Mills county will have antler restrictions starting this season. Never before!
Can't figure this one out?
I trophy hunt anyway so that's not the problem.
I just wounder where they get their data for the restriction.
They must be surveying the cold stroage houses.
TPW web site says that the reason is to raise the average of the deer harvested.
If so the cold storage is a poor place to get info.
I don't think I'm on the fringe , but I haven't checked a deer into storage in years. They get quartered and delivered closer to home to my processor of choice.
Thus I believe that mostly what go's to storage is day hunted deer that trend to be the first thing seen.
So how can that represent the average age of a herd.
It might be the average of the deer put in cooler but is a poor measure of the areas deer herd.
What do you think?

I like the restrictions. First year in Young county too. We'll see how it turns out and I can go a year or two waiting on a trophy.

i hate the restrictions we just got on a lease in mills county hoping the AR would not happen

I'm with passthru, I'm optimistic. I know I have good deer on my place so I think it will only make things better as now I can also kill the dang spikes whereas before I had to make a choice between a spike or waiting.

I've read too that it is from deer harvested and obviously the only ones they are going to have full info on are those turned in to processors so that must be a factor - but also the Game Warden knows the quality of the deer too. Young County has had the same GW for years and years, I know he knows the dear quantity/quality in the county well so I can only assume that they had a role in the decision.

One would hope that beurocrats wouldn't make decisions such as that without consulting with the actual men/women in the field - but you know, if they did I wouldn't be totally surprised

Earl

I'm there with ya, we've were one of the first counties to have had them forced upon us...don't get me started.

There was no input by land owners or public.
I went to the TWPD web site and looked at all the minutes from the regulatory Committee meetings, and on 5-6-08 the changes were proposed. On 1-21/22-09 they were approved with no discussion about it.
Again it won't effect my hunt but "where" have you seen them remove the antler restrictions if it is improving the herds where they have been in place for better than 7 years?

Mills county will lose the total number deer removed by hunters and that will start the over population problems because one thing if for sure, that 70 to 150 deer I see in my wheat field will explode the numbers to even higher herd numbers and with 140 to 160 class bucks now I don't need to stunt the herd because of a survey done at a locker plant.
Sorry for the rant.
But I don't take enough deer now.

I know when I lived in Mills Co. the deer numbers were astronomical. It was nothing to drive around on the ranch and see 3-400 deer and very few bucks.

JMO, but I feel the 13-inch width was selected because it's easier on hunters to judge the age of most buck deer. From a statistical standpoint, buck deer that are three yeas and older carry racks that are 13 or more inches wide. And 13 inches is also the average distance between the outside edges of a three-year-old's ears, creating a judgement bar that's easier for hunters to see. The TPWD wanted something that would protect the best of the two-year bucks and this was the best and easiest approach to take.

Yes, exceptions can be expected. But then, name something where there are never any exceptions. If we only made rules that never had exceptions, there wouldn't be any rules.

Again I have to ask....if it's truly about age, why can a hunter legally shoot a young spike if he or she wanted to?

As a landowner in Mills county, I am excited about the antler restrictions. For those that are trophy or mature buck hunters, it will not affect you. You can still take does and keep numbers in check the best you can. From what I have seen in neighboring Hamilton and Bosque counties, the restrictions have helped. A lot of bucks that normally would have been shot are now growing older and bigger. Public opinion was taken into account before the restrictions were passed. There were numerous TPWD meetings open to public. The support was 90+% I believe. I certainly put in my two cents in favor. I am excited to see what the future holds. A lot of people against the rules now will be really surprised at the results down the line.

This will be are 3rd year in AR and all its done is wipe out the deer numbers in and around hopkins co. We went from 1 buck and archery only does to 2 bucks and 2 does and the population has crashed. Lucky if i see a deer anymore. If this is what you want get ready cause its coming. Im sure different countys will have different bag limits so it may work but you would have to prove it to me.

Same results with our lease in Wood County too.

I personally believe it will help preserve the quality of bucks in San San Saba, Mills, and Brown Co.'s. There are great quality bucks in all of these counties as well as great numbers of deer.

