The popularity of white-tailed deer hunting in recent decades has not only spurred an increase in deer management, but also a greater demand for deer hunting lands. And since everyone in the United States lives in a supply and demand economy, the price of whitetail hunting has continued to rise year after year. Unless a hunter owns his or her own property, they either know someone who does (that lets them hunt) or they are forced to lease private land for deer hunting. If you’ve looked for a lease lately you know that quality hunting leases are getting harder and harder to find. In addition, many have found themselves priced-out of deer hunting. So what if I told you that the amount of huntable land in Texas could decline because of new legislation?

Well, Senate Bill 1742 and House Bill 3766 could do just that, to some extent, by increasing the buffer area between hunting lands and “occupied” areas. In short, this legislation proposes to increase the minimum size of a huntable tract with a rifle from 10 acres to 50 acres. Not only could this legally prohibit some hunters from hunting their own property because of suburban sprawl, but these new laws would also inhibit the ability of landowners to control white-tailed deer numbers, particulary in the Texas Hill Country. (more…)

An important part of any ranch’s deer management program is informed and proper harvest. Without sufficient population data, improper white-tailed deer harvest is inevitable, and management objectives will never come to fruition. Managing proper harvest often means managing deer hunters. At the big ranch called Texas, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission has adopted a series of hunting regulations that expand special buck antler restrictions and liberalize doe harvest opportunities in dozens of Texas counties. The new rules take effect during the 2009-10 hunting seasons.

Citing strong support for the changes during the public comment period, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) staff said the new regulations reflect a shift toward biologically-based communities for managing deer populations. One of the biggest changes involves further expansion of the department’s successful antler restriction regulations into 52 additional counties where biologists have identified a need to provide greater protection of younger buck deer. (more…)

Spring has officially sprung and although a few white-tailed bucks may still be holding onto last year’s antler growth, the vast majority of bucks have already shed their antlers. The timing of an individual buck’s antler development depends upon many things, but the primary factor is the buck’s hormone levels. In short, areas where local deer populations breed earlier always shed antlers earlier. And although looking for deer sheds is not an important part of a deer management, it can be awfully fun!

This is an exciting time of the year, not only because whitetail bucks are beginning to grow new velvet-covered antlers, but also because their antlers from last year are lying on the ground… somewhere. A lot of hunters may have their spring food plots in the ground or their supplemental protein feeders filled, but then neglect to get out in the field during the spring. I was once guility of this. Following the close of deer season I would just shut her down and stay out of the field until mid-summer, but that was many years ago. (more…)

With an estimated statewide deer population of 4 million animals, many Texas hunters take white-tailed deer hunting for granted. However, there are still parts of the state where gun-hunting seasons do not exist. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) has been considering a proposal to open a general firearms deer season in Grayson County. A public scoping meeting to gather additional landowner and hunter feedback will be held in Grayson County on Thursday, January 8, 2009. Grayson County Judge Drue Bynum has been invited to open the meeting and TPWD Executive Director Carter Smith will facilitate the remainder of the meeting, which will include a short presentation on TPWD’s regulations process and the rationale for contemplating a gun deer season in Grayson County. (more…)

White-tailed deer breeding has become a big business around the United States. As with any business that garners big money, people look to cash in on it, both legally and illegally . Game wardens in the Special Operations Unit of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Law Enforcement Division arrested six men and executed two search warrants as part of Operation Texas Shuffle, a year-long investigation into the black market deer trade in Texas. All six suspects are alleged to have trapped, purchased or sold wild native white-tail deer. Some are believed to have laundered wild deer into permitted breeding facilities, and one serves as an agent for multiple licensed deer breeders. TPWD Law Enforcement Director Pete Flores said in a news release:   

“Our focus here is stopping two main areas of criminal activity: deer being brought illegally across state lines, and wild deer being illegally laundered into deer breeding facilities.”

