Took this high and tight, 13pt, 135" gross down in South Texas, Webb/Zapata County lines 30 years ago, as a HS sophomore. Was my most points and still is and highest scoring at the time. Buck was feeding on corn 4' from a coyote at time I shot, pals till the end. If memory serves me, we aged him at 5-6 and inside spread was right at 13" or just under, 12 7/8". Of course no ARs in that part of TX but he may have been off limits nowadays with ARs in other parts of TX.

Nice Buck, but...

Not saying I'm anti or pro, just food for thought and discussion...

It's all been discussed

But I do love seeing old deer from the past and hearing the story

When I was a boy some counties in Texas were bucks only, no does.

Of course, we could shoot does down south and often did. But it was illegal in other counties and areas, even in some other states.

Just food for thought….

My biggest to date was a typical 12, was a 13 but broke kicker off in velvet. He is 13 1/8th inside and aged 4-5 YO. I think AR’s are far from perfect, but living in an AR county I have deer in my yard that wouldn’t have a snowballs chance in hell without them. If you let every property owner in an area comprised of 10 acre tracts shoot a buck you will wind up with no bucks.

At the end of the street I grew up on is a big field. Nothing to see 50+ deer and not a buck amongst them. Now it is an AR county and my parents even get bucks up in the yard.

Budy hunts a place that formerly had almost zero deer. A few years after AR’s they have several and have shot some nice ones.

Nobody likes being told what they can shoot on their own property but they are effective at making sure the deer aren’t eradicated.

Harris voters love antler restrictions.

DQ, Im worried if you’re “gonna be here all week”, cause you’re running out of material……
Edit…Just food for thought and discussion.
And the forum seems kinda slow lately so whatever it takes is ok…..

The average Texas hunter (lease hunters) already showed they can't be trusted to properly manage deer in Texas on their own. Before AR's, opening morning sounded like Fallujah around here. I would sit at the local gas station / breakfast place and watch the yahoo's from DFW show up with truck beds full of 1.5 year old little 6 points that had 6-8 inch spreads. Just food for thought and discussion...

I find it interesting you continuously knock Texans and Texas hunters. I also disagree with your premise that Lease hunters can't be trusted to properly manage deer. What an idiotic comment. Last believe it or not do antler restrictions serve more hunters or fewer hunters? Not everyone wants a 150 class buck to shoot. A lot of younger hunters don't mind if their first buck is a 6 point. They also provide pretty good meat for the table.

Never Free, have nearly 50 years in field to draw upon.....

Remember those days well and don’t miss them in the slightest

First buck, ok. Not their 47th buck.

Everyone uses the “ well it’s his first one” as the baseline for what the rules should be when justifying a free for all.


If I go to the coast and my kid catches a 12” trout and we bring it home, the game warden isn’t gonna care that it’s my kids first trout.


It’s a fact, the general public has show itself to not be able to manage the deer herd in certain areas so the state had to step in. If people acted right and shot the right deer, AR’s wouldn’t have been needed

In Walmart and Allsups with their Scentlok on LOL

Does being from texas make you a good person? I guess all the trash I see must have moved here…. Nope wait I know many were born and raised here. I don’t think antler restriction are as much about growing trophy deer as they are about making sure we don’t kill them all. The areas I have first hand experience with AR’s are counties that have been broken up into a lot of smaller tracts. Be the goal to grow bigger deer or maintain/increase numbers doesn’t matter they have been successes at both.

DQ I think the one on the right, 9 pointer is a pretty darn nice mount. What is the story on him?

Good eyes Wilhunt, took him about 25 years ago or so, same South Texas ranch we hunted for 35 years or so. He came in to corned sendero late, around 5:20pm or so with what may very well have been his twin brother, both heavy horned, tall 9s/10s, both split forked G2s on one side, mine on left side, his brother on rightside. Both were mature, 5yos. Didn't take long to put the new .308 on his neck at 125 yards or so and then he was on the wall. Didn't score a ton, mid 120s but just a nice heavy horned mature buck.

If AR's are so wonderful, why are they not implemented statewide?

If smog checks are so wonderful, why aren't they implemented state-wide?

Because in some areas, believe it or not, their buck harvest isn’t 90% yearlings.

The original goal of ARS was to carry a buck to 3 1/2 half years old. That was it

I get it. Season ain't here yet and we're running out of topics. LOL. AR restrictions are not perfect, but they have accomplished what they were set out to do, and that is allow more bucks to age before getting shot. Yes, some high and tight deer are slipping through the cracks, and quite a few 3 year old deer get shot when they would be real booners at 4 or 5 years old. Oh well. It's better than it was 15 years ago.

Lots of truth in Trappers coments. I remeber when guadalupe County wasa two buck county. Opening morning would see pleny of blood on the gorund. Then the hunters would return for a second, larger buck.. Going to a one buck county really changed all that and the quality of the deer herd there has improved tremendously.

I can remember a time when the estimate of the average age of bucks taken in the Hill Country was just under 2 years old.

Correct. I use a processor in Ballinger that is quite busy. I usually hang out and visit for a bit when I take a deer in and I never see any 1.5 or 2.5 yo bucks coming in. And not a whole lot of 3.5's. Totally different mindset out that way and we don't have (or need) AR's. I think property size may have a lot to do with it. As you go west you tend to see larger ranches and larger ranches means you're not as worried about your neighbor killing that 3.5 yo 140 inch 10 point.

We leased 800-ish acres in the hill country. Granted we weren’t Dallas hunters, but San Antonio hunters. There were 7 paid hunters and for years, a couple decades or more, it was not uncommon to see 14 BUCKS hit the ground and common never to see a doe shot.

Yep sounds like pretty screwed up management. A few on the lease really turned it around, if everyone would have played along it would have been great. Unfortunately that never happened and we left for our own pastures, and what do you know, all the better bucks are gone.