Tough year for the most part, enjoy what the good Lord give you

Dave, can you give me the name of that processor? I hunt in Montague, and I suspect I pass that place on my way home to Fort Worth. It might be good to have that as a backup place. Thanks!

I saw the bad season coming in Dickens County from a mile away. Deer looked very poor in the spring, rib cages showing and all. Had a couple of does with fawns but I don’t think those fawns made it after a couple of weeks as I would see the does but never saw the fawns again. Overall population is down as I think we lost quite a few mature WT deer over the summer. The mule deer pop seems about the same but I have not seen a single shooter yet. Feel antler growth has been very stunted. This drought will take several years to recover from with at least normal rainfall. I'm am not even hunting deer this year but have declared war on the coyotes but doubtful it will make a difference.

Red Pill,
Clear Creek Taxidermy
9627 US 287
Sunset Texas 76270
Marc Hacker
940 845 2030
Cel, 940 634 0936

West Side of 287

Our part of Wise County is doing okay. My brother's son-in-law got a nice buck. Several more seen so far. The processor in Cottondale says he is having an average year, about the same as last year.

Thanks, Dave.

We are absolutely infested with coyotes and plan to do something about it once deer season closes. I saw the same rib cages myself and had no fawn pictures at all. Oh well, it’s raining this week …

I picked up my buck yesterday in Seymour from the taxidermist that I shot last year. He told me that at this time last year they had 200 deer to mount and this year at the same time, they have received 75. So, I know that Baylor Co, Foard Co and other surrounding counties are having a very slow year. What worries me is that it may take several years for the deer population to rebound.

Who did you use in Seymour? Do they also do any processing?

Sidebuster, I’m curious what you meant about taking years for the deer population to rebound. Are you implying there’s been a die off or just that the poor health conditions may carry over into future?

Last year I saw twins everywhere. This year two button bucks is it.

Our bucks are pretty poor right now, infact if we didn’t have the recent rains to get wheat up, I bet most of our bucks wouldn’t made it through February, as they would of rutted out for say.

Toss in the fact the does are poor, most won’t go full term unless we have a very mild winter.


So two years of low recruitment and high age class death, is going to take a while to recover

Shumate taxidermist and Bayco's for processing, both in Seymour.

Obviously opinions here are largely based on regional experiences. That being said....

Just because we aren't seeing as many deer doesn't mean they aren't around. I have a video from bow season with 14 bucks at one time. When the rut hits they split up, some displace out elsewhere, some hang around and chase our doe. Happens every year, some years more, some to a lesser extent. Come late winter when they need the food we provide the survivors will be back around. And I predict we'll have a better crop of aging bucks next year, if true that will be attributable to the lower harvest rates experienced this year.

Personally, I am looking forward to late season this year. I think it will be better than past seasons have been. Even if it's not, I think next year will be better. We don't have less deer, we just aren't seeing as many. Fawn crops may have suffered some this year, but that won't be as evident for a few more years. It's a pendulum, and it will swing back the other way.

I don't have any proof but I think there have been a lot of older bucks that have died off due to the drought. If that's true, you might not see mature bucks for several years. Hope I'm wrong. My question is, where are all the deer? They can't all be avoiding hunters everywhere.

I sure hope you are correct.

In the Panhandle, we have a great fawn recruiting class. One doe has button buck twins. Several have buck/doe twins. In the late summer, I saw a doe with triplets, but I don't know if they all survived.

Our problem is there have been no mature bucks seen, on the hoof or on camera. Not sure what's going on, but we've had drought earlier this year, and a major freeze in the last year or two that I'm sure didn't help.

Sounds like you are in the same boat as a lot. We had a dry winter and spring but it wasnt horrible. Our fawn crop is very poor. We have been getting a lot of rain for a few months now so they have a lot of food choices now.

We lost every water source but one tank on 15 sections. It was bad bad. Now since there is zero grass, rain water is running and blowing out spillways and tank dams… lol. One extreme to the next.

I am not Sidebuster but I will say this. I have five feeders that run year round throwing healthy amounts of corn twice daily. I have cell cams on all of them. I haven’t seen a single fawn this year. It does make me worry about what the future holds.

I had bucks in bachelor groups ( some decent) and does in the feeders during bow season in Llano County but I don't bow hunt. Come rifle season I'm seeing a few young bucks and the occasional does on the run from those young bucks. I think the drought really hurt us and the late rains have greened everything up so they have no interest in corn right now. After a couple of freezes I'm betting they'll come to corn.

Left my place the 29th and saw only one shooter since the opening of archery!!! I hunted every day but 4 as I went to KS pheasant opener!!

Of Bucks observed we had 3 spikes. 2 small 6;s and weird wide 6 and a decent shooter 9.

Now fawns at all have been seen while hunting or on camera!!!!

At least a 50% reduction in overall deer sightings from last year!!

I realize this is limited to my place in Dickens but it is what it is!! There appears to have been a good chinnery oak crop but the deer shortage is no at all common!

Deer appear in good shape since heavy rains on 8/22 and 9/1 and another inch last week

I have lots of coyotes from my ranch in Leon county to the Coleman county ranch.
Why is there such an explosion in the coyote population?
My brother has a lease in mason county and opening weekend of bow season they saw 17 coyotes not 1 deer.
Could it be the hog population with multiple litters of piglets each year are feeding the coyotes a lot better than years past, and then the coyotes have more and healthier pups?
Just a thought.

Texas452, “lease in Mason county and not a deer seen opening bow weekend”….That’s strange. Of course bow hunters can’t usually see much country, so there’s that.

Is the drought bad and having an impact, yes. However, in our corner of the world I don't think it will have a lasting impact past this season. We are still seeing deer and exotics at a higher rate than we were previous years. Pig counts are way down interestingly enough. Body weights have been down and my thread on a 5.5yr old buck is a good example of that:

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8743144/age-this-guy-quiz#Post8743144

However, comparison point is also important. Took a look at our herd data and through the first week of November we have seen 24 less individual bucks compared to last year's total (78 vs 102). A decline of 24% isn't insignificant. However, that number is still up when compared to 2020 and 2019 (72 and 68 respectively). Last year was wet when it mattered for herd health going into the season and it showed in the numbers. Fast forward to this year and ranches were likely carrying inflated deer #s on habitat that couldn't support it when the drought came in. Add on the additional dependence on the habitat from livestock, who will have higher energy and water demands in periods of stress, and you have a situation where deer very likely dispersed to find suitable range or increased their ranges to accommodate their habitat requirements.

Its harder to hunt deer when they have moved or have a larger range and unlike deer, most hunters don't have the liberty to expand their hunting ranges with the conditions and most ranchers don't have the ability to remove a source of income (cattle) from the land to prioritize deer health. Its a carrying capacity equation that adds up to less deer sighted and less deer shot.

All in all, my thoughts would be to keep shooting does, keep shooting pigs, do some winter disking to bring up some good native food, and if you don't see improvements this year, you will be in a better spot going into next year regardless of what the conditions are

Good info, Double AC.