Mule deer restrictions

[gneimeth]

Well I’m dang sure smart enough not to debate a man that is out there every day. I would be curious to know the terrain of your ranch though. Rolling hills,canyons? We are working on improvements to take ours back to native pasture the best we can which should help with the MD but more curious than anything.

In Reagan county I see the young WTs with the MD doe - it’s like the orphaned ones latch on. Funny thing is that the MD yearlings will bully the young WTs I see. At least that’s my experience

[txarcher]

Well I’m dang sure smart enough not to debate a man that is out there every day. I would be curious to know the terrain of your ranch though. Rolling hills,canyons? We are working on improvements to take ours back to native pasture the best we can which should help with the MD but more curious than anything.

We have rolling sandhills and flat farmland. A lot of the pasture is actually expired CRP. Little to no mesquite. Native grasses, sage, four wing saltbush, sand shinnery, sand plum, and sumac are the predominant plants. We don't have anywhere near the drastic topography that Briscoe County does.

[Guerrero88]

I agree with this 100%. We have more Mule Deer on our lease that we do whitetail. But most of the numbers of Mule deer are made up of does. It's not uncommon for me to see 15-20 Mule deer does in one sit. Some of the Mule deer does we have are very old and very poor body condition. I have often thought they should keep the Mule deer buck season the same 2 week length ( to help control the number of harvests) and then have an extended for season where there would be able to be at least something that resembled management for Mule deer.

Definitely. I've seen groups of does from 5-25. Instead of a mldp tag for does, we could get one doe per our state license.

[BBReezen]

We have rolling sandhills and flat farmland. A lot of the pasture is actually expired CRP. Little to no mesquite. Native grasses, sage, four wing saltbush, sand shinnery, sand plum, and sumac are the predominant plants. We don't have anywhere near the drastic topography that Briscoe County does.

I've seen some big ones in that vein of sand hills up 385 between littlefild and spring lake.

[DuramaxDude]

In that area I would agree. I have seen several deer taken in the last 3 years that would NOT come close to meeting that restriction or even 1/2 way close. The wardens talk about how SOOOOOOOOO many young muledeer bucks are harvested as well. The study they just finished up where they ear tagged and radio collared deer had trouble getting enough deer to live through the period of the study and not be shot by hunters. The deer that did live through the experiment and weren't harvested were surprisingly decent quality bucks.

[myway]

We have rolling sandhills and flat farmland. A lot of the pasture is actually expired CRP. Little to no mesquite. Native grasses, sage, four wing saltbush, sand shinnery, sand plum, and sumac are the predominant plants. We don't have anywhere near the drastic topography that Briscoe County does.

Understood thanks for letting me know. I think this will help tremendously and once the #s start to rebound the does should be addressed but that is a ways out.. at least where I’m at.

[txarcher]

I've seen some big ones in that vein of sand hills up 385 between littlefild and spring lake.

That's the same vein of Sandhills I'm talking about.


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[TWarren]

i own land in three of the counties mentioned. i took the survey and and i agree with the antler restriction 100%. i am an avid hunter and it pains me to see what people are willing to kill on the last day of the season just to kill something. plenty of hogs and coyotes around if you have an itchy trigger finger! i have looked over at least 20 mule deer bucks this year and none of them would meet the requirements. i do understand people wanting to get something for their money, but arent you really "leasing" the experience anyway? if you wanted to buy a big deer, there are plenty of places around that will sell you one. i actually wish they would manage the WT up here more stringently as well.

Who cares what other people are willing to harvest that makes them happy? Pretty liberal way of thinking, in my opinion.

[MASTERS]

Yep. And once the whitetails breed with MD does, the racks stay tiny. Gotta keep em separate.

That's not necessarily true, I've seen some giant hybrids. Mostly whitetail looking antlers but 170"+ of bone is anything but tiny.....

[letsgoboys8204]

That's a pretty good argument for the ARs. All those yearling and 2 yr old forks and 3x3s getting killed young every year means no mature bucks with decent racks.

OR MAYBE WE JUST DON'T HAVE THE GENETIC'S IN THE AREA WE USE PROTEIN AND COTTONSEED AND EVEN RICW BRAN CAKES JUST SAYIN

[westtexducks]

That's a pretty good argument for the ARs. All those yearling and 2 yr old forks and 3x3s getting killed young every year means no mature bucks with decent racks.



OR MAYBE WE JUST DON'T HAVE THE GENETIC'S IN THE AREA WE USE PROTEIN AND COTTONSEED AND EVEN RICW BRAN CAKES JUST SAYIN

The biggest contributing factor to big antlers is age and what lots of folks fail to realize is muleys take longer to mature than whitetail. A 4.5 year old muley is equivalent to a 3.5 year old whitetail you have to let them grow.

I wish they would implement this down in west texas as well. Ward, Ector, Loving, Winkler, Gaines, Crane and northern Pecos counties. We have deer out here but are far and few between on our place in ward and northern pecos. But all the places around us hunt and are willing to shoot first buck that meanders by. Wouldnt hurt my feelings if they closed mule deer season in ward county for about 20 years


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[chuckw]

Who cares what other people are willing to harvest that makes them happy? Pretty liberal way of thinking, in my opinion.

you clearly dont agree with any restrictions to "happiness". THATS a pretty liberal way of thinking IN MY OPINION. this is a debate on antler restrictions. why quote my opinion as a "liberal way of thinking", and not just say that you believe antler restrictions are a liberal way of thinking?

[Redraider]

I would love to see some type of antler restriction on the mulie bucks. I see a lot of young bucks shot just so someone can say they have shot a mulie. There also needs to be a way to help with the doe population. It's almost impossible to get mulie doe tags. It's hard to manage a herd when all people can do is shoot bucks, so that is what they do. If they see a buck it dies.

[panhandlehunter]

We get the max for our acreage, which I think is 15 for 22k.


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We were MLD so probably why we got more.

[Toolman]

Hunt in Hall Co. 5 years on 1080 acres. I have never seen 1 Mule Deer buck that would meet the harvest restrictions. We have tons of md does. We get 2 doe permits a year. Our neighbor across the road has 2000 acres and is MLD. He got 19 md doe pemits this year. Said he could have filled 25 easily and not hurt his population. I think higher doe harvest and some antler restrictions would be a good thing.