Gentlemen,

Any one else experiencing a slow season in Shackleford co? I have seen many during the day in the off season, but they now seem nocturnal...any thoughts/suggestions would be appreciated...

This has been the worst year I've seen since we moved out here 11 years ago.
I have 6 feeders with cameras and have sen very few deer this year. One feeder is behind the house and has never been hunted and has been in the same place 20 years. Always a bunch of deer there. This year we have seen 4 total.
I think there are a couple of factors in play. One the drought has finally come into play. We had a couple very low fawn crops 2 and 3 years ago.
Two, three years ago the state made Shackleford count a two buck county with no restrictions. A ton of extra bucks have been taken since then. I still don't know why they made this change but it has made a definite negative impact along with the drought.

Were just south of Moran. Had good pics on the TC up until just before the gun season started. Saw a couple of smallish bucks and about 10 doe sightings in the first two weeks, then absolutely nothing since. Even the TC's aren't picking up much at night except some pig action. Have noticed a lot of yote movement in and around my area of the lease lately. Oh well, I'll be there at it again starting in the morning through closing time Sunday. Hopefully this cold front will get them moving some.

Our lease is split between Jack and Wise county and this season has been a complete bust!

We hunt just North of Throckmorton, and I have seen 3 deer TOTAL all season. And those 3 were in the same afternoon hunt. We had huge bucks with ample does on camera, plus lots of pigs just before season. Now, it's a ghost town. No pics of animals on camera either. This has been the worst hunting season I've ever had, by far. I was talking with a buddy of mine that has lots of oak trees with acorns, and he was holding deer pretty good. Plus a decent winter wheat crop helps. Nothing is coming into the feeders, so it's pointless to feeder hunt right now.

I hunt just east of the Shackleford county line in Stephens county, and it's been very slow for us. Out of the 6 of us, we've harvested only one deer, a 4.5 year old 9 pointer. Each of the last few years we've gotten at least 5 mature bucks each year. Most of us have agreed to not take any does until we start to see better numbers. I agree that we are finally starting to see the results of several poor fawn crops due to the drought of the last few years. There just aren't as many deer in the 1.5 -3.5 year old age classes as there usually are. The good news is we've been getting some good rain starting in about May, so if that keeps up we may have a few years of average or good fawn survival. It may take another year or two to see the results of that during hunting season, though.

Got a friend that hunts on the Casey ranch north of Albany. He told me last week it's been a terrible year.

I hunt about 10 miles S.E. of Throckmorton, we haven't seen as many deer on camera during daylight,
as at night.
I attribute that to the fact that out of the 16 hunters on our lease, not including "guest" 12 of them are bow hunters.

So after seeing hunters, rangers and 4 wheelers for three months any deer older than 1-1/2 years old
would go nocturnal.

Been slow all over it seems. I know a guy whose ranch is under MLD in Shackleford and the surveys are 1 deer to 50 acres. This is on 2500 acre tract. They have six tags but haven't seen much all year.

North central texas, on my own property, worst season numbers wise since the late 80s. My problem, in order: 1.High Fences 2.Excessive hunting pressure outside the high fences 3.Bumper acorn crop 4.No cold weather until now 5.Starting to see effects of the drought.

I hunted in Mason & Llano county's this year and we did not see anything worth shooting.. One thing is move away from the feeders and find a good spot you can lay low in, cause they are not coming to the feeders...