Long Term Effect of 13" rule?

[toledo]

Anybody else think they might be noticing a trend? I know a lot of people debunk this as myth but I swear Im seeing it develop as a trend. I know the whole you cant change genetics on a low fence property idea but what about when the whole county is doing it. And its done for decades. At some point, it has to create a change.

Im up to four of these dudes spreading the love, year after year with impunity. Anybody else noticing the same trend?

[sideways]

The deer are getting smarter and they wedge their antlers between a fork in a tree so they don’t have a spread greater than 12 inches.


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[RattlesnakeDan]

You have to hope those are the ones that get hit by vehicles. lol

[salth2o]

You have to hope those are the ones that get hit by vehicles. lol

or shot at night with a .22 mag.

[clffrdfdge]

I feel your pain. We have some like that.

[toledo]

Im not saying that Im not in favor of it. I just wonder where it will take us in another 30 years?

[Speck]

There are always exceptions. I think the benefits will far outweighs these outliers down the road.

[jshouse]

The deer are getting smarter and they wedge their antlers between a fork in a tree so they don’t have a spread greater than 12 inches.


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I think they use thier hooves to manipulate and shape them as well. Smart buggers...

[solocam_aggie]

There are always exceptions. I think the benefits will far outweighs these outliers down the road.

1000%

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[RLHoward]

I hunt in Goliad County north of 59 . Almost all the bucks we have seen are like that .

[SmTx]

Surely a seasoned road hunter like yourself has enough discretion to handle things quietly

[Greenheadless]

Enter into the MLD program, problem solved.

[ACbob]

Should be an exclusion for mature deer aged by a biologist, or something of the sort.We were told that a mature deer was the goal, and not all mature deer are over 13". I do agree with the principle of the requirement, it just needs a little refinement.

[tbgascorer]

Yep, my area of my county has gotten a lot worse since the inception. I was excited about it at first but quickly changed my mind. Too much junk allowed to live.... not just less than 13” deer either. If I have one 13” + tag, why would I waste my tag on a short tined, wide , older 8pt? I won’t and many others aren’t either. Too much pressure on the very best bucks and not many of them are living to see another year. My deer herd has gotten progressively worse over the years, despite my best efforts to shoot does, harvest the right bucks, and feed protein heavily. I could show you many, many examples of old, narrow, junk bucks that cannot be shot. And for the first time since owning the property in 12 years , I am starting to notice genetic traits in deer today that I saw years ago. Scary similarities.

For the record, I am in favor of the rule . Just not in my area of the county. I’ve seen the huge benefits in East TX, west of Houston and on my old lease counties Bosque & Hamilton.

[SC-001]

1000%

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Yes sir, we ran game cameras before antler restrictions and we've run them after and the results for our area have been nothing less than outstanding. Its the single best thing tpwd has done to grow bigger bucks on low fence and its also balanced the buck doe ratio for us, its close to 50/50 but we actually have more bucks than does now.