our grandfathers and great grandfathers seemed to do just fine without ARs..What exactly do you mean by uneducated?Would that be implying that if someone was to shoot a 2.5 yr old 6 pt,they are uneducated..?

I agree with Crazyhorse about the shooting a doe instead thing. I hunt in Brazos county which was one of the ones listed on there, and we are not allowed to shoot a doe unless it is Thanksgiving weekend or if you somehow get doe tags for your property because a wildlife biologist thought some of the doe heard needs to be culled out. That means most people don't get doe tags at all so their only chance is that weekend to get a doe. Sometimes you just have to shoot one of those smaller bucks because otherwise you won't get anything at all for that year, like I did last year with the little 4 point I shot.

I won't look again...
I won't look again...
I won't look again...
I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...I won't look again...

Is it 10 am Thursday yet???

Sig226 I know your looking

I can honestly say that I have seen the reg's work to a degree as far as buck size. I have not seen anymore deer than normal but have seen better deer than normal. I honestly believe the reg's are for nothing more than trophy management of the state as a whole. I do not fault anyone for wanting to trophy hunt but don't force someone else to swallow your opinion. If a man wants to shoot a spike then so be it, if he wants to kill a 160" buck then so be it. I'll go on record as saying I am against it being implemented state wide, mainly because I agree that not all areas need it. I am not sure that the current reg's are what we needed but it's what we got so I have to live with it. If you want to manage your heard then manage it, don't expect your neighbor to manage his land or pass deer just because your trying to trophy manage your place. If your that set on it then high fence, if you can't afford it then live with it. The game was put here for everyone.

Maybe I am in the minority as far as small tract landowners go. I live on 22 acres. I have a neighbor beside me that owns 87 acres and hunts every once in a while but all he wants is a deer. He don't care if it's a fawn with horns or a new state record. He just wants a deer. on the other side of me is another 20 acre tract and no one hunts it. everything else around me is large tracts of farm land. I have several buddies who get pissed cause I won't let them hunt behind the house when I tell them I seen a 10pt down the road, or the big 12pt again. I simply tell em ONLY THE WIFE can shoot a deer behind the house and even then it had better be a good deer. She has yet to kill a deer in the 6 years I have had the place. My buddies start that, aw come on man we buds. I simply tell em, well, when you pay half the bills, cook for me, wash for me, etc. then we'll talk, otherwise shut the hell up. I don't want to shoot every deer I see but at the same time I don't want the neighbor to not be able to shoot him a deer from time to time simply because I think it was to young or the rack wasn't big enough. I can see the arguement on both sides of the fence here and agree with both to some extent. BUT the fact remains, if this becomes a state wide regulation then you have half of the hunters telling the other half what they can and can't shoot. I personally go hunting to get away, watch deer, and enjoy the peace and quiet. If I want to shoot a deer then I will go where I think my best chance is within the law. The thing that sticks in my mind is my son. What do I tell him come opening morning when a huge non typical comes out, broadside at 50 yards. Sorry son, you can't shoot him cause some YAHOO thinks you shouldn't kill a 7 year old cull that ain't at least 13" wide?.... I think not!

How many of you shot a 13" or better deer for your first buck? Stop and think about when you first started hunting. You had that burning desire to get your first deer no matter what it was. Before the shoot a spike arguement starts, I seen two different spikes this year. Both of which were yearling deer and I wouldn't shoot them because they were yearlings. So now you have the arguement of it being a spike so it's legal...BUT..it's a young deer which we are trying to keep from shooting to let them grow. I don't know what the answer is but I do believe a WHOLE LOT MORE thought needs to go into this before they just start throwing laws out there.

Antler restrictions can and do work. It would of course be better to use age restrictions but that's just totally unrealistic.

Everybody harps on the big "cull" buck that nobody will be able to kill. The real fact is that in low fence situation culling bucks has shown to have little to no effect. If you are that concerned about culling then shoot the spikes as they are legal.

I was fortunate to hunt in one of the orginal first counties to implement the restrictions. The difference has been dramatic. I have been fortunate to harvest a 162 and a 147 gross B&C on a 40 acre place with heavy hunting pressure all around. Having hunted this county for forty something years I never dreamed of harvesting bucks of this caliber.

Really good post.

What county M16?

Colorado. Here are the pictures.

Grayson county????????????????????????? archery only antler restrictions????????????????

GO OBAMA GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Don't know where you got grayson from. Check again. Colorado County.

You've got that right!

This thread has gone downhill fast!

Hold on here while I hope the fence, I gotta be careful not to catch the goods on the barbed wire........

Not too long ago I was totally against antler restrictions.........

