Has anyone hunting in Comanche had any success this young season? My lease buddies and I went out opening weekend and saw 5 does between us the entire weekend. It was fairly warm and the moon wasn't favoring hunting, but I thought we'd see more. This is my 1st season in Comanche.

I was in Gustine this past weekend and shot a 135 clas 8 he was almost 17 wide. we saw deer every time we went out, on sunday moring saw a 10 that would have been in the upper 140 next week should ba good with the cold weather coming in the buck i shot was just coming into rut.

My BIL shot the biggest one we have ever taken off our lease in Gustine on Friday. He wasn't as big as 682golde's. He was bedded with a doe in some tall grass in the middle of a cut hay field.

We hunt near Duster, Texas - Comanche County. This is our sixth hunting season. This area has always been a tough place to hunt. Even during the spring and summer when the deer are not as nocturnal, there is just not a lot of deer. This being a lot of farm country, where the foods should be plentiful to sustain and grow nice deer, we just don't see a lot of deer. I have read where some people attribute the low population to the locals who seem to hunt year round or kill them for disturbing the crops.

I don't know if that is true or not but I know within 30 miles of our lease, a rancher/farmer mixed temic with corn to kill off the hogs that were destroying the crops. Problem is, that it killed,everything else that eats corn.

Having said that, I beleive this rancher got caught by talking about what he did, but he must have heard this from other ranchers/farmers as a means to get rid of hogs.

I have hunted in many other places that is more ranch country which does not have the food sources as farm country and the number of deer there is incredible higher and you scratch your head to wonder why?

Comanche County, especially in the area you mentioned, used to be heavily used as peanut cropland. The deer were very, very plentiful then. Peanuts moved away from the area, so did the deer. 20 years ago deer were everywhere, deer stands were laughed at, and deer feeders were unheard of. Deer hunting was plentiful, the deer left, but it took a few years for the hunters to leave. The major food source isn't there, the deer aren't there.

this all comes from a 38 yr old Comanche citizen. I was at his house Friday night before last talking about this very topic.I live 25 minutes from Comanche and know a few locals. Yes there is some road hunters ive heard about, but its not like everyone does it. I know of several guys in Comanche that buy their our leases in the area.

btw, whats your definition of "not many deer?"

Sorry, I picked that up from a thread (forum) as far as the locals shooting and letting them lie, but then I talked to a rancher earlier this year who told me that very thing. I am sure it happens everywhere to some extent and don’t know if that could account for what seems to be a low deer population. Around our area, some of the farmers are starting to grow peanuts again. Maybe the deer will return? I am not sure why an area like ours that has good cover and farmers growing winter wheat, oats, coastal & other types of food, would have trouble keeping deer when places like Junction, Rock Springs have so many deer just looking for food in those rocky areas. I really have not even heard that many gun shots for that matter.

We do have a deer lease mostly pastures with brush surrounding it. We have taken all of 5-6 deer in the past 6 years while on this lease. We had been passing on does so that we might see an increase in the population. (btw we don’t see many does either).

I will say this has been the most deer we have seen and when I say the most, when sitting on a stand, we can say we saw a deer (one deer) during the day. Many hunts of years past we would not see deer at all. Our cameras would take pictures of the same 4 or 5 deer every night but that is it.

We have several smaller bucks on camera, but none showing while in the blind. A handful of doe/ yearling pairs, one hog on camera, and no turkeys. Got on the place because it's my dads best buddy's place. He said there were lots of deer, plenty of hogs, and too many turkeys to count. I bit, but haven't seen much to talk about. I've had leases in Coleman and Montague counties, and there were countless deer. I was just wondering if Comanche's just a slow deer hunting area. BTW, we are split in between the cities of Comanche and DeLeon. Thanks, fellas.

We hunt very close to there near Duster. Comanche is a tough place to hunt. This time of year, they will not come to the feeders. What we have found the best, is to spread corn on the road, sendero, trail or path. Then, always watching the wind and I may sit on the ground in the brush with full camo 30 to 50 yards from where I spread the corn. Get ready to spend some time out there.

Comanche has some very nice bucks, just have to hunt hard and long.

Even though this is our sixth year, this will be our first complete year protein feeding the deer. I hope it improves the bucks from good to trophies over the next few years. I have two on camera that I have been trying to get - hope someone else did not get them already.

Good Luck!

I hunted most of my early life around Duster. We used to have a place just about a mile due north of Duster and still have a place about 2-3 miles south of Duster heading towards Comanche.

