I think there's more depth to it than just asking "was it a good year" because most everyone that shot something will say yes. I'm more interested in how many mature bucks people saw compared to normal, how many does and fawns people saw and how the average rack was compared to normal.

This year in Lee County across 5 places I hunt, there were very few mature bucks (I saw maybe one compared to usually seeing at least 4 or 5), very few fawns from this year and the doe numbers also seemed down overall. The younger bucks seemed to score less on average than in previous years also. I saw a handful of 2.5 year olds that were pencil horned and at their ears. Nothing that necessarily showed a ton of promise for next year.

I could have shot a few different bucks, but they were barely legal, young bucks that aren't culls, but also don't look super promising. Seemed to be that way across the whole county after talking to quite a few people.

I couldn't agree more. Some of the responses are exactly that and it was a great year if you shot a nice buck.

Im more concerned with the things you pointed out specifically:

How many fawns did you see?
Was the total volume of deer up or down?
Did you see any mature deer?
Were sightings up or down?

All of things are more useful in accessing the "quality" of the season, in my opinion.

I could have spelled it out more specifically in the original post - that's on me.

How many fawns did you see?
2. 9 if you count the ones we found dead.


Was the total volume of deer up or down?
First year so hard to tell. Hunts seemed slower than old place



Did you see any mature deer?
Yes but HF skews that.


Were sightings up or down?
Down in pearsall

I talked to the Game Warden and he did say it was a slow year overall and not as many big bucks were killed as normal. Pretty sure this will be considered a "bad season" overall by the majority of Texas hunters.

My biggest takeaway for this yr at both of the stx places I hunt was the seemingly abysmal fawn crop. I think it was down at least 40-50%

I agree re: bad season by most

highvelocity said:

---

how does one participate in this kind of hunt? im down the road from cherokee county

---

They don't it's no good too many people. Carry on


JK it's drawn

No bucks after the season started just a few doe and coyotes. Caught this guy grabbing lunch from a neighbor. He is going to catch a bullet soon because he keeps coming around.

What's in his mouth? Hard to tell for me on mobile

Concho Co. Worst we've seen it in 20 yrs.

Haskell County 500 ac

Probably the worst season we've seen in 12 years on our lease. 1-2 mature bucks on camera, plenty of 1-2 yr old spikes and 4-pointers. We typically see doe groups of 4-6 at each stand, this year it was groups of 2-3. All of the ranches around us were seeing similar groups.

saysomethin said:

---

Webb County. Real slow. Mature bucks not showing up. Thinking mix of bucks gone from drought and the the ones that did make it are so covered up with grass that they aren't coming out. Seems to be similar with others in the area.

---

I concur, we hunt in Webb and had the same season. The rut seemed really slow too, they never seemed to rut hard. It was like several weeks of them starting to rut, but never really going crazy.

ttha_aggie_09 said:

---

What's in his mouth? Hard to tell for me on mobile

---

Neighbors chicken.

Slow year in Van Zandt County.

We took down 7-8 coyotes so hope that helps the fawn survival rate.

Definitely a down year for us in King Co. The drought was severe from late spring until mid September. Deer sightings overall way down. Low fawn crop, low doe numbers, not many mature bucks seen. I killed a decent buck but I was the exception. Both the taxidermist and meat processor I use local to my lease said their business was down by 50%.

Best year in about 5 yrs at our place in Gonzalez. Lot of big bucks (for us) and lots of doe moving. We are however on the river

YourFavAggie said:

---

Best year in about 5 yrs at our place in Gonzalez. Lot of big bucks (for us) and lots of doe moving. We are however on the river

---

What a difference a couple of miles make! My line of thinking is that our mature deer all bolted when our tanks went dry and the bigger boys took over new territory like yours that had the water.

Down year in Burleson county. I even got my act together this year and started feeding earlier and didnt just halfa** trying to deer hunt like in past seasons.

Didnt see much and game camera showed that there wasnt much coming around. Only 1 or 2 legal bucks I could have shot, vs usually having a handful or more. Usually have tons of doe and those numbers seemed to be down too. My assumption was too many acorns falling that they didnt feel the need to come by the feeder. Ended up shooting a bobcat instead of a deer and have that at the taxidermist now.