However my thoughts have changed. A lot of it has to do with the fact that I am now on a great lease and seeing lots of deer. I am now actually able to let deer walk. Something I have never done in my life, and honestly it feels really good. I saw over 30 deer last weekend. I probably didn't see 30 deer at my place in Young county the past 3 years put together. And I am not even hunting over a feeder, and all but 3 of those deer were within bow range. I saw a nice young 8 point. Probably no more than 2.5 years old. Might have made antler restrictions. Not for sure. saw 2 other bucks that easily met the antler restrictions. Passed on all 3 of em. No remorse whatsoever. I know the young 8 due to anteler restrictions is gonna more than likely be there next year and be even bigger. Plus our buck to doe ratio is so one sided, that the antler restrictions are allowing more bucks to live and will eventually help out the buck to doe ratio. We are concentrating along with our neighbors in killing as many does as we legally can to help us out.

How about this from the TP&W web site, it is Item Number 11 in the group of Proposals under consideration for the 2009-2010 Hunting season.

It is one of the proposals TP&W is taking Public comment on at this time.

Item 11

General Open Season (With Antlerless Harvest by Permit Only) in Grayson County

The department is also considering a petition to implement a general open season (with antlerless harvest by permit only) in Grayson County. TPWD staff has determined that there is no biological necessity for retaining the current rule, which restricts lawful methods to archery equipment and crossbows, but will be seeking input from county residents prior to making any official proposal to the commission in January. The date and locations of scoping meetings in Grayson County have not been finalized.

I don't know why people are worrying about this. There are NO deeer in Grayson county at all. None in Fannin county either. Big waste of time for anyone to go hunt either of thise two counties..................

I am sitting this one out boys, got enough fires to fight right now anyway...

txbobcat i gotta disagree with your statement on 1 general point, i am the small parcel land owner and for over 20yrs i have had plenty of chances to fill a tag every year for the 20 yrs i have lived here with little effort and had plenty of deer. Now TPW has there new regs and im lucky to see a deer! the only thing that changed was the regs so cant find anything else to blame. Granted it may be working in other areas and i am happy for em but i thing they should have done a little more homework in hopkins co. before they lumped us in with other countys. I wish they would have shut the season down for a year or two instead and we would have had our MATURE deer and our deer numbers. I personally dont give a rats arse about big horns, i prefer big numbers of deer and maximum chance at taking a legal buck or doe instead of waiting days on the CHANCE you might see a legal deer.

OK, I give in... one more time, just before the whole site gets locked down...

It's about horns and in turn, money. Plain and simple.

1. Improve the health of the herd.... the herd is better than ever before in history, if anything, the carry capacity of the land is being met or exceeded, so we should take more deer.

2. Just shoot a doe.... except for the fact that most of the counties don't have any or only four days of doe season, great idea.

3. They used flawed data collected in an unscientific manner. And won't even release that data without an open records act request. I tried to get it and they want 55 cents per page for the copies...

4. Great, more government control over every aspect of your life, even what deer you like.

5. If its not about horns, then why are we measuring horns?

6. At best we are addressing half the genetic issue, and their own study (Kroll) shows little genetic correlation to spike bucks and mature bucks horn growth.

7. Need more mature bucks to breed... Nope, breeding success according to their own data is 92+%...better than the rest of the country.

8. And even if it is about horns, it's flawed there too. You can take the best ones from the gene pool, but leave the mediocre to poor bucks (less than 13 inches) to breed 92% of the does.

9. Imagine a rancher....choosing to eat the best herd bull and leave the small framed, weak muscled bull to breed. Might he get a better one from the youth...not if he's eating or selling all (or most) of the yearling (SPIKE) bulls. He's going to continue to get mediocre deer.

It's about money and control. The government being controlled by the rich, are making money and making deer hunting more about horns than hunting. IF, by chance, if they get bigger horns with this, the price of hunting only goes up again.

I know the deer belong to the state. But the state aren't the ones feeding and housing the deer.

A couple got irritated about my caliber restrictions post. It makes as much sense as this, and is based on just as much scientific research...very little. And it's still a government incursion into your life. Maybe you want the government to make all your decisions, I don't.

Thanks sig,

Reading that logic made ME feel better.

Hope it did the same for you,

(now back to your little blue pills)

You just couldnt stay away could you??

I guess I have gotten to a point, where I have more than enough small basket racks stored in totes, and laying around the house. Now I want some big stuff. And the antler restrictions should help me achieve that.

I used to be one of the guys that didn't care, all I wanted to do was shoot a deer, but somewhere between then and now my thoughts have changed. I guess a lot has to do with the new place I am hunting. It has been strictly managed for a long time and I can tell what a difernce it has made.