Great point Tony. Since I'm not a deer breeder I am part of the problem instead of the solution. But, that further assumes that I am trying to manipulate the deer population. I'm not and really can't. These suckers are wild animals.
In Texas, we are legally allowed to take 2 does, one spike(at least one unbranched antler)and one buck with a minimum of 13 inch wide rack. The 13 inch rack law is an effort by TPWD to keep hunters from shooting younger bucks. That makes sense because everyone was a buck hunter and the goal was to kill anything with antlers. If you were a hunter, you killed male deer of any type and size only. BTW, that one unbranched antler could/can be the result of the antler being broken off in a fight. On my land, if the unbroken antler clearly shows that it had a superior rack, that buck gets a pass. We have quite a few bucks that, due to genetics, will never be legal to kill. Although we eat everything that we kill, we don't kill everything that we could eat.
The 2 does part comes from TPWD trying to reduce the number of deer that compete for forage. However, the does that we eliminate from the herd might also carry the genes that we desire. We will never know about that part. At one time, most of Texas had way too many deer for the forage base. That was the result of being precluded by law from shooting does. At that time we could shoot 2 male deer of any kind but no does. So, a lot of the state wound up with a bunch of runty, skinny, undersized deer about the size of a large dog. That has changed for the better in those areas.
However, in my area, we had what the State called too many deer but they were still very healthy. I rarely even saw a spike. We had herds of good sized does that came out into the wheat in front of my house at all hours of the day. They weren't hunted so had no fear and the doe herds averaged about 20 animals. We loved it and they sometimes bedded in our front yard. Then the law changed and the deer became mostly nocturnal. No more sitting on the front porch with a pitcher of margaritas and watching the deer herd. I think, again, in my area we fixed a problem that didn't exist.
The wild card is that we have been under drought conditions since then that would have affected the deer numbers, health and body size.
That same drought has also affected other wildlife. Quail are gone. Armadillos, possums and foxes were everywhere and now, although we never molested them, seeing them is rare. It does not seem to have bothered the coons. All of those things get a pass on my place because I don't believe in using wildlife for target practice.
We now have feral hogs that the media and TPWD calls a serious problem. There is no closed season on them and we are encouraged to shoot every one that we see. I have hogs but really haven't seen that they are a problem. They have muddied up a couple of small water holes but that's no big deal. They are nocturnal so we rarely see or hunt them. If someone wants to shoot one while deer hunting, it's OK with me as long as they eat it.
BTW, this got a lot longer than I intended.
Dave, you and I and others know that we have prolific deer hunting in Texas because of deer hunters. If not for licence fees paid by hunters and income generated by purchases from every thing from guns and ammo to feed feed and seed purchases and all the other stuff bought from by big box stores, we wouldn't have any deer to hunt.
We had no deer in East Texas after WWII, as well as other areas until TP&W stocked Hill Country deer.
As you know, deer hunting generates lots of benefits to our Texas economy. George
N.E. Texas 2 acre and 1/4 acre ponds Original george #173 (22 June 2002)
