Maybe something has changed food wise. I’m seeing more deer all of a sudden. That doesn’t mean I’m seeing deer in the numbers I did a few years ago, but I am seeing deer, and they are again eating corn at the feeders. Maybe the acorns are finally used up or partially used up.

It is strange.
My brother and grandson went over the thanksgiving weekend, he said he saw more deer on one sit than all season put together. 8

Seems like experiences are all over the map here. I hunt a small place west of Wellington in the panhandle and am seeing fewer deer this year than any year out of the last 12. It was very dry last year during the season and I would always see 8 to 12 deer per sit at the feeders. This year I might see one or two and they are all bucks (decent 8 pointers but no shooters). I have not seen a single doe big enough to shoot this year. We have had a lot of moisture the last month and the wheat fields all look good so I assume that is why they are not coming to the corn. I too am hoping the late season shows some improvement.

Yes it is strange, buy they haven’t had trouble seeing deer before, then again they have never seen so many coyotes.
They hunted last weekend and he said he saw more deer in one sitting than he’s seen all season, 8.

Just finished up my season/time in Hall County, and as I mentioned earlier, I saw no mature bucks. However, I hunted November 16-29 and didn't get skunked on a single hunt...seeing as many as 12 deer and only a single time did I only see a single deer during my last sit on the 29th, with an average of 6-10 deer seen per sit. Of course, we had good cold weather most of the time I was hunting, and dark nights with a new moon.

Definitely an interesting year with lots of deer seen, but again, nothing mature on a place where I at least normally get pics of three or four roaming mature bucks. I ended up taking a 3 yr-old cull buck.

Looks like the old bucks are nocturnal. I only see them on game cameras. But the young bucks, like the 4 point and 6 point yard bucks, don’t seem to be worried. I came back from town around noon and found the 6 point (a beautiful young buck) in the front yard, eating acorns. He looked up. I stopped the truck. He went back to eating. I sat there in the truck for maybe 5 minutes before he decided to walk slowly over to the pond. The wife watched the whole thing and told me later that I was NOT allowed to shoot him next year or EVER. Yes Dear, says I…

One of my Best friends owns a ranch in Mason on the river. They havent had many mature bucks on camera until now. Heavy acorn and persimmon crops

We are in Edwards and Kinney Counties. We run 15 plus cameras over roughly 6000 acres. Not one picture of a whitetail fawn. There was virtually no ground cover when the does dropped fawns this year and very few if any survived. We do have a bumper crop of hogs and coyotes. Range conditions are good now due to rain that started in August. Prior to that the drought kicked our butt and we lost a whole age class of deer. We have been seeing very few deer but I think that will change later in the season after some hard freezes when they will be forced to move around more.

I don’t know why I thought the acorns were gone. I was way wrong. With the wind blowing hard, the oak tree behind the barn workshop was dropping acorns so hard and fast on the tin roof that it sounded like distant constant gunfire.

And a small herd, does and young bucks, were in the front yard this afternoon. Eating acorns and running around - boys chasing girls. Nobody stepped on the raccoon that was also enjoying acorns.

I guess deer eating corn will be later. Last year I griped that we had few acorns.

Know a few ranch owners in Kinney co that have fawns

I live in Palestine 2 streets north of the Loop and am used to seeing lots of Road Killed deer and hogs either here in town along the creeks and tree covered raw land adjacent to a busy street or the Loop with it's mega #'s of 18 wheeler 24x7 traffic that goes completely around town or the 4 major Hwy's I travel, Hwy 19 to Athens or Hwy 79 to Jacksonville north bound and Buffalo south bound and Hwy 155 to
Frankston & to Lake Palestine & Tyler. Even the 8 acre estate my house backs up to, with a deep draw on his south border that backs up to a huge Mormon church property has not had but very few deer seen feeding in the grassy part of both property's, instead of the usual small herd's of deer traffic.

Directly west of my house, past the stop sign 4 houses away, at the FM N/S road is the south fence line of the 240 acre Davey Dogwood City Park with it's est'd 20,000+ Dogwood trees ...and still almost no road killed WT's all fall. I try to walk the black lab daily, weather permitting, both east where my street dead ends into a creek bottom where I saw a 10pt'er non chalantly walk down the 5 acre property's concrete driveway last year, after he came out of the pines & under growth that are too thick to walk thru, and headed west to the N/S FM road.

