Long Term Effect of 13" rule?

[Greenheadless]

"go MLD" is always thrown out in these threads...you can't just go enroll. I looked into it years back, the first thing they ask how many acres you have, I can't remember the minimum acreage but none of my places qualified.

I have 35 acres and am MLD. Where there is a will, there is a way.

[tbgascorer]

I have 35 acres and am MLD. Where there is a will, there is a way.

How many buck tags do you get, one?

[Drycreek3189]

Enter into the MLD program, problem solved.

Not for everyone. If you have a small property you might not get any tags at all. The old program solved it, but the new one has its own problems.

[Drycreek3189]

I have 35 acres and am MLD. Where there is a will, there is a way.

I have 80 here at home, when I checked it showed zero tags for my place. Has something changed ?

[bossbowman]

I know I'm beating a dead horse,but what a/r has basically done is limit you to one deer instead of two. Yes it allows for an unbranched antler buck to be taken but there are not many of those compared to normal antlers. I believe the improvement most are seeing is more people getting on board with year round feeding. What I also see is people that used to shoot the first buck that came out now are shooting the first 13" deer that comes out. They switched from killing a 1 1/2 year old deer to killing 3 year olds. Either way you are hitting a certain age class hard.I don't think the state should be in the trophy business but I can't change it so I learn to live with it. For the record ,not that it matters, I have not killed a buck in several because I have not seen one the got me really excited . There have been plenty of legal deer but I'm not going to be "that guy". It will take educating the younger hunters and waiting on the older brown and down hunters to die off.

Not getting your logic, all the AR counties were 1 buck counties before the change.

[tbgascorer]

Not getting your logic, all the AR counties were 1 buck counties before the change.

Not true. Mills was two bucks, no restrictions.

[jshouse]

I have 35 acres and am MLD. Where there is a will, there is a way.

Are you part of a co-op or WMA? Those were the only two options I was given for my 50 acres and the 100 acres I lease.

[CEO]

I had him on camera a couple times, not the clearest pics but could tell he was close. When I saw him in person he looked dead even with the ears. Just had to ground check him [emoji6]
Actually one of the best bucks off this property

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Not sure I have enough wool on my backside to squeeze off on one that close. I'd at least bring an excavator to make burying easier if he came up short.

[Hockley]

I'm in one of the original counties. The best it ever was was about year 5 or 6 into the 13" rule, it will never be that good again, but it's not because of dwindling genetics. It will never be that good again because of the internet and every one with 5 acres has a deer stand on it. Since the inception we have killed 3 or 4 border bandits, but never had a deer get to 5 years old that wasn't 13". That being said I know of a buck down the road from me that is 150" plus that is most likely not 13". He also is only a 4 year old too so he needs to live....

[Jaker]

Let’s make it where kids can hunt without antler restrictions. That would give people a chance to cull these type of deer and prevent any second guessing and possibly ruining a kids hunt because a deer is too close to call.

[bossbowman]

Not true. Mills was two bucks, no restrictions.

Your right, forgot about those 3 far west counties that got added in 2009. Atoscosa wasn't supposed to be included to have the AR but there was a vocal group there that lobbied for it if I remember right. Don't know the background or the reason they added Mills and Brown, I hunted Lampasas and it was 1 buck and seemed like it needed the regulation because of hunting pressure. I think that's the only 3 that were two buck out of 112 counties that got added.

Edit: Come to think of it there was a pack of a dozen or so far east texas counties (the ones they had to outlaw tracking dogs) that were 2 buck also, I don't imagine they pay much attention to the rules anyhow

[rtp]

OP, my thoughts on your question. I havent read any of the responses so sorry if it might be a duplicate. The narrow genetic has been around forever and will continue to be around forever. You just happen to be seeing more of it today because there are many more mature bucks than before. Allowing bucks to mature, we get to see their genetic potential. Before ARs, all of the young bucks pretty much looked the same and got whacked because of the If it's brown, It's down mentality. Nothing has changed, imo, in the genetic gene pool because of ARs. The only change is now there are a lot of mature bucks running around when that didnt used to be the case.

[walker1983]

OP, my thoughts on your question. I havent read any of the responses so sorry if it might be a duplicate. The narrow genetic has been around forever and will continue to be around forever. You just happen to be seeing more of it today because there are many more mature bucks than before. Allowing bucks to mature, we get to see their genetic potential. Before ARs, all of the young bucks pretty much looked the same and got whacked because of the If it's brown, It's down mentality. Nothing has changed, imo, in the genetic gene pool because of ARs. The only change is now there are a lot of mature bucks running around when that didnt used to be the case.

yep
10 years ago those deer were not there -because they got shot as 2 year olds.

[BuckSmasher]

Enter into the MLD program, problem solved.

This

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[Greenheadless]

How many buck tags do you get, one?

I guess you gotta choose what you wanna gripe about..........or maybe, folks just wanna gripe about erraything.

To answer your question, I usually get one, sometimes two tags a year. Not always do I get a buck tag.

You honestly shouldn’t be shooting more than one deer off 35 acres anyways unless there is an overpopulation issue.