This is actually a question i have been wondering about for a while, though not as much for hunting as other things. It seems like to me the seasons have shifted slightly in the last few years. I usually have a huge garden at my house and this year especially i had tomato plants growing and producing through January this year before they finally got whacked by a hard enough freeze. I noticed this last year as well when gardening that i could have planted a crop of corn in September and still harvested full ears before it got cold enough to kill it off. I live in the SA area. I also agree with many of the above that while rut is nice during the colder temps as it keeps the deer moving and needing to eat, other factors tend to trigger that. Until i start to see bucks dropping their horns later in the spring, i am going to think season needs to stay the same as has been mentioned above about possibly shooting bucks that had dropped thinking they were does. I do think something odd is going on with our weather in this part of the world though

I thought the rut had to do with the amount of light in a day? Turkey season has always started too late.

Mule deer in the panhandle should start later, but that would over work the wardens trying to keep up with pheasant and deer hunters.

Wrong, if you kill a doe in January her fawn will typically survive because it is 6 months old.

Elk mate sooner bc their Gestation period is longer than a deer by almost 2 months which still puts their babies being born in spring, Southern states are different bc they don’t have the same the typical 4 seasons. I grew up in Florida winter there is t really winter minus a few cold days here and there so doesn’t make a huge deal when the babies are born same with much of the Texas coast.

So what mammals are you talking about that mate in the winter? Besides whitetail deer and mule deer?

Moose mate in September, Buffalo mate from July-September, Antelope mate from September-October.

Starting to run out of animals on the North American continent that mate in winter

Her current year fawn is ready been kicked off by Jan. If you are agrueing her fetus, it dies when momma dies but that’s not why we have a fall hunting season

The agruement of hunting in the summer is pure success which coincides with participation. Deer dont move much in the heat, most deer movement is After or before LST.

I'm more interested in them doing something permanently with daylight savings time!

Ok geez Fall not winter. By winter I meant when it starts getting cooler not the specific season based on the calendar. Why are you so angry did you fall out of your big truck or something?

I think what LakeFork is referring to is that you are killing a bred doe.

Thanks. You saved me the response.

Lots of good dialogue. I do want to clarify, I did not mean to imply any of this to climate change...just a "climate" observation. As a fairly new hunter (3 full seasons), still have much to learn. Trying to compare apples to oranges....or oranges to hunting, may not be a fair gauge to my original thought process. I will defer to those more experienced hunters on the whys and why nots on the rut. I can say with out a doubt, that something is going on with my tree. As stated, the 1st year here, we picked oranges on Xmas day, and though I did not document it, it has been taking about 2 weeks or so longer each season to harvest the oranges. There as never been a year where it was earlier in the year when they were ready to be picked. We picked most of them yesterday, but still have a number of them that are still greenish. Appreciate the input, interesting stuff, Kel

I stopped reading when you failed to spell out Christmas, but did note you did spell out Valentine's....

How young was the tree when you moved their 15+ years ago? I could see where a young tree might try to get fruit off sooner, and as it matures, it becomes later.

I personally think the WT season should start the first of Dec. and end the last day of Dec. And it should be all inclusive. Rifle, Bow, Mussel Loader, Youth, and whatever else they have tacked on to it over the years. If a person can't kill a Deer in a month they need to find another place to hunt or take lessons.

What if they plan to fill thier tags and take 6? What if they can only hunt weekends? What if they were just hunting one specific elusive Buck? What if they want to exerience hunting all the different phases of the rut? Hunting is about more than just killing. If it were just about killing, then I could go get all my killing done in a long weekend in most cases. But that's not what it is about.

Well why not have it start in Sept and end in March? Would that make everyone happy? You think then they could kill that elusive buck? Then they could hunt the rut in all of Texas. They would then have plenty of weekends to hunt. 7 months of hunting should be plenty of time to kill their 6 deer.

Easy explanation of seasonal variations is that the Earth wobbles on its axis. According to scientist who study this, the current Earth wobble is the main cause of the season changes. It is also causing changes in the magnetic north, especially the past two years. Airports worldwide have to change their runway designations to coincide with the magnetic north changes.

Several articles that discuss this such as this one from NASA -

https://newatlas.com/nasa-earth-axis-shift/56443/

Well, if you are going to force it on me, then fine. I'll take the extra 3 months. You have to be the one to inform my wife though.

Come on DonK. With all due respect, surely you get it. Uncle Bubba explained it great so maybe reread it. Ill try an analogy. Some guys fish almost every day of the year. Do you think it takes them every day all year long to catch a fish? Should they stop fishing for the year after they catch a fish or a limit or an elusive big one? I could go on about other hobbies(tennis, golf). I spend many thousands of dollars a year and hunt 30 to 40 days and go years without killing a buck and I am perfectly happy. My goal is to hunt MORE not LESS because I enjoy everything about the experience. To each his own but IMO the majority of deer hunters are in no rush to hurry up and kill so that they can stop. There are reasons why hunting seasons are set the way that they are but I wouldn't think that any of the reasons have anything to do with how long it takes to kill a deer.

I guess my chasing DonKs comments was really getting off topic. Ill make up for it by commenting directly to the OPs original post.
I know nothing about oranges or climate change but I do know my fair share about the timing of the rut. I don't think any of those have a lot to do with how season dates are set. Assuming the rut is defined as the primary time period when the majority of breeding takes place then I don't think it varies much at all within a given area. What a particular hunter may see and perceive as the "rut" will vary a lot depending on other factors but the breeding is taking place at about the same time, regardless. Keep in mind that bucks are ready, willing and able to breed any time they are in hard antler which is roughly half a year. The fact that an individual buck is seen showing apparent interest in a doe is NOTHING close to an indication of when the entire herd will breed.
As far as other reasons for changing the season dates, I think most have been touched on like fawn weaning timing and horn dropping timing. I guess social/economic reasons are in there somewhere but that's not my wheel house.

What about hunter participation? And local revenue influx?


Seasons and tag allocation are based off success rates but also factor in hunter participation.

Let’s be honest most people could kill all 5 deer in a weekend and hardly get out of a truck... if that was the only goal

I am being honest. If hunter participation and local revenue influx is the main concern lets have a 7 month season. Where is the cut off? A month long season? a 2 month? A 3 month and so on?

For most people that hunt it isn’t just about the killing of deer. Many of us display the same amount of pride as the ranchers. The raising of animals and the work that is put into it. We hurt when we lose one, and are happy to see one make it. For some it may be a way to unwind and get away from the daily grind of life. With some of our jobs we would only get one weekend to hunt. For others it’s getting back to nature. Many of us enjoy the outdoors and the land we lease more than the actual owners of it. Others it is about connecting with friends or family, or using the opportunity to teach and raise our kids correctly. For me it is a bit of all the above.

Lets just leave it alone and keep it as it is now. Changing it to December would make us in North East Texas miss out on the rut. Also as for having only one month to hunt would knock a whole lot of working people out of hunting at all. Fall is when a whole lot of companies do their maintenance turnarounds. Getting 2 to 3 days off per month during them really hurts, especially when they block out the entire month for vacation.