Our 2023 TPWD Experience

[justletmein]

Sounds like kind of a weird setup.

That hasn't been our experience when my son drew any of his hunts, but they were youth hunts so maybe it's treated differently. The one adult deer hunt I've been on in 10 years or so of applying they went out of their way to ensure everyone was successful and had a good time. All the TPWD staff on that hunt had to be the friendliest people I've ever met.

[bullets13]

From what I have experienced, they reserve those feeding locations for the youth hunts. They want to keep the pressure off them prior to the hunt.

Also, I am sure they do like any good wildlife manager does and has allocated the number of hunts/hunters with the harvest quota the need. Sounds like youth hunts are their main avenue to get those numbers.

They can more accurately predict those harvest numbers from gun hunts vs. archery.

This is purely a guess though, only they know the intent of the use of the resource.

Agree with this. I’m good with kids getting first crack, but I will say the last two times we went to Fairfield we were directly after two youth hunts, and hardly anyone killed anything. Don’t take my money and then bring me out there after it got shot up twice in the 7 days before I’m coming. At least spread them out a couple weeks.

[jnd1959]

From the OP’s explanation, I’m gonna have to agree with this.

Some places I've been I would agree. Others I would strongly disagree. When you have a muddy hog hunt and a pig down and they come and get you that's above and beyond.

I think in this case they were reserving the blinds for the youth. My experience with youth hunts were that they tried to make sure they were productive.

TPWD is a bureaucracy, and like most it has its bureaucratic inertia. But I've seen a lot of autonomy for the biologists. As with much autonomy, you have to take the good with the bad. That's why reports on here are valuable. For those picking and for the biologists.

Don't think they don't read these. Many do.

[Ungawa]

Some places I've been I would agree. Others I would strongly disagree. When you have a muddy hog hunt and a pig down and they come and get you that's above and beyond.

I think in this case they were reserving the blinds for the youth. My experience with youth hunts were that they tried to make sure they were productive.

TPWD is a bureaucracy, and like most it has its bureaucratic inertia. But I've seen a lot of autonomy for the biologists. As with much autonomy, you have to take the good with the bad. That's why reports on here are valuable. For those picking and for the biologists.

Don't think they don't read these. Many do.

Are you one of THEY? LOL!

[dpg481]

Chris Fried‘s hunting sets?

That guy will never catch a break, LOL.

[Ungawa]

Chris Fried‘s hunting sets?

Don't get me started on this subject.......can't believe they actually allow this guy on tv and especially some of the comments he makes on the show after going thru his situation is totally unbelievable.
Talk about painting a poor picture to the public of an organization.

That whole situation was just unbelievable.

[doublearrow]

We've always had a great time on the hunts. But we did hunt a wma one year there were two kids my son and a girl. The girl killed one of her 3 allotted whitetail and left the first morning. My son killed all 3 with time to spare. A federal game warden there wanted us to kill the left over from the girls tags. He called his boss to ask. Boss said no. Federal game warden was upset because he said now he was going to call a contractor in to come in and shoot the extra. He said that's your tax dollars paying for the contractor doing something y'all could do. Just the government being the government wma no different.

[Ungawa]

We've always had a great time on the hunts. But we did hunt a wma one year there were two kids my son and a girl. The girl killed one of her 3 allotted whitetail and left the first morning. My son killed all 3 with time to spare. A federal game warden there wanted us to kill the left over from the girls tags. He called his boss to ask. Boss said no. Federal game warden was upset because he said now he was going to call a contractor in to come in and shoot the extra. He said that's your tax dollars paying for the contractor doing something y'all could do. Just the government being the government wma no different.

Strange situation for sure.

[drewgriz]

Just another anecdote, and not necessarily relevant, but I once did a "private land" draw hunt that was on the Nature Conservancy's Barton Creek Preserve in Austin. The biologist there was very clear that they have an extremely low whitetail population, that's the way they like it, and we were there to keep it that way. That's because they weren't managing the property for deer, they were managing it for golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos, two endangered songbirds (the vireo has since been delisted) that only nest in the juniper-oak woodlands of the Hill Country, and too many deer browsing can destroy or prevent formation of continuous-canopy woodland those birds require to nest.

So, he told us, there were very few deer on the property, but we were put in good places to shoot the ones that were. Was a rifle hunt, in well-placed box blinds about 100yds from feeders. 2nd day a great-looking 8-pointer came out...but the week I was hunting was antlerless-only. Went away empty-handed, but was a really cool property to get to see and hunt.

