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White-tailed Deer in September

When it comes to deer hunting you just have to love late September in Texas. It is at this time of year that hard-antlered bucks show hunters really what they have to offer, and hunters search the woods for sign left by these pre-rut bucks. As testosterone levels rise, bucks remove the velvet that covered their growing antlers for the past 6 months. The act of a buck rubbing his antlers against a trees not only removes the dead, rotting velvet, but also helps strengthen the deer’s neck, shoulders and body as he prepares to do battle with his summertime friends.

September is rarely a time for hunting deer in Texas, except during those years when the Saturday closest to October 1st happens to be in September. No, most of all this month signals that deer hunters had better get their acts together. It’s time for placing out those last minute stands and deer feeders. It’s time for talking about deer, buying seed, and planting winter food plots. It is during this time of year that the eager hunter anticipates each trip to the game camera, never knowing what he or she may have captured.

Most landowners participating in Texas’ Managed Lands Deer Permit deer management program have already wrapped up their deer surveys for the year, have received their harvest recommendations, and are ready to start working on achieving their harvest goals. It Texas, so it seems, a deer managers work is never done.

The recent cool front that pushed through most of the state this past week has really got the deer acting a bit frisky. No, I’m not eluding that the rut is on, at least not in most parts of the state. But believe it or not, research has found that many deer do rut during the month of September. In some instances, fawns are even conceived during late August! This is not the norm for the bulk of the state, but for deer living in the Gulf Prairies and Marshes this is not uncommon. Data from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department found that the peak breeding date for white-tailed deer in the northern portion of the coastal prairies was… September 30.

But just as some does breed early, some deer will breed late. This can cause confusion among hunters because one hunter will proclaim the rut is over in an area while another argues just the opposite. It’s the ole early rut versus the late rut argument. The truth is that deer will be bred throughout the fall and winter. Most of the older does will come into estrus earlier with the younger does following. Fawns born this year can also be bred by bucks in late winter, such as during January and February.

This weekend I plan on heading out to do some bowhunting in Colorado County. From past experience, I fully expect to see some bucks chasing, but I’ve been wrong before. I guess that’s why deer hunting and deer management are two different things. It’s easier to manage a population of deer than it is to hunt a specific deer. But I enjoy the challenge and hope to learn a little more each time I walk into the woods.

Supplemental Feeding in Perspective

Hunters and landowners actively involved in white-tailed deer management know that age, genetics, and nutrition are the rule when it comes to maintaining a healthy deer herd and consistently producing quality whitetail bucks. Because it takes time for bucks to get older and because one can not change the genetics of a deer once it is conceived, a lot of attention gets placed on deer nutrition by hunters and managers on their lands.

When it comes to providing proper nutrition for deer, more than a fair share of this attention gets wrongly placed on supplemental feeding through food plots or protein pellets. I will be the first to tell you that both food plots and supplemental feeding have their place on almost every property, but all too often hunters consider the management practice of adding food to the equation as taking the place of proper deer habitat management. Wrong. Continue reading “Supplemental Feeding in Perspective”

Survey Deer: Get Ready for Deer Season

Most deer hunters start getting “the itch” by the time late summer rolls around. It’s during this time of year that those game camera photos really start to show hunters the potential of bucks on their ranch or hunting property. For the guys with ongoing white-tailed deer management programs it can be very, very exciting to see what those young bucks of years past have transformed themselves into. With the amount of rainfall we’ve received in Texas this year hunters should expect a really good year!

Abundant rainfall throughout in the early part of the year combined with scattered, timely rains throughout the summer have kept much of the deer habitat green and growing. And as most of us in the Lone Star state know, rarely does the ground look green in Texas going into August. All that valuable precipitation has maintained the deer herd in good condition throughout what is typically the summer stress period—but not this year. Continue reading “Survey Deer: Get Ready for Deer Season”

Precautions for Processing Deer

Deer hunting is both challenging and fun, but common sense precautions while handling a processing white-tailed deer should be taken after each successful harvest. In fact, proper handling and cleaning techniques are as important as sound deer management practices. Many diseases affect deer in North America, including rabies, tularemia, plague, blue tongue and potentially even chronic wasting disease (CWD). CWD is a disease that affects white-tailed deer, black-tailed deer, mule deer, and elk and is fatal to infected animals.

Biologist believe a protein called a prion causes CWD in deer, and it’s this disease that most hunters are probably worried about. Prions concentrate in the brain, spinal cord, eyes, lymph nodes and spleen. Prions have not been found in meat or muscle tissue. According to the researchers, there is no evidence that chronic wasting disease can be transmitted to humans. Continue reading “Precautions for Processing Deer”

Two Bucks Lock Antlers

Every deer hunter has heard stories of white-tailed bucks locking antlers while fighting during the rut, but few have actually seen locked-up bucks. Fewer hunters have the photos to prove it — not that we would question the authenticity of some of the seemingly outlandish deer hunting stories heard around a campfire. But for landowners and hunters engaged in deer management practices it’s always difficult to see deer die of natural causes, especially quality bucks. We understand that most natural deaths in deer, including fighting to the death, is a grueling, drawn out process. But it happens before, during, after the rut, and throughout the year.

All of the deer population and habitat management in the world will not stop two bucks from trying to kill each other for breeding rights to a receptive doe. After all, bucks fight for the right to pass on their genes to the next generation of deer, and hopefully the buck with the best genes wins. And they typically do, because that’s the way nature works. But sometimes neither buck walks away. Were they each undeserving? Continue reading “Two Bucks Lock Antlers”