Yes they work, not perfect but better than before we had them

I have heard the same thing. Although the system seems to work.
You would think it would crash with scrawny deer left to do the breeding.

Is your place not eligible for MLD? If so, problem solved, assuming you get enough tags to clean up the undesirables.

AR's work, not perfect, but they do slow down the harvesting of young bucks... Which is what it is designed to do. Said it before and will again, managing deer is easy, managing hunters is the hard part...

The buck to doe ratio has tripled where I hunt because of AR. You actually see alot more 2,3, and 4 year old deer. If your lucky a 5 year old or older. It allows me to pass more 4 year olds and that's the recipe for big bucks. Downside is that the bucks are always busted up from fighting. More bucks more competition. This year it has really shown. Also finally recovered from those horrible droughts years ago. It's all coming back around for the better.

If your only 15 miles away I would guess they are already there, just have to let them get some age on them...

in our area, ARs have made the deer go from a bunch of 6 points to 14" 8 points...whipty dooo. everyone agrees that an extra year or two or even three is what their areas need in general, and TPWD thought that 13" spread rule would do that, but it really doesn't. They could look to the north where big natural native deer are the norm. and see what they do. Some states don't have a rifle season at all, and if they do its 7-14 days long. And the entire season doesn't start in September and end in February, thus allowing many more deer to survive the deer season. Take years where a harsh winter storm hits during a season and a whole lot more survive. When you can hunt deer with a rifle for months, you really can't expect the majority of them to survive.

I agree, there would be alot more big deer taken every year in north texas is they would restrict the rifle season more but they won't, they're talking about adding 2 weeks to it next year so all of texas syncs up with the south texas season length. More is not always better.

I'm blessed to be surrounded by management minded folks now. In the past guys shot everything. Now we all agree to take the meat does and the youngsters and new hunters help with the management bucks and the paying guys get the trophies even if it takes a few years of waiting. I haven't shot a buck since 2015. I've taken some meat does to keep that adrenaline flow. I've seen a few nice bucks and i hope a particular one shows up and isn't all busted up after the rut. AR helps but true management is what is needed. Create relationships with your neighbors. Reassure them about what you will take so they don't try to beat you to the punch and shoot a deer before it meets its potential. This is very important on small acreage like my 20 acres. You will be surprised how many mature deer will show up if everyone cooperates.

that's good that it works out like that in your area, but that is not going to be the case hardly anywhere east of 45, or anywhere else where the tracts of land are less than a thousand. I don't even deer hunt, just my observations. They don't accidentally harvest as many quality wild deer as they do up north by accident. We all know the deer need an extra year or two, and making the rifle season longer will not help. All seasons need to be shortened and they will then accomplish what they are trying to accomplish with ARs. Oh, and the states up north that I'm referring to don't have ARs. shorter seasons and NO ARs

Trust me you are mistaken, their are toads coming out of east texas since the new antler rules came into place, we are just coming up on a generation of deer under the rules, guys are just smart enough to keep quiet about for the most part out east.

... and make no doubt game cameras have played a part in this as well, knowing what you have and which ones to grow and let walk is half the battle, but having a rule that keeps your neighbor from knocking down the you young ones is the other half.

They can get away with shorter seasons because their winters are much harsher and do a lot of herd control for them. If you cut the deer harvest in Texas in half, in a few years we'd be overrun. Plus, who wants to get to hunt less? Also, most of those northern deer are huge because they're standing in a corn or soybean field most of their lives. Look at what protein does for Texas deer, now imagine them having access to those food sources from birth. If you've ever studied wildlife management, another thing they talk about is the size of animals as you move away from the equator. Canadian/northern whitetails are much larger in order to better handle the conditions. A 90lb Texas WT doe would freeze to death pretty quickly in a Dakota winter.

Not sure what they are trying to accomplish but we seem to have more bucks and fewer doe. Instead of mostly 4-6 pts running around, which we still have, there are a bunch of 12-14" 8pts also. Plenty of deer to shoot at so I am not complaining. The biggest drawback I see is you pretty much have to have a feeder and a good set of binoculars to shoot a buck.

I've passed on large deer mature deer moving through the brush that I'm about 90% sure are legal but don't stay still long enough for me to be positive. Opening weekend I had a hoss stroll through I let walk for that reason. Big enough deer I got the shakes when he disappeared. Kind of miss the old days when you could make that snap judgement, shoot it and feel good about whatever ended up drt.

Too many hunters don't harvest enough deer as it is. leave a long season, but put a buck season within the season. or do like MS or AL and allow a doe or two per day

We have had feeders and cameras going since Early August. We are really trying to hunt certain bucks and we are studying the animals carefully. We have three definite lines on our place that we can see from our pics. We have some beautiful symmetrical tens, we have some huge bodied, undersized antler bucks even at 5 plus years old(these are our current cull bucks we are trying for) and we have our really messed up wonky stuff.

I really like the idea above of a couple of youth weeks with anything hard horned or something along those lines. I would love to take a kid or two out and let them help us manage the animals!

If you put a buck season in, we're going to go back to the wild wild west like it used to be, when the first thing with antlers hit the ground. It would be open season on 1.5/2.5 yr old bucks. And currently you can shoot as many does as you want, and we're still not killing enough (according to the biologists).

Texans kill plenty of outstanding bucks each year. And I guarantee midwest hunters without ARs kill plenty of small bucks-those just don't make the news. Not everybody up north is harvesting 200" 300lb deer.

No thank you, I hate youth season as it is, too often daddy ends of shooting a buck with juniors tags, there were stories this year in the game warden field notes. If you want to take a youth hunting sacrifice your opening weekend of general season for them.

In theory you are right. In real life I don't think it matters as much in deer hunting low fence free range deer. In the cow example your dealing with known blood lines that produce good offspring.

In the world of LF deer the same does not hold true. All the deer running around are Heinz 57 variety and likely carry both the genetic stuff to throw a no brow fork horn as well as a 20 inch wide typical 12 pt, just depends on how it all comes out, just like with people not all of our kids will look alike.

Everyone blames the bucks poor genetics and forgets that there was a doe involved with that might actually be the reason for those crappy genetics. If you shoot every spike before they can breed how come there are still spikes being produced? Unless you have a way of tracing back mom and dad to for every deer there's no such thing as the perfect management plan. To me ARs aren't in place to produce better genetics they're there to produce more mature bucks, just my opinion though.

Our strategy has changed since the "shoot anything guys" left. Kids get most pre-rut hunts on my place to take out what is mature and we don't want breeding. I get my does in archery if I can. I like to sit during the rut but if I see a big buck tending does he doesn't get shot. Post rut when they start looking for their new homes well, I try to be there to get that one that made my jaw drop.

On the leases I hunted in Parker and Wise County (Both AR counties) there were a lot of "Wonky racks" Tall, narrow probably never going to be legal. We waited for legal bucks and harvested them and left the inferior deer to breed. I don't know what the solution is. There has to be a better way.

They are not scrawny, big bodied, heavy horned but they grow almost straight up. Look to be 12" wide but really tall. Have watched one grow from a nice tight 8 point to a 12 point but just doesn't have the width.

My thought on ARs is that the larger spread gene is shot out in a few years and the narrow dominate eight point gene takes over.
So the state should change up the rules every few years to help eliminate the dominate gene pool.
For a few years have a 13" minimum and then a few years with a 14" max. If you stay with the one rule the dominate reverse gene will always win out.
If there is any regulation on deer it should be age not point count or spread.

I dont use an AR to shoot deer but I guess with proper shot placement no problem