Negative Effects from Freeze on Whitetail

[Tx-Burt]

We seen a difference

We seen a change in weight and numbers, which was surprising how wet of a year it was after the freeze. We had waist high grass all over the place even the rocky areas, pond full, spring flowing. Plenty of Grasshoppers. A turkey shot had about 50 Grasshoppers in its gullet.

Out of 12 whitetail does taken 1 weighed in at 105# all the others were 80#'s. Bucks were 130 - 140# past yrs weight 160+
No axis taken, I seen 2 does early in season, my son seen 1. Usually kill 3 to 4 axis each year.

Deer census was a lot of young deer and ~ 1/2 what we usually see. Not uncommon to see 9 - 10 deer come in, average probably 3 to 4 came to feeders. Most were not mature, yearling does still with mother most sits. Had maybe 5 Mature bucks on camera, 2 were 10's that were shot.

I thing we did notice was the Turkey population is growing, even had a white hen in the flock.

[trophy8]

I had several deer live through last season that never showed back up this summer or fall. Can’t say it’s the freeze but it was a very weird year for me on our place.

[diamond10x]

I had several deer live through last season that never showed back up this summer or fall. Can’t say it’s the freeze but it was a very weird year for me on our place.

Weird year for our property as well. We had a number of bucks we watched all summer to only disappear completely come October and still have no sign of them. That in of itself isn’t too strange as we usually have 4-5 bucks that will do that each season to show up the next or two seasons later. This year it was about a dozen bucks. Part of it I think is due to the fact we just have a higher percentage of bucks in that age range but the biggest thing that was the strangest this year was the moon.

The moon cycle was wayyy off from what it usually is. I hunt every Friday to Sunday and it seemed as if every weekend was a full moon or close to it. I was reading a recent article from James kroll (dr. Deer) and he was talking about this season being an odd year because of the moon cycle.

[txtimetravler]

I still don’t buy into the moon impacting ‘much’ for deer, the rut or sightings. Meh…just my opinion.

The impact of an abnormal freeze is interesting though. Some plants seemed to have bounced back stronger than ever. Lots of damage to oak trees…wondering if the stress event leads to succumbing to diseases in some cases.

[trophy8]

Weird year for our property as well. We had a number of bucks we watched all summer to only disappear completely come October and still have no sign of them. That in of itself isn’t too strange as we usually have 4-5 bucks that will do that each season to show up the next or two seasons later. This year it was about a dozen bucks. Part of it I think is due to the fact we just have a higher percentage of bucks in that age range but the biggest thing that was the strangest this year was the moon.

The moon cycle was wayyy off from what it usually is. I hunt every Friday to Sunday and it seemed as if every weekend was a full moon or close to it. I was reading a recent article from James kroll (dr. Deer) and he was talking about this season being an odd year because of the moon cycle.

I hunt mostly during the week. These deer didn’t even show up on camera. And they were daily regulars before and I put very very little pressure on them. Hoping this year is normal.

[cwill]

My Burnet county lease appeared to have a terrible fawn crop. I'd have 5-6 big mature does come in and zero fawns. I'm not a biologist, but it sure seems to me that something caused those does to miscarry. There were no shortage of bucks that should have bred them last year and I rarely see predators on cam so I don't think that's the problem either. Just a very weird year for my place!

[S-3 Ranch]

This current dry spell is what's hurting them on my place in Mills county. No green on the ground at all. I bet they eat double the protein this spring and summer.

Same farther west, dry dry , need to feed heavy spring and summer this year , heavy bull dust in places( like moon scape powder )

[mudkat]

very weird year for sure we had a lot of crummy bucks this year almost no older bucks.
the acorns were very few this year maybe the freeze made them not put on acorns are stunned the trees enough to make them not produce
sure hope we don’t have another cold year the deer might be in worse shape without the acorn fat.
that freeze hitting so late last year was tough on them being late in the winter when they are run down from winter as much as they get before things green back up