What’s going on this year

[saltwater]

We’re in Hardamen and it was slow for us too. I saw a bunch of young bucks and does but never had a shooter on camera.

We are off of 287, north of goodlett. What area are you in?? I drive thru one are on the road and always see lots of deer, anytime of day. This year we didn’t see many and they where mostly at night.

[saltwater]

We’re in Hardamen and it was slow for us too. I saw a bunch of young bucks and does but never had a shooter on camera.

We are off of 287, north of goodlett. What area are you in?? I drive thru one are on the road and always see lots of deer, anytime of day. This year we didn’t see many and they where mostly at night.

Im def on board with the farmers plots being turned over late and the fact that acorns didn’t spoil till late season is the reason. I’ve had two years of great rain, early and lots of it, so drought isn’t necesasatily what I would think in my region, but I haven’t looked at all the rainfall totals the last few years.

[texashunter56]

For mature deer 4,5,6 range we are feeling the back end reslts of the 2012, 2013 drought. If you recall we basically had zero fawn crop those years and lost a substantial amount of deer as well. The good news is the next few years were decent to good in regards to rain and you should be seeing a lot of up and comers. I also saw a lot of nubbin bucks this year along with multiple twins. So just cross your fingers for more rain. This was in Briscoe and Kent county so not far from you.

This and throw in the 2011 drought in other areas. 2011 and 2012 were really bad in my area of Goliad County and it showed in mature bucks this year. Terrible fawn crops in 2011, with bad one in 2013, 2014 and 2015. What hurt as much was the fact it rained from late May till late June really good in 2017 in my area. Then throw in a 5"+ rain the first week of Aug and 8"+ the last of Aug into early Sept with the hurricane. I kept raining till end of Sept here. No acorn crop again but it was really green and stayed warm till the rut. Deer moved a bit for about 10 days then the heat hit and the rut toned down. The snow/freeze/rain in Dec change everything around here. I went from seeing 2-5 bucks per hunt to seeing 10-20 bucks everytime I hunted. Bucks that had left out in late Oct returned back to oats/protein/corn here. The total amount of bucks seen live or TC was the most I have in the last 6 season.

[justin81]

my early season was terrible, but boy did the bucks start coming out in December. Next year I know to get my 2 doe early as possible and then wait for December lol.

[Mike D]

We’ve seen PLENTY of deer all season long. But the mature bucks and even does were very scarce.

I think the warmer temps didn’t help. They come out of the woodwork on our place when it gets really cold.


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[dbpredator]

I didn't see a single good buck this season.

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[The Gipper]

slow for us in Hardeman Co too. Only one good buck killed. Mature bucks vanished after Thanksgiving. Been slow we are north of Goodlett on the River.

[Pineywoods]

We’ve seen PLENTY of deer all season long. But the mature bucks and even does were very scarce.

I think the warmer temps didn’t help. They come out of the woodwork on our place when it gets really cold.


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Same on our place

[GarrettH]

Plenty of action on our cameras throughout the season with plenty of shooters but not one of those suckers made an appearance while we were there.

[Bowhica]

Bottle Rocket season for us. Started promising and the last couple weeks were SLOOOOOOWWWWW. I didn't see 3 of my target bucks from earlier in the season. 2 were culls and one was my trophy. I have them on camera, but poof.....the were gone.

[JonBoy]

My entire season has been incredibly slow in Doss. In bow season it was typical to see 6-10 deer in a single sit and I was seeing 1 or 2...at best 3. It dwindled from there and sightings have been very sporadic. I've spent the last 2 weekends staring at nothing. Not a single animal (pigs or deer) coming to feeders. Over the last 2 1/2 months all my trail camera pics show deer feeding almost exclusively at night. Hearing lots of gun shots around my place and this year I've heard more coyotes than ever before so maybe that has something to do with it. Crazy season to say the least.

[cstrey18]

There was plenty of deer in the areas I hunt this season. October was very slow, but when the acorns were gone bucks started hitting corn. Lots of 2.5-4.5 year olds and a few older. Luckily most made it through the season so the next couple of years should be good. On the other hand, my dads lease was terrible. Only 2 bucks that were even legal on camera all year. Less deer as the season went on. It's only about 75 acres so it could be they have something to eat somewhere else but I think the area is shot out. I saw more 3-4 year old bucks at the processor than I can ever remember so there may not be many mature bucks for a couple years in some areas.

[HC Sniper]

Sorry your season didn't go well. We had a pretty good season. I was told not to shoot a mature buck this season, cull buck only, and of course i saw six 5.5 or older bucks, usually see 1 or 2 at the most. Never got skunked the entire season. Saw 2 mature bucks fight for over 4 and a half minutes, all the time within 50-60 yards from my bow stand. Shot a doe on Nov. 20 and shot a great mature cull buck on Dec. 1. He had 5 on one side and a big fork on the other. The 5 side scored 63 5/8 (if I remember correctly). I also saw several good 2.3 and 3.5 year old bucks that will be shooters in 1-2 years. All in all, it was probably the 2nd best year we have had since my BIL bought the place 10 years ago. If we have a good spring, it could be a banner year next season.

[C.Read]

I had a horrible season as well. Zero deer sightings on my two leases other than trail cam pics.

I saw two deer while still hunting the national forest....but they saw me first...all I saw was the white flag on both of them LOL

[Mac5dawg]

We had a decent year. Very little pressure on our place with only one shot from a gun all season. Every deer but one was killed by a bow. We do have feeders that feed year around but for the last two years I have spent a lot of time just corning senderos once a week. At our ranch deer hit the feeders late at night but hit the corned senderos immediately. One thing for sure is that our mornings were a lot more active than the afternoons as far as number of deer seen.

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