In one of the illegal deer cases, a permitted deer breeding facility operator allegedly darted wild deer and put them illegally into his facility. That’s what I call making a quick buck. Although the breeder can profit by selling wild-caught deer as a genetically superior animals, it is against the law. It is illegal to capture or obtain wild deer and place them into breeding facilities. Breeders must obtain captive, pen-raised deer from other permitted breeders. (more…)

Even as progressive as wildlife managers and hunters have become, there are other people that continue to steal your wildlife. After all, wildlife is considered a public resource. The whole concept is a bit odd because even though game animals are “owned” by the public, unless the animal is on your property (or land that you have the right to hunt on), then you do not have the legal right to harvest it. But enough about that. Wildlife theives, commonly referred to as poachers, should not be confused with true hunters. But unfortunately they often are, especially by non-hunters.

Today’s deer story comes from Ohio. Two young men made a big, and costly, mistake when they illegally shot a white-tailed deer. In fact, it ended up being a huge buck. Unfortunately for the poachers, the celebration was short-lived. In addition to fines, restitution, license suspension, and community service the deer, firearms, and all other equipment used in the illegal activities were ordered forfeit. Also, all venison was forfeited and will be donated to a local food pantry. By the way, this punishment has been standard procedure in Texas for some time now, and it can even end with a felony charge. To learn more about the story and above photo, check out the news release below:

Chillicothe, OH – Two men convicted of the illegal harvest of white-tailed deer have been ordered to pay restitution of $12,988 according to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) Division of Wildlife. The Honorable Judge Thomas E. Bunch presided and assistant law director Michele Route prosecuted today over the first case in the State involving white-tailed deer restitution under Ohio’s revised restitution law. The law went into effect March 2008 and allows the Ohio Division of Wildlife to seek an increased recovery value on all illegally harvested wildlife. (more…)

Deer hunting regulations impact hunters and the deer populations that we hunt. Each year in every state, wildlife agencies examine current regulations and potentially propose changes to those regs to better manage existing game populations. Several years ago, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) transitioned away from political boundaries for the purpose of monitoring white-tailed deer populations and toward biologically-based communities or Resource Management Units (RMUs). TPWD identified 33 unique RMUs across the state having similar soils, vegetation types, and land use practices that they believe will more accurately capture deer population dynamics. Their intent is to develop deer season bag limit frameworks based on these units, although regulations will be implemented based on county boundaries to avoid confusion among hunters.

Recently, TPWD unveiled an extensive suite of potential regulation changes in deer harvest throughout much of the state. The department has begun gathering public input on the potential proposals during the next few months and present to the commission in January a comprehensive set of proposals. Those proposals will then go back out for official comment during a series of public hearings around the state next spring.  A final decision will be made by the commission at its March 25-26, 2009, public meeting. The changes that could be proposed are listed below and the online public comment period will last until 5:00 pm on January 14, 2009. Click here to make your comments now: Comment on potential TPWD regulations

• Expansion of Antler Restriction Regulations into 52 additional counties
• Bag Limit Changes: Baylor, Callahan, Haskell, Jones, Knox, Shackelford, Taylor, Throckmorton, and Wilbarger counties
• Bag Limit Changes: Pecos, Terrell, and Upton counties
• Bag Limit Changes: Most Cross Timbers and Prairies and Eastern Rolling Plains counties
• Bag Limit Changes: Selected counties in the western rolling plains
• General open season: Dawson, Deaf Smith, and Martin counties
• Expansion of the late antlerless and spike season into additional counties
• General open season (with antlerless harvest by permit only) in grayson county
• Additional antlerless deer harvest opportunities
• Muzzleloader counties and season
• Extending youth-only seasons

With the fall deer hunting season just around the corner and thousands of game cameras attached to trees, posts, or anything else an ingenius hunter can mount a camera to, photos are constantly being taken of white-tailed bucks going through rapid antler transformations — from velvet covered antlers to fresh, clean racks. It really is amazing how fast antlers can grow, but just as amazing is how fast a buck can take it all off!

Last week we talked about how minerals are transported from a buck’s skeleton as its antlers grow, but this week we are are touching on the velvet removal process. Velvet is removed because testosterone levels of bucks rise during the fall triggering the mineralization of the cartilage-like tissue. Because a buck’s antlers are very tender during the velvet stage and they have low levels of testosterone, bucks are very friendly towards one another. In fact, you will rarely see bucks fighting at all during the antler growing period. (more…)