Poorest season in memory

I've had my place in Dickens for 11 years. Our hunting has seen constant improvement over our ownership. Deer sightings kept improving over this time frame from seeing an occasional deer in 2011 to having as many as 20 deer under our feeders last year at one time. Having a policy or 8 points or better has not made my family happy but our harvest over the last 5 years has seen an appreciable increase in rack size!!
The drought this year has made a dramatic change in our deer behavior!! Almost no interest in our corn feeders. We have only seen 2 different shooters on camera and none showing themselves during ether bow and rifle to date,
We had 2 flash floods on 8/22 and 9/1 (9" combined ) that transformed our dry and parched property into a thick jungle of vegetation. I'm believing the native growth is now preferred!!!
We have seen no fawn and or yearlings so I believe they were abandoned due to the scarcity of spring and summer browse.
Very few shots have been heard so I'm guessing we are not alone with the deer shortage.
Wondering if anyone else is seeing similar conditions??????????????
I've attached my best buck harvested last year

Yep, I'm in the county just north of you and It's the same here. LOT'S of coyotes though!!!! Probably had a detrimental effect on the fawn crop too>

Not uncommon at all for deer to not come to feeders when native forage abounds.

keep after it they are out there. If memory serves 2011 was a bad year in a string of bad years with some pretty wide spread fires as well. Not to tuff to see improvement coming out of that. My bet is not all is lost they just aren’t coming to their metered food.

We are having a very off year too on the Edwards/Kerr county line.

Didn’t ran at all from January to September. Was putting out feed and water to keep them alive.

No acorns to speak of on either the live oaks or the shin oaks.

Been seeing tons of does ( as I write this I have 8 in front of me ) but few buck sightings and no mature bucks at all save for one scraggly horned 5 point.


We have seen a decent number of fawns so that is encouraging but buck sightings have been way down.

Also noticed the Number of shots heard has been way down.

It’s been a good season here and I’m in the extreme drought area. Not much shooting around my ranch but that’s because pretty much all the other property owners have stopped leasing their land for hunting.

Same for us in Freestone County. Numbers seem off compared to previous years, but hearing a lot fewer shots as well. Corn feeders have a blanket of yellow under them and protein hasn't been touched since earlier in October. A huge departure from what we saw all summer.

Right now a deer can stop just about anywhere, drop their head, and there's food for them right there. Somehow we managed a decent acorn crop this year even though our pecans did horribly. Add to all of that, the rut, and it has made for some tougher hunting than usual.

I maybe be a bit optimistic, but I think late season will be better. Let that supply dry up, and the green browse die off, and we'll be getting those numbers back.

Psycho pretty well says it for me, a bit south, in Limestone County. This was a heck of a big year for the acorn crop, so it seems that’s where the deer and pigs must be. And I don’t have even one blind over an area with the acorns. Even before the acorns fell though, the wife and I were seeing less deer than in previous years. A contributing factor might be the huge number of hogs we have now.

The wife is constantly after me to shoot coyotes, but I can’t find them.

Same situation where we are, not seeing many fawns and perhaps not as many doe. Seeing a few 8 point bucks on camera late at night or in the early am hours. We do have a heavy crop of acorns this year. Hope they will be gone soon and things pick up.

I’m in Montague County, just South of Bowie and am hearing very few shots. I skipped bow season but others say they didn’t see much. I have seen 5 deer ; 2 doe yearlings and 3 bucks. The bucks have big bodies, thick antlers, but don’t make it outside the ears. I hear almost no shots. Others say the same things.

And yet, a processor South of me says he can’t take in any more. He is full. Due to drought, we have almost no acorns and I figured they would hit the corn hard. Nope.

I’ve owned it 38 years and seen this when acorns were abundant but this year has me scratching my head.

Cry me a river.

Give it some more times fellas, I think it will work out

I just walked in from hunting Oklahoma, I am getting my A kicked

I got in the stand at 1pm, stayed til dark...4 doe and 2 scrub bucks

Been running a camera since July, this year sucks

Beetched to my wife on the drive home of bad it sucks this year

Apparently I am not the only one

Hudbone, you are a cruel man. And, if anybody actually cries a river, come stand in my tank when you do.

