Texas allows the owners of high-fenced (game fenced) properties to operate under a Deer Management Permit (DMP) after meeting specific requirements. This permit allows DMP property owners to place 1 white-tailed buck and up to 20 white-tailed does in a breeding enclosure ranging between 5 to 100 acres for genetic “improvement” with the ultimate goal of increasing antler quality in bucks. After breeding, the deer must then be released onto the property and are considered “wild,” meaning they can not be recaptured.

A recent study at the King Ranch attempted to assess the effectiveness of the DMP by comparing antler scores of between pastures including DMP offspring and pastures without DMP offspring. To collect antler measurements by age class, white-tailed bucks were captured using helicopters and nets guns. (more…)

You’ve heard the term before, but what exactly is a “cull” buck? Sure, white-tailed deer managers and hunters often talk about “cull” bucks — it’s a hot topic — which bucks are cull bucks and which ones are not. However, there is an important factor to keep in mind: Sometimes a cull to one person is not a cull to another.

A cull, by definition, is something that is considered inferior or inadequate — not as good as the rest. As such, the topic of cull bucks comes about when ranch managers and hunters want to know which bucks should be culled to improve herd quality. After all, deer antlers are highly heritable. Otherwise, you could never select for antler quality through buck harvest. (more…)

Axis bucks in the shade.

Many exotic big game species, such as sika, fallow, and axis deer, prefer and consume the same forbs and browse as white-tailed deer. Keeping this in mind, it’s then obvious that white-tailed deer and exotic ungulates compete for limited resources on the lands in which they live. This may not be of great concern until habitat conditions become degraded, which you never want to happen.

In overpopulated areas, or during periods of stress such as drought or winter, this further increases the competition both between and within these different species in the same area — whitetail compete with whitetail, exotics with exotics, and whitetail with exotics. Everyone has to eat! (more…)

White-tailed deer shed their antlers every year prior to the re-growth of new ones. It may surprise you to find out that the entire shedding process takes only two to three weeks to complete, and of course the re-growth phase takes place over the summer up into very early fall.

Bucks have antlers throughout spring, summer, and most of the winter, but shed them sometime between January and April (depending upon the animal and latitude), after the rutting season comes to an end. A buck can carry-on without antlers at this time of year because they do not need to fight-off other bucks for territory and does.

Deer antlers differ from the hollow horns of cattle in that they comprise solid bone tissue with a honeycombed structure. Pedicles, the skin-covered nubs protruding from a buck’s skull, serve as a base for antler growth and support the deer’s antlers. However, keep in mind that the pedicles are permanent fixtures on the deer’s forehead, and are the point at which antlers separate from the deer each year. (more…)

If you’re not familiar with antler restrictions, let me just say that they do work! In Texas, certain counties have restrictions on white-tailed bucks, meaning only bucks with inside spreads equal to or greater than 13 inches OR bucks with at least one unbranched antler (i.e. spike at least on one side) can be harvested.

Growing up, I spent a considerable amount of time hunting a parcel of land located in Colorado County. From the time I was old enough to hunt up until 2000, the county bag limit was 1 buck per hunter. After that time, antler restrictions were implemented. Why, you ask? Well, under a 1 buck bag limit only the best young bucks were harvested and the “cull” (inferior) bucks were left on the range.

With legal bucks now limited to unbranched antlered bucks and those with an inside spread exceeding 13-inches, many young bucks now enter older age classes and inferior spikes are harvested. Of all those years I spent hunting that tract of land in Colorado County, rarely did I see a buck over 2 1/2 years old. Now, to see several high quality, young bucks in a hunt is common place. In fact, the hunter pictured above was lucky enough to harvest the 4 1/2 year old 9-point buck on that same parcel of land.

All About Antler Restrictions Regulations in Texas

Hunters may dream of one day harvesting a free-ranging monster buck, but many people never dream that they will save one. Furthermore, I doubt many ranches would go above and beyond to save a wild buck. Unless, of course, that ranch is the legendary King Ranch in south Texas and that buck happens to be the 280-290 Boone and Crockett variety.

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What a difference a year can make! In my neck of the woods, last year was dry, deer forage was low, and deer were in “average” condition. But this year, abundant rains provided a plethera of white-tailed deer food and put individual deer and the deer herd as a whole in great condition.

Here’s another example of how a year can make a difference - in the life of a buck. Last year (2006), I took pictures of a 3 1/2 year old 8-point buck while hunting one morning. The white-tailed buck wasn’t exactly what I was looking for, so I let the deer go in hopes of seeing something even larger. As it turns out, I only saw the buck that one time, but managed “shoot” him several times and got some great photos as seen below. But guess what? He’s back! (more…)

When considering the management of white-tailed deer, unless your property is game fenced, you should realize that adjacent lands are also included in the home ranges of many of the deer on a ranch less than several thousand acres in size. Only those deer within the interior of a really large ranch may have home ranges located totally within the ranch, while those in a wide band around the ranch’s perimeter likely move back and forth onto adjacent lands. The quality of a ranch’s deer population will in large part be dependent on both the habitat quality and population management strategies (i.e. hunting pressure and deer harvest) on both your and neighboring lands.

The key to producing a productive and healthy white-tailed deer population is dependent upon the quantity, quality, and variety of food plants produced by the habitat or range. Food availability can be improved in the following ways: (more…)