Shared from the 11/3/2021 San Antonio Express eEdition

Whitetails go from gloom to boom

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Raymond Gehman / Getty Images

The white-tailed deer season that opens Saturday got a boost from a wet spring and summer.

White-tailed deer season

» North Zone: Saturday-Jan. 2.

» South Zone: Saturday-Jan. 16.

» Youth only, North and South zones: Jan. 3-16.

» Muzzleloader: Jan. 3-16.

» Special late season, North Zone: Jan. 3-16.

» Special late season, South Zone: Jan. 17-30.

REGULATIONS

TPWD Outdoor Annual: Free where hunting licenses are sold, TPWD offices and on the web; free app at tpwd.texas.gov — click on “Hunting,” then “Hunting Home.

CHRONIC WASTING DISEASE

Information and check stations for submitting samples: tpwd.texas.gov/huntwild/wild/diseases/cwd.

Things were not looking good for Texas’ white-tailed deer population in January with the U.S. Drought Monitor showing more than 90 percent of the state experiencing abnormally dry to exceptional drought conditions.

Then came winter storm Uri in February with freezing temperatures, snow and ice across much of the state, which continued the shortage of plants for browsing and prompted significant mortality of animals from axis deer to bats, according to a report by Alan Cain, Texas Parks & Wildlife Department’s white-tailed deer program leader.

“(White-tailed) deer are very resilient to short-term weather events like that,” Cain said. “I didn’t hear of any major die-offs.”

The habitat across much of the state rebounded after rains in the crucial antler-growing months of April and May.

Rain continued during the summer, while temperatures were cooler than normal and lower winds and allowed moisture to remain in the soil.

The result is that expectations are high for the general deer season, which opens statewide Saturday.

“It should be a pretty phenomenal year,” Cain said. “If there is any indication of what’s to come, it would be the number of quality bucks being harvested during the archery season and early MLD (Managed Lands Deer Program).”

He cited a low-fence buck in Kenny County that scored 199 Boone & Crockett and other big-antlered bucks taken in La Salle and Dimmit counties.

Cain also participated in a youth hunt two weekends ago in McMullen County.

“I was amazed at the amount of fat on the bucks,” he said. “On one I helped with, there was 1½ inches of fat on the hindquarters.”

One entry from Duval County in the Muy Grande Contest scored 220 6/8, while the leader in Los Cazadores’ high fence archery division scored 246 4/8 on a Zavala County deer.

While a massive acorn crop last year kept deer away from corn feeders early in the season in the Hill Country, not many were on the ground in an informal survey.

“Acorns are mixed,” Cain said. “The live oaks at my house in Pleasanton are loaded with acorns. But other people are not seeing any.”

Mandatory chronic wasting disease testing and carcass movement restrictions continue. Check the TPWD website for more information.

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