I saw a great shooter buck the day before the season. Typical that I haven’t seen him since. Saw a young spike this morning, following the doe that passed me at about 100 miles per hour, but let him pass. If I had shot him, the wife mighta shot me. She says the freezer is full enough.

That’s all I saw today, just those two.

A bit more action this morning. Four doe came by on my right, walking slowly and eating a little grass. Shortly after, our big herd buck came out of the woods, also walking slow. Passed a doe or two and just ate grass. Probably tired from a night of chasing women. I let him walk.

Had two decent bucks chasing the girls around yesterday evening. Hadn’t seen that here in years, but maybe I just timed it right. One of them made a scrape right outside the pen and both were thrashing a tree quite a bit. Just does this morning. Got back in the blind around noon for a couple hours before I move to my other blind for the evening hunt. Time will tell before I make a call on the season in general.

Now that's funny . I have said the same thing when I hear people talking about so many acorns that deer are not coming to the feeders.
I hunted Sam Houston National Forest for most of my life where you better not get caught with any feed .
Where it's only you and the woods , no feeders or stands .And I did pretty good .
People get spoiled hunting leases. And it's not hunting, it's shooting .
Don't get me wrong I am on a lease now. And it is a slow year do to acorns ,But I got to old to hunt NF .

Especially if there is an acorn crop and from what everyone I know has said there is a huge one this year in most areas.
Hell, my cousin has a place between NB and Canyon lake. He said 2 weeks ago he'd have 25-35 deer at the feeder he has set about 200 yards from the house that he watched from his 2nd floor office.
He said right now there is corn piled up under it!

We are in Mason county and they are not really coming to feeders either. Cleaned out under oak trees from hogs and deer. Went to a section of the lease no one hunts not far from the house and there was a pile of deer out under oak trees in the middle of the pasture. Lots of coyotes also.

Same thing where we are at in Dickens county. Late rains have the deer working the natural browse which isn’t a bad thing. Deer sightings at feeders are down but still seeing deer while glassing areas. Antlers are down quite a bit but the deer are currently in great shape.

Whitetail are fat on my place in Mills county, but all bucks have pencil horns. No mass at all and we feed protein nearly year round. Spring drought really hurt us.

There are ebbs & flows in everything. Hunting is no different. Bad days hunting are, well, really not that bad. A day with little animal activity can still provide lots to be thankful for.

I suppose that’s true. Yesterday morning I saw 7 deer, 3 coyotes, one bobcat, and the hog in my trap. It was a good morning.

In Navarro County, we've seen much fewer does, and only 1 fawn all year. Zero big bucks, even through the summer when they were hitting protein. Think I might take a spike for meat, and leave the does alone this year.
In Clay County, I've seen quite a lot of does, and some nice bucks. The 2 bruisers up there have successfully dodged me so far.

Well, we were supposed to hunt Thanksgiving morning but now my son is in the hospital and I blew my knee out yesterday afternoon. Awesome.

That is a lot of bycatch!

Hope both of you get better and still have good holiday season.

Ditto. Prayers for healing for the both of you.

Yessir.

I tend to agree. I`m probably not going to get a nice buck this year on our lease judging from the trail cam pictures and from the many hours I have already put in. I decided to try something new.
I`ve started hunting a 20 acre piece of wooded land across the road from our main lease that we`ve never hunted before. I had been sitting on the ground and finally brushed in a ground blind under some oak trees and sitting in a folding chair. No feeders, no cameras and no hand corn. I`ve seen several bucks that we have no picture of across the road on out main lease. It is like have a 2nd season to me. I`m even thinking about putting a setup on the place or moving my setup completely next year. Brings back memories of how we all used to hunt back in the day.

I have transitioned to pig/coyote hunting. Got plenty of pigs. If I see the big buck again, I’ll let him walk.

Yea, that’s the way we use to do it, it was always cold in Gillespie county when we hunted out there in the 70’s . We had one heck of an ice storm opening morning one year, my gun barrel was twice it’s normal size.

A buddy of mine took a small buck his son killed to a processor in San Angelo last weekend. The processor told him on an average year he capes out 60 bucks a week. This year he has caped out 10 low fence deer total.

It’s been my worst hunting season as well. Plenty of deer though; I’ll attribute mine to bad hunting and bad luck.

