Question about Whitetail population

Luckily I've been in a hunting family all of my life.
Not trophy hunters although there have been a few but more into hunting to put food on the tables.

From 1950 thru 1970 my family were caretakers on a 6000 acre cattle ranch in piney woods between Lockhart and Bastrop.
Back in the early-mid 60's I remember my Dad, Brother and other family members hunting Whitetails in Central Texas.
They were serious hunters and did fur trapping and Gov't coyote/wolf control and did guided dove hunts on the ranch.
During deer hunting season they would sometimes go an entire season only catching a glimpse of a Whitetail buck.

In 1970 the ranch closed and was subdivided but the Whitetails in this area were still fairly scarce.
At that time most of the family shared a lease in Llano/Marble Falls area.

In the late to mid 90's, the deer population in Central Texas started growing and they let the lease go because we had good numbers on family land right out the back door.
You still didn't see many deer during day but would occasionally see one or two.

Fast forward to 2020....
Today, it's nothing to take short trip down to the creek bottom about a half-mile from house and see 10-30 deer.
There are 15 in my Son's yard every night half a mile the other direction.
There are 5-10 in my yard every night and I've had to fence garden and put net OVER it to keep the stinkers out.
It's hard to have a hay field anymore because once it gets waist high, the deer simply live in it.

I still have hunters during season take 3-4 good bucks each year off of my small 150 acre place but it's getting close to the point of overpopulation around here.
These darned things are so thick they are becoming pests around here.

From a hunter's view, it's good but from a rancher's view, it is starting to suck big time.

The question is does TPW need to open the season earlier, stay open longer or allow more does to be taken to start to control the population?

Maybe in the Hill country where they could have an over population.

I don't believe the length of season matters. You have X amount of hunters that plan on shooting X amount of deer. If there is an abundance of deer than it could actually be over in a week. But areas that don't have the deer a year around season may not be enough. Just my 2 cents.

You might check out the MLDP option to see about changing harvest numbers, or start knocking down more does. https://tpwd.texas.gov/business/permits/land/wildlife_management/mldp/

That program allows for 2 extra months of rifle hunting and can have a profound impact on population if used correctly.

It'd be interesting to see you change population management tactics and document population over time.

When we eliminated the screwworm fly back in the late 60's and early 70's, deer populations across southern Texas began to flourish. Since deer were almost non-existent in that part of the world, it took quite a few years for populations to increase. The slow growing population was affected by poaching as lots of country folks lived off venison which they were proud to have for the first time.
Adios,
Gary

Just to clarify, you mentioned way back 6000ac in piney woods between Lockhart and Bastrop and are you present day talking about 150ac in the same area????

That’s what my dad always tells me.

If you are looking to whack a bunch of does in 1 season, you may want to consider the TX Youth Hunting Program. I spoke with a man who hosted this kind of a hunt on his place and he felt that the kids cleared up his buck/doe imbalance in 1 weekend

https://tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/hunt/youth_hunting/tx_youth_hunt_program/

One anthrax carcass would solve your population concern

I'm only about 1.5 miles West of that place but out of piney woods belt by about 2 miles.
Our family located here in 1829 and has had land in area since then.

Wounded Warriors is another option. I have a friend that got talked into hosting 2 WW about 8 years ago and totally enjoyed it, now he hosts 3-4 every year to keep his does in check and for the special weekend.

There are quite a few options depending on your county regs. The biggest problem today, is most people want to see deer and generally hate to admit they have to many...so they do not shoot does, just bucks. I am in an AR county but we have a county wide coop that gives us doe permits. My area only allowed does in archery season and 2 per person. So here no one was shooting them. I am a member of the coop and have shot the tags I get every year for the last 8 yrs and it really has tightened up my buck to doe ratio to where I see more bucks than does the majority of the time. We now have added doe days in November to help out even more. The reason the that is that even with MLD, the LO's were only using about 50% of their alloted doe permits countywide. Last year was first year of doe days so we will see how that effects numbers. Even with MLD doe permits the population has been trending upwards while tightening the buck to doe ratios countywide. My area of the county has really seen a drastic tightening of the buck to doe ratio in the last few years.

We have way too many in our area of Mills county. We have a 12 acre oat field in our place and it's not uncommon to see 30 different deer graze it in an evening. We kill ours (12 does, 2 spikes last year) but are surrounded by 1500 acres that might see 5-6 does taken every year, when it ought to be 30-40. But, we're not too skewed due to taking such few bucks. The neighbors also only take a handful of bucks. One neighbor told me he'll no longer shoot anything that doesn't have at least 10 pts (I've seen his mounts, he's shooting mature deer).

funny how time changes things for the better.


My buddy had a small farm in Colorado county. In the late 90's to early 2000's they had few deer. They would get a buck every year or every other but by and large deer were scarce. Fast forward to the last time I went out there, probably 2013. We were dodging them left and right going down the county road. They would take a pair of mature bucks every year off the place along with a few does they had Co-op tags for.

Not to mention all the feeders running now, In the late 60's I never saw a feeder. Now anybody with an acre or more is running a feeder.

^^^

Right about that. Also a lot of open cattle pasture has turned back into more suitable deer habitat