually killed a deer within 1st week of season and it was nothing to see 3-6 deer on almost every hunt. My last 5 years have gone like this. 2011 - saw 6 deer in 15 or so hunts, nothing legal. 2012 - saw 3 deer in 20 hunts, killed a doe thanks giving weekend. 2013, saw 4 deer in 8 hunts, killed a 14" wide 8 point opening morning of bow season. 2014 - saw 2 deer in 25 hunts, I could not even tell if the were doe or buck. This year, saw 5 deer, killed a young spike in bow season.

Tough does not describe the hunting now days in Wood County.

Throckmorton is my #1. It is not totally devoid of deer but it is way over hunted in general. Too many Dallas guys who drive F250's so they can make it 50 yards from the paved road to their camper pulling their 4 wheeler. #2 would be Fannin. Looks great but not much there.

I see what you did there

Way too many people in the metro mess who have jacked up 4x4's with big ole tires who act the part but it painfully obvious the worst conditions their "truck" has seen are the pot holes driving to school


My nephew was asking me the other day why I didn't have a f250 or 350. I said "I don't need one"

He didn't understand. But he is 7, not 37

That must have been terrible

The worst hunting I ever experienced was in Upshur county.

I've heard lots of bad things about throckmorton from some people who used to hunt the county line. Young county was always good but I heard throckmorton was nothing but weekend warriors.

I concur! I grew up hunting Upshur County and it was something exciting if someone even saw a doe. I have only seen one legal buck since the antler restrictions went into effect. I have access to my parent's land to hunt but don't even bother anymore. It is basically just a bird and squirrel watching venture.

Could be high time for Throckmorton to institute ARs; just saying....

Interesting thread. I've hunted Young County for 9 years now and Jack County for 5. I have no real complaints for them - they've been good to me. I allways figured neighboring Throckmorton would be an awesome place since it didn't have AR's - maybe not. I will say about AR's - I'm ok with them now after hunting with them for the last few years.

Oh, man, have I got a county for you fellas to avoid.

Austin County, where my place is, has the weirdest deer that are very reactive to shots. They move in a fashion that causes the shooter to seemingly always hit them low and back, the proverbial "gut punch". That is assuming it's a hit at all, and not a total whiff.

Really a huge black eye on our county. Steer clear, guys!

Y'all stay out of Coleman County too, we've got the same problem. Total waste of time.

Haven't had much success in Harrison County. Probably best to stay outta that county, too.

I was also on a lease in Throckmorton county last year. It was shot out. I have no idea why that's still a five deer county. We were in a prime area and only deer we saw were on trail cam at night.

Because you have a bunch of idiots in Austin making the laws and most of them have never hunted before. Just like the 13" spread rule. Look at any set of game cam pics or harvest pics. Deer in South and West Texas naturally grown larger and wider and deer in North and East Texas grow much narrower because of the environment. But some damn "wildlife biologist" in Austin decided after looking at the state as a whole that 13" was the minimum.

Heard alot of the counties on the border of the antler restriction counties west of DFW (ones around throckmorton) got tons of pressure after the rules were inacted, guess the "if its brown its down" crowd ran out there and leased alot of that land up. Plenty glad to have the AR in the counties I hunt.

can you explain that theory?

like someone else said, AR's would probably greatly improve that counties deer.

With ARs being implemented for quite sometime now,
shouldn't we all be experiencing the best hunting ever?

We are, I honestly think it is up to whether the locals follow the rules or abuse them. I know some guys in east texas that when they upped the bag limits to two bucks and added doe days thats as far as they read in the rule book, "AR be d@mned we can now shoot 4 deer in gun season instead on just one buck!", your gonna have a population collapse with that mentality...

I'll throw my vote in for Red River County as well. My 80 acres are completely devoid of whitetail deer, at least when I'm there. The bucks I do see are narrow 1.5 to 3.5 year olds and almost never a doe. I don't spotlight tho, so that may be why.

I guess the TP&W shoulda known better.

AR's have improved my hunting. I used to never get any deer, now every year my hunting gets better.
Years ago this was the best I would ever see.



last year seeing ones like this.

I remember when game cam pics like this got me excited.



Now I get pics like this regularly. Of course not during hunting season.

This is a "worst deer hunting counties" thread.

LMAO, yeah, but even after years of not being here people still complaining about AR's. So I thought I would post some pics of an AR county.

I would rank Ector as worst. There may be some deer there now but 30 years ago all we had to hunt was blue quail and it was great. Bobwhites worked their way in there around 1987. I poached a renegade antelope around 1991 on a buddy's place south of Odessa but I never killed a deer in Ector county.

They were told better....... and they know better now, but are too far along to change. Bad science. If the counties won't stand the strain, there's no way it can work.

Where would y'all put Lamar?
Being Adjacent to Fannin and near Red River I think it's in the same boat. I'm hunting SE Lamar near the Fannin line between Roxton and Honey Grove.

Ector-County. Has always had. Huge-Mulies.
Not so much Whitetail.

Its either based on opinion or facts and neither one is accurate. If a guy kills a good deer in a county he thinks its great while the next 5 never kill any thing in the same county. Also alot of those that do kill good deer in that county keep it quiet, especially locals.

Amen!

If its not 13" wide its most likely a young un'. Pass em up and let them grow. If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.

If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.
If you want meat.. Shoot a doe.

Doe days are over in most AR counties.

Yep. Its hard to shoot a doe when season is 4 days, and those days flood.

Agreed on that. 4 day doe season sucks. Even another 4 day doe season around xmas would be nice

Get a crossbow, you have the entire month of october, and some of september to shoot does while they're still stupid, after the boomsticks start going off poof! they're gone.

Yeah I bow hunt but I'm usually hoping to catch a buck before they disappear in October.

And it's too hot to mess with a slick head that early.

Archery season, doe days....still doesn't add to the fact that deer hunting has
basically sukked so far this season in a lot of East Texas counties.

I hunt in Harrison. The hunting is fantastic.

A little cull 10 from a few years ago.

bragger

Where have you seen these mule deer in Ector County. I've seen some Giants in Andrews and Crane counties while working cattle but I've never seen a mulle deer in Ector county.

The man received and studied a ton of actual data, so yes, he's serious Eddie.

I'm surprised to see Red River County listed several times in this thread. My son got this nice 9 pt about a month ago at our lease in Red River County and we had a great season there in 2014 too.

Limestone has to be up near the top...

AR Restrictions have improved the deer hunting here in Cass County. Glad they did it. We have seen more deer and much more mature bucks these days compared to my HS days.

Good for y'all! Bad for us that have basically seen no improvement.

I'm in Comanche Co. And I've seen a lot of nice deer this year.. The only thing is they've only been on the trail camera after dark. The only deer I've seen at the feeder during hunting hours was a nice looking 6 point, and of course he was not quite 13"

The older they get, the smarter and the more nocturnal they get.