Over two decades of study conducted in South Texas found that yearling bucks that fail to develop two forked racks will very likely lag their peers for life. However, this doesn't mean that old saying that "once a spike, always a spike" is true. It simply means that yearling bucks, and especially those older, that carry a spike on either or both sides, and genetically inferior to other deer.

These studies have also confirmed the negative impact that has been seen recently in other states where antler restrictions based on points, have created a negative impact on the herd. Simply put, these restrictions do nothing to protect the best of the younger deer, while ensuring the negative impact of lesser bucks.

If you want better deer, you've got to shoot spikes, especially those two years and older, and protect the smaller six, eight, and ten-points until they some age on them.

Oh well, I my priority is tastey deer anyway.

Pay $1500 for a lease and kill a 15 inch buck in bow season and you get to hunt spikes for two months.
I usely only kill one buck per year but having the option to take two keeps me in the hunt for the next bigger buck not a spike.
I spent 4 of my tags last year the last weekend on does. Gave 3 of them to other families because I could'nt eat that much meat.
but at least I had the option to take a bigger buck if I saw one.
Now I can send him to the next ranch over. Thanks.
What about cull bucks?
I have to let them walk or miss out on a trophy. Thanks.
This is not needed in my opion.
That and a dollar will get you a cup of coffee.
Will you land owners lower lease prices now?
Thought Not.

I understand the theory but am waiting for the reality. I doubt anyone here would have a problem telling a 13" buck. But what about the less experienced, the younger hunters. Someone's spouse who has limited experience. I am not against the restrictions, I hope they work for us in Montague, but I have an idea the GW's are going to have the opportunity to write myriad citations in the counties where this has just been introduced.

In the long run, ARs are all about the Bens.....IMO

That's interesting that Mills County now has AR. I hunted there three years ago, when there were several ranches in the eastern and southeastern parts of the county that were involved in the MLD program. The ranch I hunted was the furtherest west of the ranches in the Sims Creek WMA. On our lease we were to take 22 does and no more than 8 bucks; however, we never did reach our required totals. The other ranches had much higher requirements.

Now hearing that the county is under AR does surprise me!

As far a overpopulation happening in mills county, it won't happen along with the AR, you are allowed to take as many as 5 does in mills this year, if you sacrafice you two buck tags. The buck doe ratio out there should improve.

Very few will fill all their tags on does.
The mind set of hunters over the last few year is trophy hunting.
I equate it to the catch and release mind set in bass fishing.
We go for the big one and keep few or none.
As I said before I did last year and gave 3 deer to others because I would never eat that much deer meat.
But thats the first time in problably ten years I tagged out.
I catch and release my deer usually(so to speak).
I watch and let them go on.
Still is not the way to improve the herd in my opion.
Locker plant surveys are a flawed survey as to what the deer herd is like.
To many day hunters that shoot the first thing they see because they only have a couple of days to get what they can.

Good point oneshot. Not everyone has the hunting time to be able to wait on a big buck.

I hunted south west Hamilton county the first 3 years of the AR and it helped #s and size. I agree about the cull issue. I don't have an answer for that but when it was one buck you had little choice too. Pass your trophy to eliminate bad genetics or let the scrubs live and remove the trophy from breeding. No easy or perfect answers.

I just know the only deer I saw all last season was the buck I shot in a clear cut and the 3 doe that ran out of the woods when I shot him and they shouldn't even count because I didn't see them till after he fell. Mind you it was my biggest buck ever but I didn't know that and I didn't care. I just knew, or rather hoped like hell that he had a wide enough spread. At 250 yards it was frickin hard for me to tell, scope or no scope. It had a 14" spread thankfully. 3 deer, 1 morning, all season long and we were among the first counties to have manditory antler restrictions imposed upon us. I kept hunting the rest of last season for a doe and an unbranched antlered buck and didn't see squat. My 78 year old dad might not even deer hunt this year cause he's too afraid he won't be able to judge a buck's antler width. GO ARs!

i live in bosque county and there are some super deer in my area now, they used to get killed by corps land hunters but they have been able to age and grow. i think u will find it benoficail in the comming years, just my .02