Texas Panhandle Hunting 2023-2024

Hunted up in the Donley/Collingsworth county area for years but have never seen this much rain. Any of y'all been through this before and what was the outcome for deer habits?

I hunt in northern hall county. Lot of rain in April and may. The deer I have on camera look in way better shape than they did this time last summer. Antlers look good too.

Sssshhhh.. ain’t no deer in the panhandle.

^^^^^^^^^^^

I'm also in Hall and have seen it like this a couple other times. Off the top of my head, I don't recall any significant changes in deer habits, except maybe a slight reduction in activity at feeders during the early part of the season. Heck, feeder activity is pretty sparse right now anyway.

I'm also hoping the thick vegetation might help a few fawns get through early life that might otherwise fall prey to opportunistic critters.

Haven't seen much for antlers (not many resident bucks on my place), but the does I've seen look very healthy. And as the old saying goes, "big rain, big antlers", so I'm hoping for better antler quality this year too. Good luck.

Thanks! We have a handful of does frequenting the feeders everyday but as you said, pretty sparce. Hopefully all the good bucks won't be broken by 3rd weekend of November this year lol.

Our place in shamrock has been horrible the last 3 yrs… Dry and the coyote population has taken its toll, last year they were way out of control but a helo hunt took a lot out. The last time we had close to this much rain I had a 140 grow to a 173. Hoping we have similar outcome this year but we lost a lot of deer to the long drought we had. We need 3 yrs of this rain to get back to what we had.

We saw a serious decline in over all rack size on our Briscoe County place this last season. Hopefully some of those 130"+ mature bucks I saw last season will be 150"+.

Unfortunately we saw the same and lost maybe 30% of our herd. We usually have 1-3 150’s but in the last three years we’ve had 1. God willing the ranch will turn around with the much needed rain.

I wouldn't say we lost herd #'s much at all, if any. There was always water to drink, just very poor browse conditions. Definitely hurt rack development.

I'm in Dickens county. Last year was a total mess!!! No rain all last year until end of August then 5" and another 5" first week of September. Place went from a from a desert to a jungle.
No fawns sited all hunting season and almost no deer came to feeders. I saw only one shooter out of range!

The 10 inches in late summer 2022 kept forage through March 2023 when the the rains started. We have received regular rain fall all spring till now and we are 20% above the 10 year average at 17".
I'm at my place now mowing and resetting blinds blown over due tp recent storms and tornados in the area..

I'm very optimistic as the place is greener than ever!!!! I'm hearing many quail .calling all over my place. I'm sure with low fawn survival last year we will be down in numbers how ever with the extremely thick cover and excellent forage we should have a banner year in fawn survival.
.

I'm in Dickens county. Last year was a total mess!!! No rain all last year until end of August then 5" and another 5" first week of September. Place went from a from a desert to a jungle.
No fawns sited all hunting season and almost no deer came to feeders. I saw only one shooter out of range!

The 10 inches in late summer 2022 kept forage through March 2023 when the the rains started. We have received regular rain fall all spring till now and we are 20% above the 10 year average at 17".
I'm at my place now mowing and resetting blinds blown over due tp recent storms and tornados in the area..

I'm very optimistic as the place is greener than ever!!!! I'm hearing many quail .calling all over my place. I'm sure with low fawn survival last year we will be down in numbers how ever with the extremely thick cover and excellent forage we should have a banner year in fawn survival.
.

I agree 100% with the fawns!!!

Old lease was in Armstrong County. First year on the lease south of Shamrock is this year so I guess we'll see. I know there are good bucks in the area as the salt fork runs through our lease but have not caught any on feeder cameras. Plenty of healthy does and fawns though.

My wife could not believe how green it was when we were up there in June. This is our first year on this property (also near Shamrock). I have tons of healthy does and and a handful of fawns that are frequenting the feeders, which is good, but only one or two small 90"-110" bucks passing through. I know the area grows big'uns so we will see.

That's generally what I see every year. My place is mostly a doe sink, with a few resident younger bucks. Then in October, there they are. They show up for a few days, check things out, then disappear for a few weeks until the first of November. Don't get discouraged if you don't see too much right now.

Headed up this weekend, been two months since I was last on our Briscoe County place. Expecting the river bottom to be overgrown, prolly spend most of the day trimming some shooting lanes. An early October freeze would be too much to hope for.

Heading to the lease at the end of the month to fill feeders and set up cameras. Anyone seen any good growth on their bucks from last year?

I don't have history at the new place but several ranchers and friends that are up there have told me there has been good growth with all the rain.

That’s great! We dried up on rain a little hope we get some more!

We just got back last week. Ours was dry as a bone. There is at least more water in the salt fork than usual. Ton's of does on the cameras but the buck's are staying hidden.