I have a 1000 acre place in north tx, Chilldress specifically. I mainly hunt a 150-200 acre wheat field and tend to see a lot more does than bucks. I also have two game cameras on the place. One on the wheat field on a feeder and another on a game trail close to a bedding area. I see a lot more does than bucks on these cameras as well. This brings me to think I need to keep shooting does. I shoot about 4-5 a year and one management buck. I have been doing this for about 5 years. I am the only hunter on the place.

Last year when picking up a buck from the taxidermist I mentioned to him how many doe I see, but also how many bucks I see that have broken tines and beams. For anyone familiar with the area you know we've been in a terrible drought for the last 5 years. I assumed the drought and poor nutrition to be the main causes of the broken antlers on our bucks, but the taxidermist had a different idea. He believes the broken antlers were due to a buck/doe ratio is actually buck heavy and competition and fighting is what causes the antlers to break.

I guess my question is, what has more of an impact on broken antlers? Competition or nutrition?

I bet it is primarily due to fighting.

Bucks are going to break antlers if you have a good age structure. They will fight more the tighter the ratios get.

Good problem to have

Broken antlers in the panhandle have been a common thing long before the drought hit. They fight a lot and the added body weight compared to deer further south puts a lot of pressure on those antlers. Two bucks that may weigh 250 or so are some seriously strong animals.

Fighting. Though that brings up the question,"why aren't you seeing more bucks"?

There are so many deer on this place I see bucks all the time. I just see a lot more does than bucks. It's like a lot of places that have only been managed for 10 years or less. Couple 6's lots of 8's but starting to see some decent 10's. Every once in a while I'll catch a freak that wonders by my camera at 2 am, but it's rare.

It's 1000 acres so it's manageable but there is intense hunting pressure in this area. I can count 5 stands that are not mine from the one stand I have on the place. And these deer move quite a bit, but this makes for awesome hunting during the rut.

This deer doesn't have a lot of mass, but this is pretty common.

We guide on a 2500 area place on the North Childress County line and have found that nutrition plays a big part in broken tines and beams. The resident bucks that eat the Total Deer Protein that we feed tend to do a lot better in the fights than the neighboring bucks that wander in during the rut.Of the bucks that we had pics of during the spring eating Total Deer we only had two with broken tines last year. The visiting bucks had about 10 tines broke and 2 main beams. This year I have already seen two broken tines on a 1/4 section that we do not have protein on down the road from the main ranch.

A ranch I've cull shot in So Texas has had a State Game Biologist and a private one. They and my Buddy and I have told the land owner for years to take does and spikes, and take them early. Don't feed & breed and wonder why your bucks are poor, you have excessive amounts of cull bucks, and a weakened environment . We tried to get a 2 doe to 1 buck ratio, but even taking 25-35 animals a yr off 1800 acres we may have gotten a 4-1 ratio. And only this year, 10 yrs later is he finally talking about removing spikes!

Childress, Quanah, Crowell, Paducah has been hit hard by the droughts. Only the very north and south edges of those counties have decent fawn crops the last two years. Overall numbers are down because of it. Visiting with the GW there and he said the exact same thing.

Nutrition plays a part, as does competition, and with the closer to 1 to 1 ratio, it makes it even more competitive with the low birth rate/survival rate

Good info, thanks for sharing.

I have to agree with Sig...Our place is between Childress and Paducah. I tracked and scouted all early season and quickly came to the conclusion that something was "wrong", bad wrong. Not seeing NEARLY the number of deer as in the past 10 years. Like 50% less. There is also a "generational gap" in that I havent seen a deer 1 that I would judge at a year&1/2 old. That heat wave two summers ago appears to have taken more of a toll than we realized. The 3 or 4 big shooter bucks(not the same deer) that are typically on our place every year - gone. It is so bleak that I have made the tough decision to put the guns up this year and just let them all walk. I'd say the drought has set our herd back 4-5 years..maybe more. We just cant afford to take deer out of an already withered herd.

The drought has been brutal for our area. IMO you should still harvest soe cull bucks.

Speaking of 1.5 year olds. I was really happy to see this guy on the camera this summer.

I had a lease in that area the last couple years and the buck to doe ratio was like 3 to 1. Every buck had broken antlers..

would say most is from fighting seen two Nice bucks run right past bow stand chasing a doe, one buck missing right side of beam, rush cool story

has the rain helped this year any?

Fighting ours break up every year just part of it in the panhandle

Yes rain has def. been helpful, our deer look better, plus we have a good fawn crop this year. Mass is also better this year, deer are not hitting feeders as hard, I think there is a lot of browse. We are 25 mi. Southwest of Childress.

Saw my place in August and it nearly brought tears to my eyes. I hardly recognized it because it was so green and lush. Numbers are up drastically and the most notable thing was the number of quail I saw. The quail in the first covey I flushed were so big I thought they were pheasants!

Yea aggie forgot about the quail, we have seen coveys up to 21 birds, first in years, dad kept everyone from hunting them said leave the seed birds alone. I guess the old man knew what he was talking about.

I dont know about the ratio of bucks to does in the wild but in town, Childress could stand to have a few more "does"

I hunt near Quanah..our heard is healthy with lots of does and mature quality bucks as well as 1.5-2.5 year old bucks..mainly because the grossbeck creek runs through the property and the game has water year round..quail numbers are way up..so we have been blessed..we will take our limit of does this year.