Antler Restrictions The bag limit in this county is two legal bucks, but only ONE may have an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. A legal buck deer is defined as a buck deer with: at least one unbranched antler; OR an inside spread of 13 inches or greater (does not apply to a buck that has an unbranched antler). A hunter may also take ONE buck with an inside spread of 13 inches or greater in a different county with antler restrictions, and not to exceed that county's bag limit.

paint me a picture

In that county a hunter can take two bucks. One must have an inside spread of 13", and the other must have at least one unbranched antler. Or I suppose both could be spikes? Only one can be over 13" though, right?

Your license has three buck tags. If you live in a two buck county that has antler restrictions, you can only kill one buck with an inside spread of 13" or greater. Your other buck must have at least one unbranched antler (example:spike). Now, if you can hunt in another antler restriction county, you can kill another buck with inside spread of 13" or greater or another "spike". If you kill both your legal deer as defined in one county, you can go to another antler restriction, or for that matter any other county with a deer season, and kill one more buck that is defined as legal in that county, with or without antler restrictions.

Great explanation ^^^

Bottom line is that I/we can kill 2 bucks as long as they are in different countries?

no, see explanation above ... you can kill a total of 3 bucks, 2 from one county (1=13"+ & 1 unbranched 1 side) and 1 from a different county (legal per that county).

So, in Archer County, you can kill 1 "nice" buck 13" I.S. or wider. The other buck has to be a spike?

a 12" inside spread 8 point is illegal?

YES?


NO (if 12" inside spread)?

^^^^^^

Correct.

In counties with antler restrictions you may take TWO 'legal' bucks.

Your choices would be:

1. Two bucks with at least one un-branched antler (spike) *inside spread not restricted* OR...
2. One buck with a minimum of 13" INSIDE spread and One buck with at least one un-branched antler.

Additionally, you may go to another County and take ONE 'legal' buck there.

Thanks Flintknapper and everyone else. I think I got it now

anything narrower than 13" must be a "spike" or slick on one side

Correct and good luck this season

You too P&Y

Here is a senario: Lets say you have 3 different counties to hunt. So, you have a deer blind in Wilson County, you have a deer blind in Karnes County and you also have a deer blind in Atascosa County. OK, 3 deer blinds in 3 different counties. All three of these counties have antler restrictions stating that one buck must be 13" or greater and the other buck must have an unbranched antler.

Now.....you can go to Wilson County and shoot a big wide buck. Then you can go to Karnes County and shoot a big wide buck. And you can also go to Atascosa County and shoot a big wide buck. You just killed 3 big bucks from 3 different counties with antler restrictions. You are now out of buck tags and can no longer shoot anymore bucks this season. You are tagged out but you did get 3 BIG bucks this year.

This you can do!

Ok another thing to ponder.

The spike you are permitted to take, has (1) branched antler and a missing his whole other antler. Legal?


Another scenario is has branched antler (1) and the other is broken and unbranched but still “spiked”. Legal?

In the first scenario....I imagine it would depend on a Game Warden's interpretation/discretion.

Since there is no antler on the one side to 'prove' one way or the other the status of the buck, it would be left to the warden to 'guess' at the possibility of either. IF I were a Warden I would decide in favor of the hunter, but who knows who you'll get.



In the second scenario....following the 'letter of the law', it should be counted as a 'spike' (despite being obviously broken off). An 'un-branched antler' is an Un-branched antler regardless of how it happened (barring any action by the hunter).