In total, here in town I'm used to seeing maybe as many as 10+ vehicle killed WT's or hogs some months, but this year I could count the number of road kills I've seen this year on one hand. Even Hwy 19, going north 35 miles to Athens and a dozen or more creek crossings, usually has more than a dozen or more dead critters weekly , especially around the private Koon Kreek Klub lake ...it's been THAT dry here in Anderson County and adjacent County's.
Ron

My overall antler mass is down but body weights are in-line as a whole. (Maybe 2 tons of protein a month will do that)

Been a good year for us to thin does out and remove 4+ year old 8’s.

Funny thing is, I’ve seen way more dead deer on roads this year than anytime the last decade or so.

Spoke briefly with a TPWD officer in East Texas earlier this week and he described the season as "slow". I took that to mean he hasn't seen as many hunters with deer to check as in years past.

I posted this 11/28. Since then, my brother got a nice buck on our land in Cottondale. My neighbor's son killed a good buck. But the same processor in Cottondale told me today that the last 2 weeks have been very slow. Mixed season here in our end of Wise County.

Interesting. I have always been of the opinion that to feed enough protein to effect antler development you'd have to be a gazillionaire. I have had success using it as an attractant through a timed protein feeder that drops a few lbs. per day into a covered, perforated tray. I only run it 3-4 months per year but corn 365 days. All I'm really after is a lot of does in my area and let the rut do the rest.

Hunted for the first time at my place since thanksgiving, its well after the rut and deer should be coming good to feed. Sat this morning and saw 1 - 4 year old 8 point and two fawns. It’s drizzled every day for a month so there are a lot of green weeds, still have not found a heavy producing oak tree but it wouldn’t suprise me if there was a few tucked off in the woods.

Normally I would have 12-14 deer at the feeder this time of year.

If everybody I talk to about hunting says the same thing and it appears most are having down years, myself included

Would the main factors be drought and acorn crop?

What do y'all say?

I have seen zero horns on camera to get really excited about. I let a friend shoot 1 grizzled, old 10 point. I think I'm fine filling just 1 out of my 5 MLD buck tags and 20 out of my 23 doe tags ("with a little help from my friends").

Putting out 3 tons of free-choice protein on Wednesday.

My mule deer season has been a complete bust so far and don't see it getting any better.

My season has been really good so far. Only thing I can complain about is being sick right now and not enjoy time in the stand.

It's a tuff year. Took my Great Nephew to the lease in Concho County last weekend, hoping to get that boy a deer.....it was a bust. Saw a young spike, and a doe too far to shoot. Normally there are deer everywhere. It was still worth 10 hrs of driving to try. They should be hitting corn hard soon, especially after this big freeze coming. If my kids can pop a few more before the season's over, this year will be very successful in my book.

This kid gets cold very easy, even in a box blind with a heater going. Told him I’d wake him up when a deer came out.





This kiddo got to play a football game at the Cowboys Stadium recently. He is FAST when he gets the ball. That kid can move. In the deer blind he’s cold and struggles with patience lol, and he's noisy as hell.

Hope you kick that crud soon Sir. My oldest Son just got over the Rona and went back to work yesterday, missed a lot of work over it. He's 25 so kicked it after a couple of days, but he still kept testing positive for a week although he felt fine...couldn't go back to work without a negative test. He works a lot and I'm trying hard to make at least one hunting trip with him his year. The Rona screwed up our plans but I have faith I'll be able to put him on a deer this year. Miss hunting with that boy.

Put me in with the "bad season" bunch. We have been on this place for six years and this is by far and away the worst as far as horns go. I am still seeing lots of deer but horn size is way down. Too many pencil horns and poor looking, skinny deer. I'm real close to the Brazos River so there is usually plenty to eat for them around here. Not this year. I'm looking forward to 2023 and hoping for more rain.

Thanks. I made a mistake today by getting out of the house on a very damp and cold morning. I did not realize how much my lungs and sinuses were still effected by this crap. I felt better after day 3 but was not trying to work and staying out of the weather. Today I needed to get back to work even if inside the barn. Feeling the results now. My sense of smell was not totally gone and is starting to come back slowly. Just sinus and chest congestion is lingering.
Glad your son kicked it in short fashion. I have heard of lots that kept testing positive and never had any issues, felt fine. Still some season left and late season doe hunts can be just as fun. Not about deer killing so much as family time together. The rest of it always has a way of working itself out.

Life is good. You can make it bad if you want, but this life really is good in the USA.

I like late season hunts with the kids. Kid's just want to hunt and be able to shoot something once in a while. They don't give a [censored] about age & score. When my baby girl shot her first deer a couple weeks ago (spike) she went nuts. Seeing her face after the shot was worth more than all the money in the world to me.

She said "Dad, why don't I have my own knife".

Life is good...