East Texas hunting 2022-‘23 season

[Anvilheadtexas]

Same with my place in Leon County, I’ve been observing numbers since I bought it in 2016, numbers are way down.

Awe don’t worry, once that last acorn sours and the weather gets cold deer will magically appear. Lol. I don’t mean to be too sarcastic especially when everybody that posts in this thread is a well respected member of tbh and all have valid observations. cutting back on the doe harvest is going to be the answer, but it will take a few years before everybody agrees. Guys who are 55 years and older remember back in the day when you just didn’t shoot a doe… for the last 15 years it’s been a full on war on the very thing that produces fawns… and we wonder where the deer are.

[Texas452]

I’ve been in the cattle business all my life, we don’t cull our older cows, once a cow has her third calf she is practically grown out and a lot more of what she produces goes into they calf.
They want to shoot the older does that are just getting in to raising top notch fawns, plus more twins, a heifer doesn’t raise the best calf, a yearling doe doesn’t raise the best fawn.

[Gumbo Man]

I’ve been in the cattle business all my life, we don’t cull our older cows, once a cow has her third calf she is practically grown out and a lot more of what she produces goes into they calf.
They want to shoot the older does that are just getting in to raising top notch fawns, plus more twins, a heifer doesn’t raise the best calf, a yearling doe doesn’t raise the best fawn.

Very interesting point you make. And really makes a lot of sense.

[Snowflake Killa]

I disagree but that doesn’t mean it’s wrong. Eventually it’s going to turn cold….. maybe mid December? But at some point it’s going to get cold and stay cold or at least not climb back up to 75 like it is today…..but I can’t imagine a cold snap magically, making all the deer just reappear like that especially in mid December when it becomes traditionally, the most difficult period of the general hunting season to see deer. It will be interesting to see what happens between Christmas and the end of the season because that’s when they typically is a uptick of activity (second “rut”)

For instance, last week when we had that cold front . I hunted I believe it was Wednesday. We had great movement. Lots of mature deer on there feet eating. This is factual, not by what my cameras are telling me. The next day it warmed up and saw 3 deer. This what I believe to be true. They don't just eat acorns just like they don't just eat protein. But it's fun to discuss.

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[hogslayer78]

Awe don’t worry, once that last acorn sours and the weather gets cold deer will magically appear. Lol. I don’t mean to be too sarcastic especially when everybody that posts in this thread is a well respected member of tbh and all have valid observations. cutting back on the doe harvest is going to be the answer, but it will take a few years before everybody agrees. Guys who are 55 years and older remember back in the day when you just didn’t shoot a doe… for the last 15 years it’s been a full on war on the very thing that produces fawns… and we wonder where the deer are.

I can't understand what's going on myself. I have leased the property we hunt for 12yrs now and this year was/ has been our best as far as deer numbers go. It is paper company land and they thinned last year so maybe that's why but every year has gotten better and better since 2013. It's crazy how each property varies. Our property is 563 acres with almost half being hardwoods and I have had consistent deer at my feeders all year. Even though we have tons of acorns, they continued to visit feeders regularly. I can't figure it out. The few sits I didn't see anything or my my family was actually in creek bottoms and hardwoods. The nice buck I killed was on hand corn. I have no idea what's going on East Texas lol.

[Snowflake Killa]

They don’t have to go to acorns flats when every tree in the thicket has them and they are very dispersed. Not knocking your past deer numbers but the acorns have completely shut down every place I hunt this year.


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Totally agree. Something that I have watched is deer eating the yellow sweet gum leaves over a 50lb corn pile

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[Greenheadless]

Funny, our numbers are at an all time high right now. Actually, on the overpopulated side.

The summer before last had a bigger adverse effect than this past summer or the freeze.

I could see where land fragmentation could be an issue. You can only kill so many deer off of 20-100 tracts before you are ultimately going to have an issue. Even with 300 acres, depending on carrying capacity, killing more than 3-4 deer could get you into a negative population trend.

