I recently purchased a .300 Win Mag (Bergara B-14 HMR), shot it for the first time last weekend, and it is a dream to shoot. You usually don't hear about a .300 Win Mag being a dream to shoot, but this one is.

The old standard calibers, and the old magnum calibers lol, still work.

I learned that I really miss hunting West Texas.

Interesting, but if you wanted to control population wouldn't killing mature does have an overall greater long term effect? You are killing a doe and likely a fetus since they have a greater chance of being bred this year than a fawn. Many fawns (I would disagree that a 6-8 month old deer is a yearling) will not breed their first year, so killing them has a higher chance of only eliminating one mouth. Not to mention, if you are a meat hunter you aren't getting much meat from a 40 lb fawn. I can see wanting to hold onto mature does for a greater fawn recruitment for the following year, or killing fawns to potentially shorten the rut.

I agree, maybe those bucks under 13" are MLD, but every county around me is under AR. I can see possibly managing the doe fawns on a large ranch or HF place, but that is also pretty rare in the area I hunt. It's infinitely more likely that someone smoked the first fur they saw, but who knows, it could have been a kid killing his first deer.

I learned that Barnes Tac-TX bullets are deadly in the 300 Blackout on any Texas big game animals.

"Interesting, but if you wanted to control population wouldn't killing mature does have an overall greater long term effect? You are killing a doe and likely a fetus since they have a greater chance of being bred this year than a fawn. Many fawns (I would disagree that a 6-8 month old deer is a yearling) will not breed their first year, so killing them has a higher chance of only eliminating one mouth. Not to mention, if you are a meat hunter you aren't getting much meat from a 40 lb fawn. I can see wanting to hold onto mature does for a greater fawn recruitment for the following year, or killing fawns to potentially shorten the rut.

I agree, maybe those bucks under 13" are MLD, but every county around me is under AR. I can see possibly managing the doe fawns on a large ranch or HF place, but that is also pretty rare in the area I hunt. It's infinitely more likely that someone smoked the first fur they saw, but who knows, it could have been a kid killing his first deer.
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Nope - think of it in terms of number of years of production you are taking out. The younger the doe, the more years of production have been eliminated. If overrun with does, I would strongly recommend shooting younger does to more quickly fix the buck doe ratio.

You are right on the shortening the rut issue. Yearling fawns in South TX can mature and will come into estrus after the first of the year. We are in between the first & second rut down here,. The bucks are not finding receptive, mature does at this time and are being seen trying to pair up with very young does. They might be a lil' early, but they know what is going to happen. The expenditure of energy on these later ruts is detrimental to next year's set of antlers. Taking out yearling does can help to save this energy and turn a buck's focus back on building up its body.

Every year, people talk about seeing fawns with spots at the beginning of the deer season and wonder how that could be. Where do you think these late fawns come from?

This is a whole lot more complex than I can explain on here in a short reply. Once you have the amount of does you need or want on a place then you need to remove mouths. Adult does raise fawns better than a less than 1 yr old doe bred early. If you are at a one to two buck to doe ratio and have an 80% fawn crop deer need to die to keep the population the same for CC. If you have 25 bucks and 50 does and 40 fawns...what 40 deer are going to die out of your herd? 10 bucks and 30 adult does? 20 of each? Whatever you choose to shoot needs to equal 40 IMO.
A doe fawn needs to reach about 60 lbs live weight to be old enough to breed. Most of the time they are weaned off the doe when she goes into estrus. A weaned fawn is now a yearling to me...buck or doe. Does your tags say buck, antlerless and fawn? Mine say buck or antlerless. I've seen bucks chasing a doe fawn the first week of March on low fence ranch in South Texas. Do you want your bucks chasing does for 3-4 months? In many areas of Texas fawns are born starting in late April and lot of areas in May. Those doe fawns born in mid May are no 8 months old yearlings today. There are a lot more doe fawns bred than people realize. The fact that a doe has a fawn in November does not mean she is 2 yrs old or older. I have a good friend who TTT off excess deer to get his numbers down to CC on his large HF ranch in west Texas. When he caught does in March to TTT off, they would check for lactation, age, etc. Just over 40% of the does 1.5 yr old does caught were lactating. Biologist told him that was not possible...so he told them to come and check for themselves. They found that just over 60% of those 1.5 yr old does were lactating. My first year on a large ranch in South Texas we killed 100 does. Of the 1.5 yr old does, 2 were lactating. I do not remember if that was the only 2 that were 1.5 yr old does killed or if it was more. My guess is those were not the only 2 1.5 yr old does killed. I just remember I found 2 of them lactating and that age.
Every county around you may be AR, but there are a whole lot of LF ranches in Texas under MLD. All you need to do is look at the tag on the deer and can tell instantly if it is MLD or license tag.

