East Tx vs Hill Country Deer Debate

[tps7742]

You’d have a better chance of him posting feet pics.

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I would say Pat is a smart man on this matter. If we could only get other pine tree residents to follow his lead.

[lovemylegacy]

Nice thread. Learning a little bit about other regions….never knew deer ate Mesquite. Do they eat the pods also?

[Bone Thug]

Nice thread. Learning a little bit about other regions….never knew deer ate Mesquite. Do they eat the pods also?

Yes to both.

From what I understand the mesquites leaves are easily digestible and a good protein source. Not sure if it’s their preferred food but it’s a good choice for them.

Our area of Texas is in one of the worst droughts I’ve ever seen. No Forbes on the ground for us with very limited browse other then mesquites. This drought started on us back in November 2021 and just a few limited rains to date.

We keep our deer numbers in check as much as possible but I’m a big believer the Mesquites kept our deer alive during this drought.

[Killer]

Yep

My 2 cents having hunted Alan of the areas mentioned
East texas has monsters but the biggest difference IMO is “ranch” size.
Most in the hill country and south texas are larger on average than east texas. Less hunters per acre. Far less pressure 24 hours a day. When we hunted east texas I heard gunshots and atv’s all hours. Not so in other parts of the state.

The deer are in east texas they just adapt to their world. No feeders and move largely at night.

Like I said just my opinion.

Spot on

[Longue Carabine]

I find that hard to believe, especially for the Hill Country. Please specify what type of plants are there. I have always been curious about how the EP can have so many deer. Tiny deer, which is why I say they dont have much food.

SETx has so much browse, I find it hard to believe, thats all.

STx, I can kinda see maybe as much. I am guessing the limestone leeching has a lot to do with it?

The majority of all the oceans of brush you see in South Texas are high protein browse that is palatable and digestible/bioavailable to whitetail deer. There are no forests to shade it out, and it's all within reach of the deer. It is well known that this area provides the highest nutritional quantity and quality per unit area for whitetail deer. East Texas gets more rain and looks more lush, but the vast majority of what is naturally occurring there just isn't useful/preferred diet of whitetails. That isn't to say you can't produce an equal or better ecosystem there with human intervention (you definitely could), but that doesn't represent the natural ecosystem. The dominant succession pattern of East Texas is grasses to timber. Both are useless to whitetail. There are some forbs and browse in east Tx, just not anywhere near what exists in STx. For food plot potential however, ETx dominates. Its the only region of Texas where you can easily transform deer quality with food plots. Key word there being easily.

As for the hill country, note I said "some areas." Primarily the borderlands between the hill country and STx. Much of the Hill Country is devoid of nutrition and the only reason you see more deer is less pressure.

[Low Fence]

I grow some great deer and know several on here that grow bucks that blow away most herds in the state free range

East Texas biggest problems that keep it from exploding:

Land fragment is largest. In the 90’s everything was 200 acres and a father, son and cheap skate uncle. Now that same 200 is busted into 40-50 acre tracks and each 50 has…. A father son and cheap skate uncle

Then add ALL want to shoot biggest on camera reguardless if it’s mature. Leases are the same. They kill waaaayyyyy too many young deer

Take a place that has the habitat and limit it to 1 hunter per 300-400 acres reguardless of cost and it’s a different world.

[Barney1971]

Well once again I will disagree. Ragweed both common and giant, Goldenrod, Smylax, Black and Dewberry vines, American Beauty bush, Arrowwood and many other plants are more than available for consumption. Several mentioned above are over 20 percent protein, high in Phosphorous, Calcium, Selenium and many more trace minerals.
It sounds as if both regions are proliferate in nutritious browse. I would like to hear from the EP boys about what browse is a available there.

Agree with the pressure aspect. Our lease is 1500 acres/11 hunters, all bowhunters. So the hunter density is high, but we bowhunt and are picky. Only 3 deer taken last season. Members saw plenty, just wanting a wall hanger.

NOW-- imagine that 1500 acres with 3 hunters on it-- after about 3 or 4 years of that what kind of deer do you think it would be producing?
(just curious on how you think it would change the hunting)

[Bone Thug]

Solid reply Brandon. And as always we are looking forward to seeing another stud from your place.

This drought is brutal. Going take it easy and put a lot of thought into it. Still trying to figure some stuff out. Lol

[HogHunter34]

Solid reply Brandon. And as always we are looking forward to seeing another stud from your place.

Only studs on my place so far is ME

[lovemylegacy]

Long Carabine, after the season I will be glad to change your mind about “useful and preferred” diet and take you on a tour of our lease. Like I said, SETx produces good tonnage of preferred browse for deer. The plants mentioned earlier are native to the area that deer have been eating for centuries Im sure.

Just to clarify, the areas that dont have much browse is the hardwood bottoms and ridges. Acorns is the hot item now, once they are gone, the bottoms become uninhabited for the most part.

[Bone Thug]

only studs on my place so far is me :d

Lol…..

[lovemylegacy]

NOW-- imagine that 1500 acres with 3 hunters on it-- after about 3 or 4 years of that what kind of deer do you think it would be producing?
(just curious on how you think it would change the hunting)

If our members were shooting their full allotment of deer it maybe different. But like I said, 3 deer were taken last season, buck, 2 doe. We never take our full allotment of deer. The issue here is locals take quite a few. The rifle leases around us slaughter the deer.
To answer your question, that 3 deer taken per season might reduce down to 1 maybe 2. So not much change.
Its a work n progress I guess, getting hunters on board in letting bucks walk and shoot the doe instead, but its miles better than it once was. I hope that answers your question

Just for the record we have produced some very nice bucks. Weights range on mature bucks from 170-200 plus. Depending on when you take them

[trophy8]

Man some folks take this personal lmao. “WE HAVE GOOD PLANTS TOO ****IT!”

[Smart]

I find that hard to believe, especially for the Hill Country. Please specify what type of plants are there. I have always been curious about how the EP can have so many deer. Tiny deer, which is why I say they dont have much food.

If the hill country didn't have much food it wouldn't be able to support the populations. If what you say was the case, the deer would all be walking around like mini deer skeletons....and it dang sure wouldn't be able to support all the wild free range exotics. Have you seen an axis buck on the hoof in the hill country? They don't get to looking like a spotted volkswagen because there is nothing to eat and they are starving. ...Red deer?.....Fallow?.....

[Smart]

Nice thread. Learning a little bit about other regions….never knew deer ate Mesquite. Do they eat the pods also?

They eat them at our place as well...the beans and leaves. I think they and our supplemental feeding have saved our deer this year. When everything else was brown including cactus, and some cedar, the mesquites were green and producing beans. Didn't save our season but it saved the bodies. The horns suck but the bodies are in decent shape compared to 2011.