Do you remember?

Does anyone else remember when today (November 16) would have been the first day of hunting season?

Yes closest Saturday to the 15th.

If I remember correctly, it always opened here on the 16th no matter what day of the week. Some adjoining counties would open sooner, always chapped my arse.

My birthday was always in the first week of deer season.

Other than having a couple of extra weeks, the extra hour due to the time change on opening weekend Sunday was a small but welcomed bonus. My memory is so bad so I don’t remember when opening day was back in the day. I’ve come out of a 30 year hunting hiatus so some of my memories are coming back at least...just slowly.

Wow how long ago was that?

Ok your right I believe.

I know it's been at least 30 years ago, probably more.

I also remember when you could not hunt doves before noon.

And dove season opened the Saturday of Labor Day weekend.

Yep, we're gettin old!

I remember those days!

Back then the county commissioner courts also had a lot of control of what happened.

The "Free State of McMullen County" was like this for a very long time. They opened season on same day as everyone else but they closed it in mid December. IIRC the first day of season was a school holiday when I was very little in my area of the state. Also seems like the first day was always on a Thursday at that time for some reason.

I had forgotten that. I do remember the point system for ducks. You could shoot 10 ringnecks back then but one redhead or canvasback. I think you could shoot 5 pintails.

Incorrect, has always opened on Sept. 1.

Yes, opened November 16th, no matter the day of the week. Should be a State Holiday...because I took it anyway.
Adios,
Gary

I remember both well. And I remember what a pita it was to get a Doe Permit back then in Bexar County.

I’m 50 and I remember it being second Saturday in November. Don’t remember it being the 16th. And there was a week between the end of now season and rifle season

Mid November was back in the old days. I Remember it but being a long way from civilization......And the GW was covering about 3 counties

Hate to admit it , but yes I'm more than old enough to remember it.

I remember it. Also, in many counties the County Commissioners set the dates. McMullen County was Nov 1st through Dec 15th. It was a date then, not dictated by the day of the week. I know it was that way through the mid-60's.

For the longest time I had a TPWD Hunting Guide. A single sheet of paper, 8.5×11, printed both side. Rules on one side and info on non-standard Counties, season dates & limits, on the other. I lost track on that paper about 15 years ago.

yep, in the central TX counties we hunted in, the first day of season was Nov. 16 or first Saturday following the 16th and ended on the first Sunday after January 1. Back in the days when there were landowner issued doe permits and most LO didn't like giving very many out. This was in the early 1960s when I first started hunting.

Dove season always started on September 1st and could only hunt after noon, the limit was 10 birds. If memory serves me, the season was only 2 weeks long. My dad picked me up from school every day and we headed to a variety of area tanks or sunflower fields to hunt.

when I was a younger man ( an i'm not that old at 34 ) our season started two weeks later in south texas than it did north of hwy 90, but ran two weeks later.


then, someone decided this wasn't the best way so we got to start the same date as everyone else and still have a two week later season, so cheers to that

This is when each County listed a bear season! I remember seeing Galveston County which had a bear season but not a deer season. As I young kid hunting in Zapata County, I figured if I could talk my dad into taking me to Galveston County, that I might have better luck getting one up there. It was obvious to me that they had so many that they had eaten all the deer.

Now that's good thinking....

The opening day ended on Nov. 16 about 1968 or so, father always took us out of school for the opening. Also took out for the opening day of duck season which started at noon.

I was a teen back in the early and mid sixties and opening day was on Nov. 16 and I remember we got to take off from school. Always had a note to bring back to school, and it was a given.
I remember most opening days were cool weather, and the bucks were usually chasing in the hill country at that time.
Bandera county didn't allow spikes until a couple years after I started hunting, and we had no doe permits.
As mentioned the land owner could issue them, but most landowners were against shooting does.
Only trophy hunters back then were those hunting the south Texas brush country, and those who got lucky when a big buck presented itself to the lucky hunter.
We didn't go by B&C measurements, but we identified a big buck by how many points it had.
The hill country it was if it's brown it's down, as long as it had forked antler.

I started hunting in 71 and deer hunting in 73. By that time I think the season was the first Saturday in November but I can't be totally sure. I do remember those early hunts had cold and rain or snow. It was always a question if we could get the truck out of the lease. Lease costs were $300 per family for year around. We stayed with the same ranch until 1991 and then moved with the rancher to a new ranch until about 2002. 31 years with the same rancher and our final lease cost was $1,000 per family. Since I was an adult I had to pay my own fee but it wasn't a stretch at that time. In current dollars I bet it would be about $2,300 now so not far off from some of the leases out there, except we had about 2,000 acres.

We had so many quail it was hard to get to the deer stands without busting a covey or two. The land use did not change in all of those years so I'm a little sceptical about land use changes being the reason quail have diminished. We hunted them with my lab first and then brittanys and pointers. Last quail hunt I had with my dad he was in his mid 60s. He was heavy, like me, but he could still walk an entire day behind the dogs, clean birds, put up dogs and stuff and drive home.

I wish the information we have about deer hunting on the interweb and bootube was available back then. I would have maybe been a half-way decent deer hunter.