All of which is to say, A lot of properties (WMAs included) are managed for different goals. Some are managed to provide the most hunting opportunities to the most people, but on many, hunters are a tool used to achieve other management goals, rather than an end in itself. I do wish TPWD was more public with the management priorities on different properties and how that factors into the way they manage hunts, so we could take that into account when deciding which ones to apply for. But in general, I think it's useful to keep in mind that on most draw hunts, I'm volunteering (and "donating" money for a permit) to help them achieve management goals, rather than a paying customer on a ranch that's managed to give me a good hunt. There are plenty of places that do that, without the uncertainty of the lottery system.

[Greenheadless]

Just another anecdote, and not necessarily relevant, but I once did a "private land" draw hunt that was on the Nature Conservancy's Barton Creek Preserve in Austin. The biologist there was very clear that they have an extremely low whitetail population, that's the way they like it, and we were there to keep it that way. That's because they weren't managing the property for deer, they were managing it for golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos, two endangered songbirds (the vireo has since been delisted) that only nest in the juniper-oak woodlands of the Hill Country, and too many deer browsing can destroy or prevent formation of continuous-canopy woodland those birds require to nest.

So, he told us, there were very few deer on the property, but we were put in good places to shoot the ones that were. Was a rifle hunt, in well-placed box blinds about 100yds from feeders. 2nd day a great-looking 8-pointer came out...but the week I was hunting was antlerless-only. Went away empty-handed, but was a really cool property to get to see and hunt.

What is interesting, this cedar break habitat they are trying to preserve is an unnatural habitat caused by overgrazing and mismanagement of the land. Like most things govt. it kinda makes you scratch your head in confusion.

[SwampBuck]

What is interesting, this cedar break habitat they are trying to preserve is an unnatural habitat caused by overgrazing and mismanagement of the land. Like most things govt. it kinda makes you scratch your head in confusion.

Sounds like balcones canyonlands. I was reading about them yesterday and it’s the same two song birds I believe and that would explain the previous reports of lack of deer compared to other areas.

[MtnMike]

Just another anecdote, and not necessarily relevant, but I once did a "private land" draw hunt that was on the Nature Conservancy's Barton Creek Preserve in Austin. The biologist there was very clear that they have an extremely low whitetail population, that's the way they like it, and we were there to keep it that way. That's because they weren't managing the property for deer, they were managing it for golden-cheeked warblers and black-capped vireos, two endangered songbirds (the vireo has since been delisted) that only nest in the juniper-oak woodlands of the Hill Country, and too many deer browsing can destroy or prevent formation of continuous-canopy woodland those birds require to nest.

So, he told us, there were very few deer on the property, but we were put in good places to shoot the ones that were. Was a rifle hunt, in well-placed box blinds about 100yds from feeders. 2nd day a great-looking 8-pointer came out...but the week I was hunting was antlerless-only. Went away empty-handed, but was a really cool property to get to see and hunt.

All of which is to say, A lot of properties (WMAs included) are managed for different goals. Some are managed to provide the most hunting opportunities to the most people, but on many, hunters are a tool used to achieve other management goals, rather than an end in itself. I do wish TPWD was more public with the management priorities on different properties and how that factors into the way they manage hunts, so we could take that into account when deciding which ones to apply for. But in general, I think it's useful to keep in mind that on most draw hunts, I'm volunteering (and "donating" money for a permit) to help them achieve management goals, rather than a paying customer on a ranch that's managed to give me a good hunt. There are plenty of places that do that, without the uncertainty of the lottery system.

So if the goal is to keep the Deer Population "extremely low", why would they NOT want you to take that 8 point Buck? One less deer no matter what Sex the animal is would help towards their goal of keeping the deer population extremely low, would it not?

[SwampBuck]

So if the goal is to keep the Deer Population "extremely low", why would they NOT want you to take that 8 point Buck? One less deer no matter what Sex the animal is would help towards their goal of keeping the deer population extremely low, would it not?

Because It was an “antlerless” hunt. Gotta have some sort of boundaries. Could you imagine the commotion that would get started for all the other draw hunts if word got out they let people shoot whatever outside the guidelines of a hunt? Not to mention shooting the females is a general population control tactic.

[hooligan]

why not say where the hunt was?

[tx_basser]

As an adult I don't like Assigned Blind hunts. I understand them for children, but I won't apply for one.