I learned that once your neighbor moves and takes his free ranging dogs with him, you will actually see deer on your place instead of his dogs peeing on your feeder and mineral blocks.

I also learned that hackberry trees, even the "thick base" ones, are not good for a ladder stand. I was on the verge of sea sickness a couple of times this season.

Lastly, it doesn't matter how small your hunting area is, if you have some cover on your place, a feeder, and there are actually deer in the area, they will come through at some point. Remain consistent with your feeding and they'll show up more often.....yes, even very large bucks too. Game cameras will confirm this.

Good job guys, let's keep this important hunting intel coming!!!

Is that mimicing a doe call?

No, it is a mule deer call mimicking a fawn in distress.

Roger that. Bet that would call in some yotes too. Thanks.

Yes it does. I have several THF friends on the lease and one that had to leave after several days of hunting. He had seen some bucks but just could not get on one of them after he had seen one. It was just before noon on the day he had to leave and I called him (and another THF member) to tell him that I had found buck with some does that was wide....if he wanted to come over to where I was at to look at him. Well logistic on 10's of the1,000's of acres with ranch roads that look like cow trails just takes time to get from point A to point B. I heard them coming but the buck and does had just disappeared into a very thick and tall drainage. Just as they pulled up the last doe walked in and they all had bedded(I guessed due to heat). 3 of sat for some time and glassed and could not see any deer. Then finally one buck was spotted leaving the cover and feeding out into more open country. 15 minutes later and my friend needing to leave, I decided to move in closer and try to call the does and buck out. One friend stayed up high with a spotter to watch and we moved into the edge of the draw. I told him to get up high to shoot of the top of the Mule and I would call from behind it. I called in the does and the buck...he killed the buck. What we did not see was 2 coyotes run in from the NE and then 2 from SW to the calling. We never saw one of them but the spotter saw all 4 of them and told us about them. I have also called in some does and then a coyote only to have the does chase the coyote off trying to pound him into the ground. I have watched does doe this twice when I was not calling. The whole herd chasing a coyote...10 does in Texas and a whole herd of bucks and does in Kansas...25+ deer all after one coyote.

That is awesome ! Love to hear about those deer fighting back hard.

Mule Deer are way more aggressive with coyotes than our WT deer are here in Texas from what I have seen.

C'mon guys, there's a lot of you regulars that haven't shared any hunting insights of revelations from this season, THF wants to hear your input. Keep the hunting Intel coming; it may just help or improve all of our hunting skills and tactics.

I will add this personal take; I exclusively hunted a 12' elevated box blind in Throckmorton county and a 10' open tripod in SW Young county this season and had 0 occurrences this season where deer appeared startled or in fear of my presence in the field; at least on those deer which I viewed in open sight. Had deer inside of 50 yards of me throughout season. I attribute this solely to wind directional advantages and more importantly always limiting my movements and noise. Do not utilize any cover scents or special clothing beyond minimal strong scented deoderant on while hunting.

Just because a deer has a weird side, many want to blame genetics. When you get the skull mount back you see the dude took a wracking to one side of the skull and actually deformed the skull causing it.

Can also be caused by damage to the body. If a hind leg is injured, their antler on the opposite side will be deformed.

Proven about the time I think I have figured out deer...they prove they are still wild animals and I don't have a clue

Yes, it's true for both bobcats and bears.