We’ve seen plenty of bucks, but the drought for the first two thirds of the year seems to have had a significant effect on antler growth. There’s still some time left, I’ve no desire to shoot a buck with potential in an off year.

We just now started seeing bucks ( in the last 3 days they started showing up) but have not seen anything with any decent antlers. We didn’t get any rain from January until August and even though I was pouring protein and water to them it’s bound to have hurt them antler wise.

Same boat, we are not going to kill a buck just to kill a buck. Made the decision it’s gonna be a doe only year unless someone happens to get a chance at a bonafide shooter.

I have only one buck I see every day. We call him the yard buck, a 4 point that is almost always in the yard/pasture. Went to get the mail today and had to shoo him out of the drive. Went walking to the blind Wednesday and he walked out of the woods about 20 yards in front of me. Not a care in the world. I stopped. He stopped. We eyed each other for a bit and then I started walking again. He stayed and ate grass.

Aside from him, I’m not seeing much the last few days.

This year is different but both these pics were on Wednesday in dickens. Could be worse.

As the post originator I give an update!! We are seeing an increase in activity. Corn is being consumed and we actually have had several deer at the feeders in day light, I have seen about 7 different Bucks only one a shooter. Racks were either spikes or very thin.
Having to go home Tuesday so hopping to have a chance in the next 3 days!!!!!!!!
Hope you all get the opportunity that has been missing at my place so far!!!!!!!!!

Between the coyotes and drought, I am not seeing much. I know of at least 4 coyotes that have been killed here and a place that joins me. A lot of folks think they are cute, but they don't realize that when they get too many the deer are prime fare for them.

I feel just the opposite. We have quite a few mature Atleast 5 yr old bucks. I’d rather shoot them now so that the 3 and 4 yr old bucks that are left will have more groceries to choose from this spring. Plus if you pass a mature 5 yr old this yr and we have another drought next yr he will be even worse antler wise. If it was a stud 4 yr old last yr and 10 points or better I may pass just in case we get good conditions this coming yr but 8s gotta go.

And if we have a drought year next year your 3 and 4 year olds will suffer regardless.

It all depends on your place and management practices. Some places a 4 year old is a shooter other places won’t shoot until 6 or 7 years old. “At least 5” isn’t an age class. If your having to kill 5 and 6 year old deer to make room for 3 and 4 year old age classes the property is over populated and I would suggest working on bringing down your doe population

Dr. Kroll

How do you suggest I work on the doe population when I lease 5500 acres in the middle of a 165k acre ranch that is surrounded by other lease pastures that I can’t control what is being shot? We shoot does every year and rarely ever shoot the 5 trophy bucks we are allotted. We see prob 3/1 buck to doe ratio matter of fact I’ve only seen a couple doe all season so far mostly just bucks. Of those bucks we have a few 10 points that are max 4 yrs old prob low 130s. We have 4-5 that I know of 120ish 8 points and a few older 6 and 7 points. We have seen 1 pretty nice mature 10 point. What good would it do so let these 120ish 5 yr old deer live another year when in a good year they wouldn’t be all that much better anyways?

Thanks,
Just some hunter who is beneath you

Start by shooting all those 120” 8’s on your 5500 acres that is in the middle of a 165k acre ranch.

If your that lean on does ( which probsbly isn’t the case they are just not coming to feeders due to the buck population keeping them out) start shooting those 120” 8’s at 3 and 4 year olds.

That should help free up some food for the better bucks. If it’s 3 years old and less than 8 points, it would get shot on sight.


Hope this helps 👍

It is amazing the wealth of knowledge on the THF. What else can I say.

That would be a great plan but the biologist doesn’t believe in cull/management bucks. Been that way for a long time and they don’t intend on using a new biologist anytime soon. 5 members and we get 5 buck tags. If you kill a mule deer you got to turn your WT MLD tag back in. Last yr we killed 5 mature bucks. 2 just under 140, 1 right at 140, 1 150, and one that broke 160. We had another 4-6 management type deer that were 4-5 yrs old that we couldn’t legally harvest. Now they are a year older and smaller than last year due to drought. So the way I look at it is kill the mature 5+ yr old deer even if they are sub standard this yr due to drought. In a perfect world and with more tags we would absolutely cull a lot of 3-4 yr old basket racked 8s that grow up to be 115-125 inch mature 8s

That’s a tough hand to work with, only being given one buck tag period. I probably wouldn’t burn it unless it was on a trophy unless it was a last day deer then I would shoot a management buck if nothing else.

