Back in the blind here in South Stephens county. Calm wind, overcast and damp, feels good but not hopeful given our luck this year. Nothing but rabbits and crows so far.

Same here in Stephens County. A whole lot of nothing and Nada. Last year my feeder was nicknamed the deer brothel cuz of all the deer, this year, not very many at all. I've had only one oppuritunity this season to put meat in the freezer, and that was a little lone spike that I let my 7yr old take a shot at(he missed, first deer he ever got to shoot at, nervous I guess.
Whats weird is during the rut we had 2 nice mature bucks taken from the same spot about 100 yards from mine on the same day, one in the morning another in the afternoon, but since then its been slim Pickens.

I'm hunting two places this year; one near Putnam, west of Cisco, and one near Carbon, south of Eastland. At Putnam, the deer quantity and quality has been poor for the past three years. We are new at Carbon, so don't know what to expect, but I think the previous hunters shot anything that moved. I have hundreds of pictures of does at night, but have seen only a few does and small bucks in daylight. At two of my feeders, I have yet to see any kind of deer in the daylight.

First weekend in November, I saw a couple of bucks showing some half-hearted interest in does and I took a decent 9-point on November 13, that was clearly chasing does hard. I went back December 10 and 11, hoping to see a second rut, but saw nothing.

One of my feeders was covered up with deer, day and night until November 1, when the traffic dropped to almost nothing...acorn drop?

Not sure what all this means, but if it was too easy, it would be called "shooting" instead of "hunting."

We've really only been seeing a few does and really young bucks. FIL shot a doe last night and we took it down to the Rust plant near cisco for processing.

The owner there said that numbers are way down for deer this year, which normally means she gets higher hog numbers. But she said even hog nunbers were down. I think there's just too much natural food around with the lack of real prolonged cold snap. So they just dont really need corn. We know we have a ton of hogs, but havent seen one in daylight all season.

Yesterday was my last hunt, didn't pull the trigger all season, only had 2 chances in 20+ sets. 1 spike and 1 doe. I saw 5 deer all season.

Writing this one off as a bad season and hoping it just means there's more animals around next year.

Ditto!

I hunt on a fairly large ranch that covers both Eastland and Stephens Counties. I have actually seen more deer this year than last, but I attribute it to a new blind setup location that is in a natural funnel from bedding areas. While I haven't seen a bunch of deer at feeders until last night, I have glassed them coming through the funnel, probably heading to a creek. Most of the other guys on the ranch have seen very little though. Fawn crop definitely has been down the last few years, but was encouraged to see 3 separate sets of does with yearling fawns.

Just south of Breck saw two bucks tonight getting my hopes up!

big acorn crop this year

I just finished my 5th hunting season in Stephens county with OK results ... at the end. Like most of the posters to this thread, we have been VERY slow for the biggest portion of the year. When we pulled the trail cam cards on the 20th, we had good numbers of daytime bucks and does since the start of December. I had 3 possible shooters ... two nice 8s with a couple of kickers and a barely AR legal 7 that was 3.5 years old. With only 3 days to hunt, I was happy to take the management 7 when he walked out the second morning. I have some good venison and a couple of nice deer that might make really nice in a year.

I have taken late season management deer at the end of the year for three of the last four years (I did take a really nice 130 inch 8 last year opening weekend), so that is cool. The difference was this was my first chance of the season when I could have shot a management buck virtually any weekend. Looking forward to a better year next year. Good luck to those who are still searching!!!

The acorn crop is an every other year event, according to my nephew the horticulturist. Last year seemed much better than this year, so next year I'm hoping will be much better. The locals at the feed store in Ranger all say this deer season has been very poor.

With the drought starting in 2011 and a very poor fawn crop that year the area is pretty much missing the age deer that most shoot around the area I hunt in Eastland County. I look for this year and the next couple years to be hard hunting with the low numbers of fawns in 2011 through 2013, this year seemed to be a better fawn crop but without timely rains do not look for a fast bounce back. Of course I could be wrong, have been before and will be again I am sure.

Good luck there are still some good ones out there in the 4.5+ year old brackets, just those older age bucks especially pattern us a lot better than we pattern them.

Your not wrong. I live south of Breckenridge. Has nothing to do with acorns, has to do with no or very few fawns. Need lots of coyotes killed. That will help the 2015 fawn crop a little. Tough couple of years to come, get ready. Drought has been very hard on out Deer and Turkey population.

I guess my spot is not the norm Stompy. We have had a decent fawn crop, though not great. I will see up to 50 turkeys at a time in a set I have close to some big oaks and deep creek. You are spot on though about coyotes, they are really multiplying the last few years.

I've had some folks around the county say they still have Turkeys. But for the most part the population is down. My fawn crop has been running about 20% since 2011. I'm sure there are some areas a little better. I have heard that around the lake is a little better.
Here on my ranch for this year I have decided not to take any Does this year. May not take any next year either.

I have a shoot on sight policy on my place and take as many as I see. I plan on spending some time post season to try and thin the yote herd on my place. Way too many.

I think we all have too many. I know I have a bunch, saw 3 big yotes the other day but were on the edge of rifle range and moving.

I have good turkey and fawns this year. But I have been killing coyotes like mad for the last two years. Before I started on the coyotes I would see about two fawns for every ten does, this year I see about eight fawns for every ten does. Kill coyotes, it will help and it is pretty fun.

I am south of Breckenridge.

I've been at lease SW of Breckenridge since Xmas and seen plenty of does but maybe two mature bucks, one at last light and one at 300 yards so couldn't judge too well on either. I'm thinking of packing it in unless someone tells me the deer are going to start popping out like crazy!

Opening weekend was normal seeing some small bucks and doe come to the feeder. Then it all went south and have seen so few of deer after that. I was down the weekend of december 20 and the bucks are starting to come in to the feeders again and hanging together. A 9 point made it and is hitting the feeder again. I am looking for a long brow tine 8 point to see if he made it and these will be shooters for next year. In years past even when the doe did not go to the feeder they would always graze in the opening in front of my stand and cross onto the north property so I would always see 5 to 15 deer per hunt. I have sit many days this hunting season and would see only 1 or 2 deer and sometimes none. I was lucky on opening weekend to bag a nice 8 that I passed last year and took all the hunting pressure off me this year as I was able to enjoy my time in the stand. I think the abundant rainfall and warm weather has everything so green and plush that the deer just stay in the cover. Hopefully next season will bring a large crop of fawns. Good luck everyone this last weekend of hunting.

Stay, the deer are going to start popping out like crazy!

My latest eastland county report. Got in yesterday about 3 pm and hunted the evening. Didn't see a deer. Pulled my card from my camera and I didn't have a single deer (that the camera picked up) come to the feeder between December 12th and December 28th. Did have a few deer show up New Years eve and New Years day. Haven't seen any deer this morning. Not sure what's going on out here.