new doe harvest proposal

My county will be going to harvesting does by licenses tags, which means no management process...no limit ...what is parks and wildlife thinking. This may work where there is an excess of does and getting bigger. No question, this is a process to lower the does herd until shot out before a change can take place. If we go to this why the need for biologist? This process was used years ago ...this shot out all the doe to a dangerous level which takes many years to over come. This is totally irresponsible. There is a reason why we went to using tags for each ranch. "IT DIDN'T WORK". Parks and Wildlife is planning hearings on this...which means the decision has been made and we have to live with it. We need to call the P&W and let them know how we feel about this horrible idea. Granted,it is for only four days..this means hunters will get their tags filled during this time. The decline of the does leads to the decline of the fawns following with the decline of bucks. We will be setting in our deer blinds seeing nothing ...back to the 70's. There is nothing in place to evaluate the herd until it is too late. The spotlight method is not valid enough to pick up on the loss due to the inaccuracy of the process. Less than 60% accuracy. I suggest each deer lease go to the camera survey process as soon as you can..this is your only defense against this rule. This is your only way to measure your losses.

I am not on either side because I don't know what the effects will or won't be but.....Texas has the best deer management people in charge that I have ever seen....and that is the hunter.
I have lived and hunted all over the states and never have I seen (most) hunters being so deer management minded. Seeing how most property is private, them turning over the reigns to the people who own the property sounds like a pretty good idea to me.

I think you will be safe not as many hunters depend on deer as a main food source as back in the day. If TPWD starts seeing a problem they will change it.

4 days will not hurt the doe population. though Doe are generally easier to acquire there is no guarantee that a large portion of hunters will target does in the numbers you fear. weather, forage hunter participation will determine the outcome. i can take doe in lee county with bow during bow season without permit. i have only succeeded once in 6 years. but still trying.

Seems like it’s premature to panic just yet

We have all the does you want to kill here and it hasn't hurt the population.

don K, you may want to buy a lotto ticket! that was your 11111 post!

Back on topic.

fishbait, what county do you hunt in?

There may not be a high doe population on your lease, but that doesn’t mean the county population is that low. There has to be a reason the state thinks your county can handle opening up a few days to shoot does. Lots of counties have short doe seasons and it doesn’t hurt the population any.

I hunt Falls county it has a 4 day doe hunt. We can shoot 2 doe.

No one kills doe on our lease or around us. Now if you are east Texas, seems like everyone kills anything all the time.

We seldom shoot does, this year we discussed thinning does since we've noticed increase in doe/buck ratio and a good crop of fawns. We plan on letting our guest's do the thinning. I don't have much interest to shoot does or any buck under 5.5yrs old. Maybe 20yrs ago I would have gladly shot whatever was quoted. My two older boys do all the shooting and they're so spoiled they are starting to be very selective on what they shoot.

Thanks to everyone for your input as all is appreciated. I agree with some of your ideas. This is such a great website especially for input. I learn a lot of what hunters think.
Thanks Again and good luck this season

Fishbait I am frustrated at the thoughts of allowing this in my county as well. We have numerous small acreage tracts and the deer population was hurt badly when they were allowed to harvest off of their license. Since the law has changed, the deer population has came up to where we see deer regularly now. We are allowed to harvest doe as long as you join a wildlife management association and go by guidelines set out by the biologist, but i think that some landowners are not following guidelines by not following the recommended doe harvest. The first year will tell for sure when it sounds like world war 3 during the 4 doe days in the woods as it did in the past on opening weekend.

WE've had the same deal in our county (Fannin) for years and it hasn't hurt the deer population at all. In theory, you need to kill does the keep the ratio in balance and to leave more food for your bucks. Again - it's only 4 days.

JR

In Pineland after getting on a new hunting club I was having lunch and talking to a waitress about the hunt. Mentioned I only saw a little 1 year old spike and she replied with, "hmmmm love eating the little ones. Younger the better" - and that sums up all of my experiences hunting East Texas

We are in Navarro county, and have way too many does. We are allowed to take them during bow, the 3 days after Thanksgiving, and late youth. We are having a hard time finding the time to get out and shoot all the does we want to this year. Bow is almost done, and we will be out of town for an Oklahoma hunt for Thanksgiving, so we have invited a bunch of kids to come in for the late youth season just to thin the does. I don't think you have to worry much about the population. TPWD has done a very good job over the years.

What part of Navarro? Need to push some to the west side near Navarro mills. We are still pretty thin

:)Trust me on this one. Most of the outlaw hunters in east Texas are easy to recognize. They all have more tattoos than teeth! did you check out your waitress? capt david