I’ve never met a biologist in modern times who didn’t believe in shooting substandard bucks, not to try and influence antler growth down the line but to get a mouth off the pasture.

I’m assuming you don’t get any doe tags as well?

They will give us as many doe tags as we want. Issue is some guys hold out till last minute trying to get a trophy then once they decide to kill a management buck they are nowhere to be seen. It’s hard to get someone to shoot an old 8 when they know there are good bucks running around.

Yall need a new biologist. First time I've ever heard of this lol.

The ranch is ram by a board of directors. They have used the same biologist for a long time and we have no say so. He is very conservative with buck tags but gives us a ton of doe tags. Nothing we can do.

Tough year for the most part, enjoy what the good Lord give you

Dave, can you give me the name of that processor? I hunt in Montague, and I suspect I pass that place on my way home to Fort Worth. It might be good to have that as a backup place. Thanks!

I saw the bad season coming in Dickens County from a mile away. Deer looked very poor in the spring, rib cages showing and all. Had a couple of does with fawns but I don’t think those fawns made it after a couple of weeks as I would see the does but never saw the fawns again. Overall population is down as I think we lost quite a few mature WT deer over the summer. The mule deer pop seems about the same but I have not seen a single shooter yet. Feel antler growth has been very stunted. This drought will take several years to recover from with at least normal rainfall. I'm am not even hunting deer this year but have declared war on the coyotes but doubtful it will make a difference.

Red Pill,
Clear Creek Taxidermy
9627 US 287
Sunset Texas 76270
Marc Hacker
940 845 2030
Cel, 940 634 0936

West Side of 287

Our part of Wise County is doing okay. My brother's son-in-law got a nice buck. Several more seen so far. The processor in Cottondale says he is having an average year, about the same as last year.

Thanks, Dave.

We are absolutely infested with coyotes and plan to do something about it once deer season closes. I saw the same rib cages myself and had no fawn pictures at all. Oh well, it’s raining this week …

I picked up my buck yesterday in Seymour from the taxidermist that I shot last year. He told me that at this time last year they had 200 deer to mount and this year at the same time, they have received 75. So, I know that Baylor Co, Foard Co and other surrounding counties are having a very slow year. What worries me is that it may take several years for the deer population to rebound.

Who did you use in Seymour? Do they also do any processing?

Sidebuster, I’m curious what you meant about taking years for the deer population to rebound. Are you implying there’s been a die off or just that the poor health conditions may carry over into future?

Last year I saw twins everywhere. This year two button bucks is it.

Our bucks are pretty poor right now, infact if we didn’t have the recent rains to get wheat up, I bet most of our bucks wouldn’t made it through February, as they would of rutted out for say.

Toss in the fact the does are poor, most won’t go full term unless we have a very mild winter.


So two years of low recruitment and high age class death, is going to take a while to recover

Shumate taxidermist and Bayco's for processing, both in Seymour.

Obviously opinions here are largely based on regional experiences. That being said....

Just because we aren't seeing as many deer doesn't mean they aren't around. I have a video from bow season with 14 bucks at one time. When the rut hits they split up, some displace out elsewhere, some hang around and chase our doe. Happens every year, some years more, some to a lesser extent. Come late winter when they need the food we provide the survivors will be back around. And I predict we'll have a better crop of aging bucks next year, if true that will be attributable to the lower harvest rates experienced this year.

Personally, I am looking forward to late season this year. I think it will be better than past seasons have been. Even if it's not, I think next year will be better. We don't have less deer, we just aren't seeing as many. Fawn crops may have suffered some this year, but that won't be as evident for a few more years. It's a pendulum, and it will swing back the other way.

I don't have any proof but I think there have been a lot of older bucks that have died off due to the drought. If that's true, you might not see mature bucks for several years. Hope I'm wrong. My question is, where are all the deer? They can't all be avoiding hunters everywhere.

I sure hope you are correct.

