You don't think it may not be the rules that are affecting the deer population but maybe some other reason?

No don i dont. I have owned the land and hunted it for 30 yrs now and talk with my neighbors and all have the same results. I think the ar rules are working just not the bag limits. A 4 deer limit is to high in our county. I usually take 1 deer a year and dont shoot does anymore simply because i cant see it with the deer numbers shrinking the way they are. I like the 13in rule but not the taking of a spike and a 13in buck and 2 does.

I was thinking maybe coyotes could be one of the problems. I know around here it is.

We sure have our fair share of yotes. but havent seen any more than usual. At my place its a instant death sentence if i can get em in range. A pack killed my dog several years ago so no quarter given.

We saw quite a few 13+ inside spread deer in south Nacogdoches County. My son-in-law killed this buck (region's Big Game Award Low-fence winner, 2013) and I killed this one with 18" inside spread last year. (I'm about a foot taller and 120 pounds heavier, so scaling by person doesn't work that well.) It seems like the ARs are working there...

Both nice bucks.

My buddy down in Lavaca County, one of the original counties with AR restriction, has seen vast improvement in both numbers and quality. The Halletsville KofC Big Buck contest pictures also back up this assertion.

Wife and I have owned our place for about 12 years. The prior owner let his kids kill any and all deer, so when we got the place there weren't very many deer. And the deer we had were runty and had small forked racks. But I started feeding year round and shooting the one buck allowed, which was usually a spike. Then the AR rules came in, and I don't remember when that was, but I followed the rules and I believe my neighbors did, and deer size and rack size got better and better. The grandson killed a really nice 8 point this past season. It was a beautiful buck that I had passed on twice, hoping the grandson would get him. I will continue to hunt the 'tall spike' that I can never find, in 3 years of trying.

Like the OP, I used to live and hunt in Louisiana. We were close to the Mississippi River in the low lands. The last buck I killed over there weighed just under 300 pounds and had a big thick beamed and palmated 9 point rack. There will never be a day that I'll see anything like that here in central Texas, but that's Ok. And I should mention that the big bucks and big racks came about after antler restrictions were implemented on the place. I was not in favor of it, but my opinion changed after a couple of years. Maximum deer body weight went from about 250 max to almost 300.

I have always been a supporter of ARs especially in E TX as I hunted there for over twenty years with a lot of that on public land. Last year was the first year that I got on a lease with the 13" rule and it was pretty amazing...considering it was in the hill country. There just weren't many 13+ bucks that I saw but there's an easy explanation for it which explains why they instituted the rule in that county...it was a very heavily hunted county....but there were some!

Well i dont think the problems at my place are AR related as much as they are bag limit problems. When u go from 1 deer to 4 its gonna take its toll when the numbers werent that great to begin with,

I agree with this statement. Only been hunting E TX for 4 years now, but it seems like the issue is too many people on too small properties with too many tags. I manage my property but have surrounding neighbors that have 4-5 guys + kids hunting on <100 acre properties. These folks are just doing their thing and I am all for that, but it's whole lot different than other parts of TX I hunted that had similar or higher deer per square mile but it was unusual to see more than 1 person per 150-200 acre. Seems this should be taken into account in tag allocations.

Lou

I have a hard time giving the state permission to take something away from us. They cut redfish back to 3 per person-per day how many years ago? And according to all the research I have seen, we have had more redfish in the last 10 or 12 years than we ever had before. Record numbers. But they have yet to adjust limits to account for it. I'm not saying to go crazy, but add 1 more to the limit, or change the slot limit a little. Hasn't happened yet. Not sure it ever will. Another example would be, how many of you guys actually squirrel hunt any more. Some for sure, but I promise the number of "Squirrel hunters" we have is way down from 20 years ago. I count myself in that as well. I use to live for Squirrel hunting, but over the years, I have got to where I may focus on them once, maybe twice a year. But the allotment per day is the same since I've been a kid. But this isn't likely to happen because once the state takes it, we rarely if ever get it back. We should be careful what we ask for. I would agree that they should do a better job on accurate deer population counts per county and such, but as the old saying goes, "Lets not cut off our nose to spite our face". JMO of course! I hunt/live in Polk county here in east Texas and commute to Harris county to work. I see more deer in route in recent years than ever before. Man, I have to dodge them in the Liberty city limits sometimes and even in Baytown on occasion but it's also relative to the part of the county your in and how much human encroachment there has been over the years. Some areas have suffered, but the areas that haven't seen this are looking great! I'm all for doing right for our wildlife, but again, we need to be careful of what we ask for.

East TX deer at Holly lake. [img]https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/pics/..._34707678925689[/img]

250 to 300 weight was in MS or LA? Sure as heck not east tex.

Got a friend who lives in holly lake and its beautifull but since there is no hunting allowed in the area u cant use that as a guide line in hunting east tx.

"East Texas" can be a little broad. I havent ever hunted Smith county but Anderson county has some monsters

Real broad, too broad for a 5 County limited study to be applied over 100 counties...

AMEN VERNON!