The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department held a special meeting for the public on Tuesday night at the Bangs Ag Sciences Building regarding the new antler restrictions in effect for Brown County in hunting white tail buck deer.
Wildlife Technician Dan Davis and Biologist Kevin Mote gave the presentation regarding the new antler restrictions along with several slide photos of white tail bucks to show examples of what a legal buck looks like.
There are two basic regulations that hunters will need to remember. A buck must have at least one unbranched antler & if both antlers are branched the inside spread of 13 inches or greater is required.
They said that there will be two keys to field judging bucks for the requirements.
The first key has to do with the bucks ears. Hunters should look for a buck in the alert position where the ears are pointed forward. If the antlers are outside the tip of the ears in alert position, then that is a legal deer according to TPWD officials.
The images below illustrate the different requirements by looking at the buck’s antlers and ears. If the inside spread of the main beams is outside of points of the ears when the deer is in alert position, then the buck is legal to shoot. (article continued below)
The second key to finding a legal buck according to the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department is optics. They said that optics like binoculars will be essential to recognizing a legal buck from a distance and they suggested to always get a front view of the deer before shooting.
They stressed that Game Wardens will be filing on hunters who violate the new regulations so, “When in doubt, don’t shoot.”
This will be the first season for antler restrictions in Brown County, but many counties to the east have had the regulations in place for several years with great results.
The TPWD showed charts where the population of mature bucks increased in counties with antler restrictions in place in the second and third years. One of the goal of the antler restriction policy was not only to increase the quality of the bucks being harvested, but also the quantity.
The chart below shows how the number of young bucks 2.5 years old and younger harvested decreased while the number of older more mature bucks harvested increased in quantity during the second and third years of antler restrictions in other counties. (article continued below)
Another goal of the antler regulations is to put hunters on a level playing field. TPWD officials said that there is a feeling by many hunters who consider shooting a young buck that “if I don’t shoot it my neighbor will.” They said that hopefully the antler restrictions will take care of that issue.
Those with questions or seeking more information are encouraged to call the local Texas Parks and Wildlife Department office at 325-643-5977 or visit their website at http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/
Hunting season and bag limits for Brown County are as follows:
- Archery Only: October 3-November 6, 2009. No permit required to hunt antlerless deer unless MLD permits have been issued for the property.
- Bag Limit: 5 deer, no more than 2 bucks, all seasons combined.
General Season: November 7, 2009-January 3, 2010. No permit is required to hunt antlerless deer unless MLDP antlerless permits have been issued for the tract of land.
Special late general season: January 4-17, 2010. Antlerless and Spike deer only.
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Special Youth-Only Season: Early open season: October 31-November 1, 2009. Late open season: January 4-17, 2010.