In the Panhandle, we have a great fawn recruiting class. One doe has button buck twins. Several have buck/doe twins. In the late summer, I saw a doe with triplets, but I don't know if they all survived.

Our problem is there have been no mature bucks seen, on the hoof or on camera. Not sure what's going on, but we've had drought earlier this year, and a major freeze in the last year or two that I'm sure didn't help.

Sounds like you are in the same boat as a lot. We had a dry winter and spring but it wasnt horrible. Our fawn crop is very poor. We have been getting a lot of rain for a few months now so they have a lot of food choices now.

We lost every water source but one tank on 15 sections. It was bad bad. Now since there is zero grass, rain water is running and blowing out spillways and tank dams… lol. One extreme to the next.

I am not Sidebuster but I will say this. I have five feeders that run year round throwing healthy amounts of corn twice daily. I have cell cams on all of them. I haven’t seen a single fawn this year. It does make me worry about what the future holds.

I had bucks in bachelor groups ( some decent) and does in the feeders during bow season in Llano County but I don't bow hunt. Come rifle season I'm seeing a few young bucks and the occasional does on the run from those young bucks. I think the drought really hurt us and the late rains have greened everything up so they have no interest in corn right now. After a couple of freezes I'm betting they'll come to corn.

Left my place the 29th and saw only one shooter since the opening of archery!!! I hunted every day but 4 as I went to KS pheasant opener!!

Of Bucks observed we had 3 spikes. 2 small 6;s and weird wide 6 and a decent shooter 9.

Now fawns at all have been seen while hunting or on camera!!!!

At least a 50% reduction in overall deer sightings from last year!!

I realize this is limited to my place in Dickens but it is what it is!! There appears to have been a good chinnery oak crop but the deer shortage is no at all common!

Deer appear in good shape since heavy rains on 8/22 and 9/1 and another inch last week

I have lots of coyotes from my ranch in Leon county to the Coleman county ranch.
Why is there such an explosion in the coyote population?
My brother has a lease in mason county and opening weekend of bow season they saw 17 coyotes not 1 deer.
Could it be the hog population with multiple litters of piglets each year are feeding the coyotes a lot better than years past, and then the coyotes have more and healthier pups?
Just a thought.

Texas452, “lease in Mason county and not a deer seen opening bow weekend”….That’s strange. Of course bow hunters can’t usually see much country, so there’s that.

Is the drought bad and having an impact, yes. However, in our corner of the world I don't think it will have a lasting impact past this season. We are still seeing deer and exotics at a higher rate than we were previous years. Pig counts are way down interestingly enough. Body weights have been down and my thread on a 5.5yr old buck is a good example of that:

https://texashuntingforum.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/8743144/age-this-guy-quiz#Post8743144

However, comparison point is also important. Took a look at our herd data and through the first week of November we have seen 24 less individual bucks compared to last year's total (78 vs 102). A decline of 24% isn't insignificant. However, that number is still up when compared to 2020 and 2019 (72 and 68 respectively). Last year was wet when it mattered for herd health going into the season and it showed in the numbers. Fast forward to this year and ranches were likely carrying inflated deer #s on habitat that couldn't support it when the drought came in. Add on the additional dependence on the habitat from livestock, who will have higher energy and water demands in periods of stress, and you have a situation where deer very likely dispersed to find suitable range or increased their ranges to accommodate their habitat requirements.

Its harder to hunt deer when they have moved or have a larger range and unlike deer, most hunters don't have the liberty to expand their hunting ranges with the conditions and most ranchers don't have the ability to remove a source of income (cattle) from the land to prioritize deer health. Its a carrying capacity equation that adds up to less deer sighted and less deer shot.

All in all, my thoughts would be to keep shooting does, keep shooting pigs, do some winter disking to bring up some good native food, and if you don't see improvements this year, you will be in a better spot going into next year regardless of what the conditions are

Good info, Double AC.

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...

Is this your place in Gillespie County?

Been on the same lease for 27years near Graham. The quantity was slightly down but quality was up. I'm 75 and this year I decide to shoot my buck with a camera. Very enjoyable and a lot less work. I've got pictures of all the bucks taken so far. Just being there was great! That never changes.

Did you get her a knife?

I sure did.