Here is a link to some good information/charts about the deer population across the state of Texas. Several pages long.
I can't argue with their conclusions.
https://landassociation.org/how-man...ailed-deer-populations-listed-by-region/

Seems like their density might be on the light side to me.

Pretty much. In my area, I'd say off by 40%

Sometimes, when I can’t even see a deer, I wonder how many we really have in this area. But, I was in my favorite stand the other day, and seeing nothing. In a matter of half an hour I had seen 19 doe and a nice young 8 point. Some days are good days, but I can rarely predict which ones. As for actual density per acre, I haven’t a clue, though I’m sure it varies considerably due to water, forage, and perceived safety.

For our region it says we have 29 deer per 1000 acres or 34 acres per deer. I think that is way off.

I am very interested in learning something from this thread. Everyone talks about how important(rightly so) deer density is and especially as it pertains to carry capacity. The problem is the average hunters dont have much of an idea what their density is. Same with me. Everyone talks about doing surveys to find out and there are several ways to do surveys but IMO none of them are real accurate or practical or cheap(one or all of these.) So yes, we should all do surveys to give us some idea but still it will be more of a baseline to compare to changes over time and not a specific real number and thats assuming you keep on doing surveys which few will.
SO SO SO I think getting some idea from research like the link(I havent read yet) and trying to get information from yall on here and any other way we can is helpful. Its too important a question for so many of us not to have an answer to.
Then of course if we ever do get a clue there will be drought or predators or hunting pressure and the numbers change again. Its a cluster .... to me.

I’ve been hunting this place of ours for about 15 years. When we bought it, there seemed to be very few deer on it, but as years passed, and I fed corn, more deer showed up. And as years passed, the number of deer seemed to vary. Some years I saw more than other years. This year seemed a bit below average in seeing does, but I did see some very nice bucks. And as years pass, the movement patterns of the deer change. Every year seems different in various ways.

Bottom line is I think the deer density is higher than it was when I bought the place, but I have no idea if it’s normal now or what normal is.

603, I dont know exactly where you are but I have a close idea of what part of the world you are. The studies that quote density by Region of the State will be tough to be accurate anyway but I assume there is tons of farmland in your Region/County/area and that would be a nightmare for those researchers to factor that in. Out West and even South where there is "mostly" big ranches and at least a lot of undeveloped land I WOULD ASSUME the Regions wide estimates are much closer. In your case it seems it would be very sight specific and YOU would know as good as anyone what the numbers are.

Trans pecos numbers are comical

This is just another reason why the Edwards Plateau region should get an extra 2 weeks of general hunting season.

If they cant kill them in the 2-3 months of season they have what makes you think 2 more weeks is going to make the difference?

I was thinking the same thing,

Its about having the opportunity and not everyone needs to take advantage of it. Yes there are a lot of folks who have their freezer filled by Thanksgiving. And there are plenty of folks whose Job's busy season is specifically from from Thanksgiving to through the Holidays. And I would ask both of you what does it hurt?

Agreed. I can see 29 deer on 100 acres at the same time my buddy is on his allotted 100 acres spot watching just as many. I have counted as many as 35 deer on a corned road and My buddy the same and we are less than a mile apart. Other hunters on the 2400 acres are reporting similar. I know I don't see that many deer on the Post Oak Savannah. I may see 12 to 14 at t time there.

Thanks for sharing Mr. T., I found this information very interesting.

I'm interested to know how they capture that data. It states "Population data is acquired regionally by TP&W with half of the state surveyed each year." but how the surveys are completed. Is it through MLD reports? Camera surveys, spotlight surveys, flying? combination of all the above?

Around here there are a lot of deer. More so close to town. What do you do to fix the problem? Maybe legalize road hunting? Just kidding. Pull your wadded up panties out of your rears.

The way they do most of these surveys is a joke.......spotlighting or helicopter......neither are really close to being accurate.......I think they should look at high quality drone surveys working off a gridded system to ensure they cover the surveyed area accurately combined with TC counts......

TPW biologist was involved with a survey on my lease 3 years ago and counted 1 deer per 28 acres. blind survey and work from a private biologist a density value twice that high.

I am skeptical of government studies and data.