We used to grow water melons and peanuts and would see tons of deer while the crops were in the field, but very few during deer season. In fact, I hunted there for about the first 10 years on my hunting life and NEVER shot a deer (on that property at least). Back then, you couldn't kill does and I never had a shot at a buck. Not once. I kept trying because of the monsters we'd see hitting the crops in the summer and fall, but they would disappear during deer season. Of course, we didn't have feeders (no one did) and there was no such thing as a game-camera.

Once I got to college age, I quit deer hunting out there. One place we have closer to Deleon never once had a deer on it until the last 3-4 years.

We had another place out towards Desdemona that had great deer. The Leon River ran right through the middle of it and the deer camped out in that river bottom filled with pecan trees. It was really good hunting.

I don't know where you are from Duster, but there are some great deer in that area. Unfortunately, they all tend to be back in the bottoms and not in the crop fields this time of year. At least that was my experience growing up.

As for locals killing off the deer, it made me remember something. Back about 20 or so years ago (about the time I stopped hunting out there) I remember there being a program where farmers were actually allowed to shoot the deer and leave them laying. I don't remember any details or even know it was true, but I do have a vague recollection of that.

Alot of my relatives still live out there and it's highly likely I know the guy you lease from if he's local. I spent most of my summers and all school holidays out there as a kid. Some of the greatest memories of my life.

I hope I don't sound discouraging, but I had some similar experiences to yours and wanted to share. There are alot of reasons I don't hunt out there anymore and the lack of hunting success wasn't really much of a factor in why I stopped going out there often. That was when I started college, my grandfather (who lived out there) passed away, my uncle (who owned the good hunting spot) sold that property, I made new friends in college who had new places for me to hunt, etc.

Frankly, I had been considering putting some stands and feeders out there this year or next just to give me another place to hunt.

Intersting comments KENNYLEE! I think this year is unique, in that we had that long drought during the late spring and summer, and then the over abundance of acorns. These factors affected the surrounding counties also, which most likely created extreme pressure on the deer and their natural habitat.

Although I hunted Comanche County about 9 years ago, this is only my second year on this lease, which is off FM 573 toward Mullin. In 2007 this lease produced the 3rd largest buck in Comanche! Last year we saw some phenominal bucks all the way to the last day of the season, along with a high number of mature does!

Early signs this year were very promising, even through the drought period. Not too many crops on the round this summer because of the drought, so deer were coming to feeders much like they had done last year. Then simultaneously, the rains came, the crops started to produce, along with a massive amount of acorns, and the deer almost disappeared!

Bow season was a disasterous sauna! Again, no deer movement and warm throughout most of the season, which made it uncomfortable to say the least! Deer movement was mostly at night, based upon trail camera pics.

So far this season, what bucks we have spotted, were small and inferior; althought I am a proponent of the A/R, I have seen a few deer that should be removed but cannot because of the A/R! Still not much doe activity either.

But....we have... TURKEYS....TURKEYS....TURKEYS.....unbelievable! I'm still highly optimistic that the big bucks are gonna show, probably now that the weather is cold and wet, the deer will get back to NORMAL!

KennyLee, having been there already six years, we have grown found of the area. It was great to hear/read your recollection of the area. Our rancher (the owner of the properties) is great and we have developed a good friendship with them.

Our place is closer to Beattie but he has property near Duster that is better hunting and he lets us hunt there as well. This is the only part of his ranches that he does not run cattle. We have had more hunts ruined by cattle than I care to tell on his Beattie property. The Duster property has no fence and is used for growing coastal. We usually see deer, pigs, coyotes & bobcats on that property which makes it fun to hunt.

Still, even though we could take as many as 12 deer based on our lease numbers, we usually take only 1 or 2 between the three of us in our family. Most of the time they have just been spike or forky deer. We leave the doe since three seems to be so little deer.

Two and three years ago, although I have plenty of pictures to prove they (deer) are there, I saw 0 deer on the Beattie property and a few at the Duster property. I am happy to say, I actually have seen more deer this year . Still I do not plan on harvesting does yet in hopes of really getting some deer going up there.

I know people say we should take does but I still believe that is for areas that have an abundance of deer.

I think I need to give a better explanation of our property out around Duster so to not sound too discouraging.

It really wasn't good deer property, even 20 years ago. There was little cover as it was basically just a giant producing crop field with a few strands of trees in it. It is also a relatively small piece of property.

We had no bedding areas, so anything we saw was just passing through. In years that we planted wheat, we'd have deer, but they were nocturnal. You could shine a shotlight across that field at night and see eyes everywhere.