As for seeing deer this year, don’t overthink it. Deer need food, water, and cover/security. They prefer some of each over others, and these trends change each year depending on what is available. On our property, food has been the biggest change this year, in the shear and mount of acorns (E Texas deer crack).

Most of our folks don’t hunt the acorns or know to hunt them, which in turn has less pressure near them. They rather sit in their comfy setup and stare at their man made food source that has now become a second choice food, and wonder why they aren’t seeing anything.

[Quackerbox]

200 owned acres. 5 deer killed the last 3 years. All does. We haven't taken a buck since 19 and we took 2.

That being said there probably 250 on the west and 300 on the north without a single hunter. It's solid pine you can't see 30 feet in

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[Snowflake Killa]

I have a plan go fishing

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[Iansumrall]

I have a plan go fishing

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This is the right answer

[bloodtrailer28]

I’ve been in the cattle business all my life, we don’t cull our older cows, once a cow has her third calf she is practically grown out and a lot more of what she produces goes into they calf.
They want to shoot the older does that are just getting in to raising top notch fawns, plus more twins, a heifer doesn’t raise the best calf, a yearling doe doesn’t raise the best fawn.

When we try to reduce numbers in our hf place we usually take strictly doe fawns for that reason alone.

[Anvilheadtexas]

I can't understand what's going on myself. I have leased the property we hunt for 12yrs now and this year was/ has been our best as far as deer numbers go. It is paper company land and they thinned last year so maybe that's why but every year has gotten better and better since 2013. It's crazy how each property varies. Our property is 563 acres with almost half being hardwoods and I have had consistent deer at my feeders all year. Even though we have tons of acorns, they continued to visit feeders regularly. I can't figure it out. The few sits I didn't see anything or my my family was actually in creek bottoms and hardwoods. The nice buck I killed was on hand corn. I have no idea what's going on East Texas lol.

East Tx is dynamic due to timber harvests. I think deer numbers would always improve after a first thinning. Or at least that’s been my experience. We are about to test this theory. We bought 100 acres of “dog-hair” thick stuff. Just horrible habitat. Have not hunted it as it is poor habitat. We are cutting this year. It will make things better, no doubt. Note - none of my observations that I posted earlier came from this tract. We just bought this so I don’t have a history of monitoring it, but cameras suggest there are scattered deer in that mess.

[Gumbo Man]

I have a plan go fishing

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Waste of time. My fish aren’t coming to corn either.

[Low Fence]

Quick summary of what I’ve seen and a sneak peak into years of data:

MOST East Texas….. hunt less than 50 acres

If you account the overlap of adjoining priorities have a feeder/bait pile every 20 acres
Most hunt because “it’s season” or “it’s the only time I got”
Proven fact- your first sit is your highest odds of success
Deer are glorified goats: they love acorns but don’t gorge themselves. They eat poison ivy, leaves, bark, grass, trash….

I run cameras almost year around, on every feed source you can think of as well as travel routes and bedding. They are all accounted for somewhere. We are so spoiled to the idea that we have to kill one with his mouth full of something that we burn our stands to the ground before mid Oct. they know what those barrels are especially on small land. Get into cover and you will find deer. I went (by accident) last week into a thicket I honestly had to crawl through and almost couldn’t plow through in that 60 yards…. No less than 15 fresh rubs. Couldn’t hunt it… but in the edge I could

Hunt cover, especially doe bedding. They make a living hiding from: predators, bucks and us.

The hunters I know that flipped the bird to feeders years ago are all in deer now not cause they are an elite hunter, but because they didn’t ruin their place when the time wasn’t right. They are mobile and realize that a deer eats a very low percentage of the day at a bait pile… but they are always moving somewhere. They don’t/ can’t bed up 5-6 hours at a time

[Snowflake Killa]

Waste of time. My fish aren’t coming to corn either.

[emoji1787][emoji1787]

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