I HUNT IN YOUNG COUNTY, GRAHAM, TX. BEEN ON THE SAME LEASE FOR 15 YRS. NOTHING HAS CHANGED SINCE LAST YEAR, EXCEPT THE NUMBERS OF DEER. LOWEST NUMBER OF DEER SEEN EVER. IT'S MID JAN. AND THE DEER ARE JUST NOW STARTING TO CLEAN UP THE CORN. STILL VERY FEW IN THE CAMERAS. ANYBODY IN THE SURROUNDING COUNTIES HAVING THE SAME PROBLEM? THANKS

Down 70% just vanished about 25+ mixed deer and 2-3 fawns from 30 does last year left. dozens of cam shots of local deer that are gone now. Puzzles me,, Looks to be same next door on 2800 acre block that feeds seriously.

We still have deer coming into our yard at night cleaning up accorns, they arent all gone yet. Could be part of it.

Jack County was the same this year. Plenty of deer before the Acorns fell. I have Thirteen Feeders going. Most have corn, but some have Roasted Soybeans and Purina AntlerMax Protein. The acorns trumped them all. The deer all but disappeared on film for the last two months. The rain came too late to sour the acorns during the season and wheat was poor quality until recent days. Very disappointing season, but we could see some big bucks next year.

Times like this just makes hunting go low tech and a bit exiting. Get out of blind/feeder and stalk the woods to find tracks and pattern what they are doing. Hunt trails between food sources, water holes and bedding areas.

That's why they call it hunting and not shooting. If it were easy anyone could do it. That is why I will be back next year all ready to do it again.

amen
We are on a new lease and the land manager doesn't like people to get out of their blinds, I understand why but man, staring at a feeder knowing there is 14 billion pounds of acorns on the ground just defines "an exercize in futility"

Not to mention I don't particularly like hunting over a feeder, doesn't feel much like hunting to me...

I MUCH prefer to get out and stalk and still hunt

I hunted Young county too.( NW part of county) I had the same kind of year. Never saw a shooter buck. I did see a few does and spikes. Very bad year.

hunting has been hard on our place, it's 6500 acres, managed and high fence..
first year for us there but being told it's the hardest hunt in a long time there...

since it's level 3 MLD and high fenced
it's not like we are losing deer to other places
There have only been like 14 does taken since Oct 1
should be taking 90 off for the year
and only a few nice bucks in the 160 range

there is a lot of VERY thick oak areas with tall grass (no cattle)
you could have a heard of elk and not see them

seen 2 shooters, one had the crosshairs on but passed because the shot wasn't right..

We are hunting HARD, dark to dark, all day

We have until the end of Feb, but man, my wife is going to divorce me in my quest!!

Going again in a few weeks

We are just south of Seguin FWIW

Hunted North of Jacksboro with the same results. Deer and good bucks everywhere until the acorns dropped..Been on the same lease 10 years and this was the best year for big bucks before the acorns as far as camera deer. Worst year as far as hunting.

Same here in South-East part of Archer County.

Coke county same same. I had good bucks on camera until mid September and then they just disapeared.

Sounds like the same thing we had in Mills County. I had 300-400 pics every week of deer mostly bucks and hogs. Then the acorns fell and I went from deer and hogs all hours of the day to bucks at night. Not one day time pic of a shooter all year. I finally saw a shooter on 1/1/11. Luckily for me the hours in the stand payed off.

I went to our place in Montague Co. yesterday evening, that I own. Hadn't been there, other than to feed cattle in approx. 3 weeks. We have 3 feeders that we keep going year round. Yesterday was calm and cool, an excellent looking day. There was no corn on the ground. Feeders go off in the morning and evening) and did not have any deer come in before dark. Guess I'm going to have to put my cameras back out and see what's going on. We have only 1 oak tree on 320 acres. I know the deer are there because there's tracks everywhere. Very, very strange year.

Oh I know, I know.... They were in the woods, lol!!! Naw, seriously.... They were all hiding in cover and eating natural browse!!!

I think most of them are inside the Bandera city limits.

I think there's several factors working against us.
1) Range conditions are/were too good. Too much food so the deer didn't have to work for it. They can eat where they bed and don't need to travel.

2) This weather is killing us. Warm, windy and full moon during the peak of the rut. We had nothing but dry fronts move through keeping it cold for a day or two and then warm again. No rain with the fronts. You need several days of cold to freeze off acorns and then some rain to rot them. We're just now getting cold & rainy weather. We needed this weather in Nov. The dang oak tree in my front yard is still covered in acorns.

3) Everything combined resulted in a rut that occurred mainly at night.

I've heard the old timers talk about the best deer hunting was in the worst conditions. Biggest deer killed during dry years. I read all the hype by the so called experts saying that the rains added 15-20 B&C inches to the south Texas Deer herd. I'm calling BS on that. I haven't seen it and don't know of anyone else who has either.

Just my opinion.

Clay County was the same. We did have a lot of extra activity on there during the day with ATV's, etc. Sounds like this was one of the strangest seasons for everyone. We had a herd of deer at our feeder this morning when we got to the blind at 6:00 am. I shined my flashlight towards the feeder and eyes where everywhere. I am debating on moving to another lease.

It's funny, Foard Co had some of the best ever, Baylor was average, Archer a little slower than average, Red River SUCKED.

Gillespie County- over 3 mornings n 4 nights saw 45+ mostly yearlings/doe

north stephens county slow lots of doe very few bucks and only one shooter all year my dad was lucky enough to get and rusk county was just horrible

There are no deer in Jack County. If you are on a deer lease in Jack County or are looking to get on a lease in Jack County, don't. Instead go to South Texas where there are no acorns. There just aren't any deer here. But just in case there are, I will stay here and keep watch while you venture elsewhere. I'll let you know if any show back up.

Im in Gillespie County also, Seeing the same, mostly yearling/does....uhhhh

where abouts you hunt in gillespie county if you dont mind me asking?

Nobody has mentioned that there may just be a lack of mature bucks in the woods. I know on my place the fawn crop from 4 and 5 years ago was horrible. You cant see or kill what was never there. Conversely we had a huge class of 3.5 yr olds because of that fawn crop. I have to agree it was some of the slowest hunting I have experienced.

here in south texas, we had a good year.


poor fawn crops 4 and 5 years ago definatly showed, but we saw good numbers of deer and they were healthy.