It all just comes down to the lay of the land. I know where I hunt now, my neighbors tell me they don't see much movement. I have tons of years like that myself, but this year I'm seeing more deer than I ever have before. This is my second year of feeding year round and I think the deer have just conditioned themselves to stay on my place. Yesterday, I saw close to 30 deer, but no mature bucks. I've only seen 2-3 mature bucks during shooting hours this year and that was during the rut.

Good luck out there. Even though I never shot any deer, I have some great memories of hunting and fishing out around Duster.

KennyLee, Are you saying you are hunting near Duster again? Are the 30 deer you saw in the Duster area? Or is this at other places you are hunting?

No, yesterday I hunted in Wise County. Pretty much hunt Wise and Bosque. For years I hunted in Shackleford, but the landowner leased out to wind turbines and I didn't like being around them. Just started hunting Wise again about 6 years ago, but hunted Bosque for the last 10-12 years.

Reading that there are some good deer in Duster, I may head out that was around Christmas if I start filling tags between now and then. Have some relatives that would love to see me (okay, they'd love to see my daughter but don't mind if I come with the package).

I don't know the number of the road, but it heads south about a mile east of Duster and runs down to Comanche. I front that road about a couple of miles south of Sipe Springs Highway (at least that's what we called it).

We are up there once more this weekend and then not until after Christmas. I am hoping this weekend might find the second RUT going on...

Comanche Co. isnt that bad of hunting. You just need to have some food crops and Cover to hold the deer. Just like any county in Texas. Good luck!

i hunt in sipe springs. i have taken some nice deer out there. this year i have seen alot of small bucks. not many does in my area. but, lots of turkeys.

I don't deer hunt anymore but I do have a duck lease within 5 miles of the Duster store. We routinely see deer in our ranchers winter wheat field. Several time this season I have got up to take a leak and spooked 3-5 deer coming to get a drink while we were hunting a tank. Our rancher does have some deer hunters and they took a 17 point 3 years ago. I know this year they have seen quite a few but most are young bucks or does. Another guy I used to duck hunt with has 320 acres north of the Duster store that they have taken some huge bodied deer off of in the past few years. One in particular a biologist took brain tissue samples because it was abnormally large for that area of texas. I believe it field dressed around 170lbs. There are a lot of deer in that area but more hogs than anything! When talking with our landowner last weekend he said the processor told him they took nearly 400 deer in since the beginning of the season and that was the most they had ever heard of. obviously some were not from Comanche county but that is still impressive!

Hey JD Sports - thanks for information. For some reason the Duster location has some very nice deer.

My brothers and I have hunted all around Duster all of my life. I have shot a lot of deer there, including Several over 140" with the biggest being 167". The heaviest field dressed 180 lbs. on the feed store scales. There are more mature deer there now, than I have ever seen. Quite a few people are being a lot more selective than they have been in the past. The hunting should just continue to get better. Losing the peanuts didn't help any though.

There are definitely some big bodied deer out there. I know a guy who shot a buck out there about 5-7 years ago that dressed at an amazing 220 pounds. It was a big enough story that it was mentioned in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram (or startle-gram as I like to call it). The guy that shot it is a client of my aunt and I saw the pictures back then. A true hog.

Reading about 140's and a 167, I'm thinking I might need to return to my youth and start hunting our property in Duster again.

A few years ago, my wife were driving in the pasture and we saw the biggest deer we had seen chasing a doe. It was amazing. We actually had just turned into the property.

I've seen some monsters around Proctor back when i was day working down there and hauling cattle. Also Deloen got a few big ones also

I have been hunting on a lease between Duster and Gorman since 2004. I have only taken one buck from this property in that time and that was in 2007. It was a pretty heavy deer. I'll usually shoot a doe or two each year for meat. I have seen a few bucks each season but most of them have been young. Overall the deer hunting in this area is pretty slow in my opinion or maybe I just don't hunt in hard enough. I used to hunt in Mills County and Llano County where I would see deer almost every time that I hunted. I stay on this lease since is very reasonably priced for the few times that I get to hunt each season and the land owner is a nice guy who is easy to deal with and very accommodating. This is a hard combination to find these days. As long as I at least see deer each year I will continue to hunt there and hope that I occasionally see a good buck.

i hunt just west of proctor in deleon. the deer are getting better year after year. our lease use to have peanuts all over them, but i have not seen a peanut crop in a while, or melon.