Central Texas Rains...Good or Bad?

Getting a lot of rain in central Texas.....does this help or hurt antler growth and/or buck harvest?

A buddy of mine hunts a couple large ranches and he says they harvest better bucks in dry seasons. His thinking is they have to travel more when there is less browse.

I was thinking the wet years would be better for antler growth but I guess harvesting the bucks could be more difficult.

No deer has exact same preferred diet. So perception varies

Some areas the generally preferred browse is not the highest protein, so during drought those deer are forced to eat the not as favored but higher protein/nutrition browse. Webb country is perfect example.

Tell me more about Webb. That is one of the counties he hunts.

So are you saying they are forced to eat the protein feed during the drought?

Don’t look at it as a specific feed look at it as the average of 3-5 feeds(plants)

So take four foods Guajillo, Husisache, blackbrush and salt brush

As an example, Eliminate the icecream plants like salt brush and deer are forced to eat more Guajillo and husiache(higher nutritional but not ice cream flavored). Easy way to describe it. I tend to get my plant preferences mixed up so don’t quote me on exact choices.

It's good and bad. Just hunt....

Wait until it dries up and the grass turns brown, most f Texas will be under fire bans and I expect a lot of smoke in the air.

rain most certainly is not bad and I will take as much as I can get for as long as I can get it..... may make hunting more difficult... but hey

rain, most certainly is not bad and I will take as much as I can get for as long as I can get it..... may make hunting more difficult... but hey half of my ranch is high fenced.... so it will be like shooting fish in a barrel anyway.

Try and go 12 months w/ less than 2" of rain, 10 of those in a row, and see how it affects the hunting... I promise, you can't feed enough protein or cotton seed to salvage your way out of that nightmare..... oh have cattle as well

Timing of rains is critical. Rain during the season allows deer to go into dead of winter and post rut with ample food. Average or above average annual March and April rainfall amounts are the most critical in South Texas for good antler years. Bucks in great shape heading into those months are going to have a good year. If it has been dry up until late May or June then the rain will only help body condition. A mature age structure is critical, but genetics is also very critical. It does not rain age or genetics, you have it or you don't. The best years in South Texas have been the years were it rained above average amounts the first 7-8 months of the year.

The one thing I have noticed in Llano county is there is going to be a bumper crop of acorns, at least in our part (eastern) of the county.

Let's get this straight right now: More rain = more plant growth and more food. More food = more deer and better antlers. While hunters may very well see [/i]fewer[i] deer when there is ample rain-produced forage in the fall, in years in which there has been good rain during the antler-growing period (March -- August), the antlers will be better on average. Whether you see them is another question.

The theory that somehow a scarcity of food forces deer to better quality or more protein is flawed on its face.