I have yet to hunt public lands here in Texas but plan on hitting up Sam Houston and Alabama Creek this year. I noticed they have deer check stations and the following notice:

"MANDATORY DEER CHECK STATION: All deer harvested from the beginning of legal shooting hours on Sat.,Nov. 3 until noon on Sun., Nov. 4 must be field dressed prior to being checked at a designated deer check station and receive a metal harvest tag for the deer to be considered legal. Check station hours will be from sunrise until 7:00 p.m. on Saturday and sunrise until 3:00 p.m. on Sunday."

My question is, are these check stations mandatory only for Nov 3 - 4? The notice would seem to say that, but then again it seems a little pointless to only make it mandatory for 2 days... just don't want to be taking a deer home without checking it if I have to.

Yes.

Why are they doing it? Checking for CWD?

They have done it for many years, way before CWD came on the radar. When I brought mine in, they just aged the deer, took field dressed weight, sex, ect. No big deal.

Thanks for the clarification, much appreciated. Won't effect me at all then, as I generally avoid opening weekend. Most dangerous thing in the woods is other hunters and opening weekend there is far too many for my liking.

Not hunting opening weekend has it's pros and cons.

pros: You wont be part of the opening day circus and you wont get your head blown off by another "hunter".


cons: A few really nice,mature bucks will be killed but not by you because you weren't there.

Let me see, potential death versus the risk of not getting a deer. Seems like an easy decision.

Yup, that's how I see it. That's a BIG Pro and a not so important Con.

You seriously get guys out there that will shoot at anything that moves or the guys whose vision seems to stop at the deer and they don't take a few seconds to look down range the deer to ensure it's clear. Don't get me wrong, you get those guys out there all times of the year but on opening weekend when there is like 25x more people out there than a normal hunting day - means you got a 25x greater likelihood of running into one of those nuts (or many of them). The risk is probably amplified even more being that you have hunters that are normally "safe" hunters all amped up about deer season opening and looking for some bragging rights for taking home a deer on opening weekend and they start being less safe. And deer season seems to be the big season that all the "new hunters" decide to start hunting - so you get a bunch of amateurs out there.

Yeah, just not worth it.

I say let them have the woods opening weekend, I'll make arrangements to not be working on Monday

Hey,life itself is a gamble.You risk dying every time you step out your front door.Especially if you have to drives the roads in DFW or Houston. Yikes! Back in the late 70's,early 80's I hunted the Davy Crockett NF,the old unit 120 outside Palestine,and any timber company land in that area that wasn't posted. Even on opening day.More hunters in the woods kept the deer moving.I never feared for my safety at any time and would not hesitate to do it again.Millions of guys hunt the large tracts of public land each year in the US and there are very few incidents of people being accidentally shot.

A true enough general statement. But sometimes the odds of dying are higher than other times. If you walk outside and there is a bear in your truck, you don't still get in and drive to work just because life is a gamble :P Well, I wouldn't at least... You swamp people I hear are little more crazy LOL JK

I was going to try Davy Crockett this year actually - the Alabama Creek WMA. Have you hunted it recently or heard much about how the hunting is there?

It's been my experience after opening weekend on national forest mature bucks get even more spooky and skittish than they already are.Sometimes to the point of becoming strictly nocturnal. Could very well be your best chance to catch a glimpse of one.

No haven't hunted that far south in many years,found other honey holes in n.e.Texas. From what I hear the antler restrictions have really improved the hunting in that area.