You're gonna fit right in and do just fine!
Where do you hunt?

Data is Data and Facts are Facts. Whether the deer lives in New York or Texas. Gotta hate true facts and results dont ya. Not just a few opinions that are based on one small given piece of property. Nuff Said.

we've killed deer 15 miles (straight line) away from where they have been tagged.

This is what I have learned from this thread so far > but I'm still reading so ya'll keep going.

I do not shoot does and only shoot a nice looking buck, it doesn't have to be a trophy just a good old deer. I also hunt another piece of property that we haven't shot a doe on the 40 years, well we have shot just a few maybe on opening day just to share for camp meat, but we do not do that every year. I have counted on a regular basis 15-30 Doe running with one Buck.
Hows that for game management.

WOW.

post AR = spike or greater than 13".

I am with you Justin T, can't believe they think that less deer are protected. Plain and simple, pre AR = shoot whatever buck you want, post AR = spike or greater than 13".

My family has owned land in Freestone County for 45 years. I currently have 340 acres. The size of the tracts in the area are between 40 to 70 acres. In the 70's, the land was owned by individuals. There would be anywhere from 1 to 4 hunters on each tract. It was a two buck county, and any deer with antlers was shot. In the early 80's, many of the tracts were purchased by a large mining company for lignite. They leased the land out to hunting with 2 or so hunters per tract. Here again, any deer was shot. Nearly every buck seen was a first year buck. This went on for 20 years. On rare occasion, you would see a 2 yr old buck with 8 points, and as you guessed it, he was shot too. Eventually, Freestone became a one buck county.

In 2000, the mining company decided to sell out and my neighbor and I bought up several tracts in our area. Both of us implemented self imposed AR of 8 points or better. In the 30+ years prior to 2000, I can count on one hand the number of 8 point or better bucks that my family shot off our land. We shot lots of little bucks like everyone else. However, since 2000, it is not uncommon for me to see 10 bucks on opening morning with half of them 8 points or better.

This change in hunting quality is due to a reduction in the number of hunters, letting the young bucks mature, and use of large food plots.

However, I had a neighbor who has 60+ acres and hunted the fence line and brought in 10 or more hunters. He gave them no restrictions. I cant begin to count how many times, I would let a nice young 6 or 8 point buck walk, headed their way, then 15 minutes later "BOOM". I would stop by their house and sure enough there it is hanging in a tree. I had talked them about letting the bucks grow up and was ignored. They prefered to reap the benefits of our game management without contributing any to the effort.

I petitioned TPWD to extend AR to Freestone County for 5 years before they implemented it, and I am glad that it is finally in place.

Now in 2009, my family has 5 hunters on our property, and we all shoot an AR qualified buck every year unless we held out too long waiting on the "Big One". We see nice bucks on every hunt even late into the season. Now, our typical harvested buck is 8 to 12 points with 16 inch spread. In previous years, if you did not kill a buck in the first week, your season was essentially over.

I am with you Justin T, can't believe they think that less deer are protected. Plain and simple, pre AR = shoot whatever buck you want, post AR = spike or greater than 13".

I may be missing something, but the East Texas hunters here that are complaining about the lack of deer in their AR counties used to be 1 Buck + 1 or 2 does with permits only. Now they are 1 spike + 1 buck + 2 does. It's not spike or buck, it's spike and buck and does... lots more does.

We've had similar changes in Lampasas Co., but we've got the population to support the extra tags. In fact we're up to 3 does now, 5 deer total. If these E.T. guys don't have the numbers to support all the extra tags, no wonder they're pissed. Although, I believe their anger should be directed more towards the increased tag numbers, rather than the AR part of the changes made.

Sounds like the biologists have dropped the ball in implementing AR w/extra tags in counties that can't support the increased harvest, and/or are not responding fast enough to changing conditions.

I wonder, since drought doesn't seem to be the problem in E.T., how much the economy has affected deer harvests. They say when a man loses his job, he's likely to buy a gun and go hunting to provide for his family. As mentioned in another recent thread: A country boy can survive.

And we do lump AR's and bag limit changes together, because they came together... like it or not until the state separates the two, most people still see them as one change. The state used the increased bag to "sell" the AR crap, knowing full well they'd have had a revolt over the AR's in a one buck county.

You just can't manage deer the same in Red River County as Archer or Foard or Real or LLano.... not the same place, not the same deer, not the same hunters...

How do you figure that? IN our counties it was ONE BUCK ONLY before AR's (ALL THE DOES, well over half were protected). Now it's two bucks, either 2 spikes or 1 and 1, and two does? Now all does, all spikes and all over 13's are vulnerable!!!

How are more deer protected? How did you guys ever pass the TAKS test?

I bet curly and sig and bourbonlegend and all the oyhers would not have a problem with ar if they would lower the bag limit to one deer 13in or greater and maybe 1 doe so people like us could shoot a doe for meat and let the bucks get bigger