Love it, it keeps the law fearing maniacs from shooting every deer they see. To the poster that recommended as long as its close and process in your garage I hope you get a ticket. When in doubt you just don't shoot.

It's all about money and elitist egos, same thing happened with GCCA many years ago. I know folks who frown on you keeping a fish to eat...catch and release you know! Some folks just got to have horns, some of us could care less...but we don't represent the "money" end of what is no longer a sport, but big business in a lot of areas in this state. Big horns, Big money!!!!! Boils down to this, I don't care if you want to hunt horns, thats your business. Now though, the state has got into mine because money has spoken. It has been tried in other states and they have abandoned ARs. Genetics are what they are. If both of your parents and all there kin average 5'5", it's a pretty good bet you ain't gonna grow up to be 6'8'!

Probably because very few people can accurately judge age on the hoof. Based on what I see on this forum anyhow, and I would consider this a highly educated class of hunter.

AR probably helps in some places to some degree , but it also makes for problems in others ....
i have seen a fair share of mature bucks that were not legal pretty quickly after this rule started ....
it eliminated the people like myself who would have shot the monster 6 at my feeder last year .....
big tall heavy basket racked and mature .....
and the giant 4 on one side 2 on the other ....mature also ...
both obvious cull bucks ,both not legal the 4 x2 had the 2 side straight up so he wasnt wide enough either .....

That will never happen just so you know. The reason ar's are in affect is bc TPWD wad tired of seeing so many 2.5 yo deer coming in. It's not to grow bigger antlers, it was put in place to help the age structure. And some day, they might refine it, and if you're county had ar's, it can be dropped, but the only way that will happen is if the age of the deer on average goes to mature.

Really didn't need to go any farther than this post. I had to passs on the biggest buck I would have ever taken on opening weekend Sunday. He is a very heavy, long tined, long beamed, tall, yet narrow 11 pt. He may squeak by at just over 13 but I didn't risk it. Oh well, hope he makes it. My guess is he just dosen't have the genetics to be a very wide deer.

I agree with some of the comments above. I'd say 13" inside, more than four years old, or gross scores above 125. That will protect most of us. Look at this one, for example.

Maybe some day the TPWD will wise up and use the points system like Missouri. I think that would help all of you guys in the counties with the narrow racks. Until then use your best judgement and be careful.

I had to let 2 like that one walk last year because it was too close to call in Tyler County!!!

that deers not that close, I got him at about 15 inches I would guess.

How do you figure? According to TPWD both ears have to be in alert position and that one's right ear is back!!!

I think TPWD are trying to help get bigger deer...ARs is the only they can think of. Not everyone can judge age/score very accurate. Including myself. So if they changed the law to only shoot 5.5 or older or deer that score 125" or better it would be worse cause people couldn't do it. Same as ARs some people can't do it as good as others. Look at killemall he thinks that deer is close to 15" others think he isnt legal or is barely legal...you just can't expect everyone to be able to do everything the same

First I bet both ears are about the same, second that appears to be a mature animal, third lose the velvet, he is going to be right at the tips of ears. TPWD say use the ears as a guide line, the rule is thirteen inches. Start measuring the legal deer you shoot and see what it really is. Mississippi estimates that width to be 15". Based on what I have on my wall and have shot that is may more reality than 13" in texas. Now I dont hunt an area know for low weight deer so I cant speak to lets say llano deer. I have some mounts that are barely outside the ears. That are 16-17 inches. if the 13 was the rule they would be 13.5 to 14 inches. They are 4-5 year old and up deer and I don't know the head size difference between a 1.5 and a 4.5 but I assume its a little bigger. I know that when shooting mature animals that are to the ears I have never even been close to the 13" mark. I am sure someone will have a different take but that is my experience.

I am on my 5th year of AR hunting and still haven't got an over 13 buck yet. Three of those years were in east Texas where there was a 2 week doe season and i never got a shot at a doe. I did see several narrow racked deer that i wasn't able to shoot and one year i was able to take a very young small spike ( it was nice to taste deer meat again after several unsuccessful seasons ). Ar suck for people who have low numbers of deer and just want to harvest something.

when in dount pull out......or sorry wrong thing. when in doubt dont shoot......i guess it works either way...

Well, your thinking wrong. As I stated before, it's age structure. If yall east texas guys dont want AR's, quit shooting the young wide deer. Let them grow, and AR's will disappear. And I agree, a 5.5 rule would be good. And who knows, get some guys together, and a petition, and it could very well happen.

I agree with the attempt to try to age the herd though where I am there are predominantly narrow tall racks, over half the deer I have on camera don't even have brow tines; yet they are 2.5 yr old forked horned deer. At my last place we had a little buck we kept seeing with his first set of spikes. I considered shooting him knowing my neighbor would. I decided not to be "that guy", my neighbor stopped over to tell me he shot a little spike with a .300 Win because he wanted to see what it did on a live animal. I thought my wife was going to shoot him. Problem is I don't think AR's would have stopped him if it was forked horn, he just wouldn't have told me...

That is the precise reason they exist, to stop people from shooting the first thing that moves. I'm sorry you have had such bad luck. I remember when I was a kid we used to hunt all year, and just seeing a deer was huge (saw three total in one year).

I fully support AR. Too many people only want to shoot a buck and they are indiscriminate about which one they shoot. I am sick and tired of seeing people show up at the locker plant with a 1.5 8pt that would have been huge in three years. "Well hell, he's got 8 points!" These same people are the ones that complain about never seeing anything bigger. How dense can somebody be? If this stops that from happening, thank goodness.

tpw should worry about quantity and let the personal preference of hunters dictate quality. If folks were seeing few good deer..that's a quantity issue. To fix that though and boost buck numbers, let's give folks a yearling spike tag. I'm pretty much convinced when it comes to management (and by looking at NF mgmt) that those "in charge" couldn't pour pee out of a boot with the instructions on the heel.

For those who say the purpose of ARs is to improve the age structure of the herd and NOT to allow bucks to grow bigger antlers, tell me what the advantage of an "improved" age structure is.

x2 I am for AR's in my area but I am smart enough (I think) to know they are not perfect for every where. TPWD could use a little more input from some educated hunters. I still believe there needs to be some sort of AR's because some people just want to "Kill Something".

You seem to think that everyone cares about those stupid horns on there heads. And how does it affect you if someone takes a 1.5 year old deer every year vs a 4.5 year old.

Chris does your place have more buck than doe?

The place i am on now is about 1 to 1. I have seen a couple of mature deer this year but haven't connected yet. I have also hunted with friends and family in east Texas and you don't allways see a lot of deer unless you hunt long and hard. I have hunted every weekend since bow season started, but not everyone gets to spend that much time in the woods. My father works on the road and only gets to hunt a couple of weekends a year. No matter how big the antlers are on his deer they are going in the trash when he gets home.