What makes the deer bigger in south TX?

[krausejmk]

is it the minerals in the ground that are better for them, bigger ranches so they can manage a herd better, just more deer, better genetics, better food source, high fences ( just joking on that one ) but seriously what do you guys think? Thanks for your input

[Death from Above]

THe amount of protein in there forage versus other places.

[krausejmk]

THe amount of protein in there forage versus other places.

is that due to the minerals in the soil?

[Codie]

Diversity of native high protien forage and density of hunters that hunt there to shoot big mature deer compared to the rest of the state (IMO)

[jlptexashunter]

Three legs on the tripod: Age, Genetics, Nutrution

It's all of them

[Todd-ty729]

I blame Marko!

[mjhaverkamp]

I think protien has a lot to do with it, I am on the fence about South Texas deer being larger than North and Northwest Texas deer, especially body size.

[SAC]

I think management has the most to do with it. There are good deer killed all across the state. There are more and more getting killed each year with AR's in place. But per 1000 acres, this is just a guess, I'd say there are 3(sometimes 5) times as many people hunting in most parts of TX compared to STX. Alot more meat hunters elsewhere. People who hunt STX have trophies on there mind.

[Randy]

Red Dirt

[dangerous dan]

I shot a 3 1/2 yo 210 lb 140" buck in north texas it is not just south. Let a deer live to maturity and he will be bigger

[Death from Above]

is that due to the minerals in the soil?

Not sure...seems like I read somewere that most of the ST forage was like 14%. I may be off in that. I will do a little research.

Great topic by the way.

[U.S.ArmyRetired]

THe amount of protein in there forage versus other places.

Three legs on the tripod: Age, Genetics, Nutrution

It's all of them

What happened to the deer in Northeast Texas? They missed out on all of the above.

[k9trainer]

Money

Sorry, someone was gonna say it

[Chuy]

natural vegetation, not many hills for them to have to keep body weight down, protein everywhere. Compound that with there are a ton of ranches down here that are managed. We had a biologist come out to our ranch in freer a few years back , we were aiming at the 155-170 range. He said for us "not to feed any corn and let their natural habitat feed them" apparently, there was no need to put protein or corn out at our ranch because the vegetation is so rich in minerals. This is not a unique diagnosis by a biologist down here.

[Texans42]

That fact they can get old enough to actually express the genetics on top of their head