Maybe I'm dumb or just confused, is this statement (copied from TPWD) explaining that I can only take one deer that is 13" or greater. The last line says exactly that and of so it makes no since????? So one buck 13" or greater and one spike...... Probably here somewhere else but I got tired of digging. Sorry for the bother.

Special Antler Restrictions do not apply to properties for which Level 2 or Level 3 MLDPs have been issued. For counties with Special Antler Restrictions, a legal buck deer has:

1.at least one unbranched antler, or
2.an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. The inside spread requirement does not apply to any buck that has an unbranched antler.

Not more than one buck with an inside spread of 13 inches or greater may be taken.

u can take one deer greater than 13'' AND one deer with an unbranched antler.


-OR-

u can take two deer with at least one unbranched antler


Those are ur options.

Sounds rediculous, but OK. So you only get, one good buck! Thanks for the clarification Brandon.

Some counties are 1 buck only. Some counties were one buck only before ARs.

Welcome to Antler Restriction hunting. Worshipped by some, despised by many.

is what it is...

what county u hunting?

Yep, one good buck that the ARs let mature and one young one that will not be able to mature because they let you shoot it, or you can take two young ones that will not be able to mature because they allowed you to shoot them...sorry to chime in with that but it could conceivably and legally boil down to just that.

Well said Big Tony, well said.

I got the chance to talk with several wildlife biologists last weekend and all of them were in agreement. Since the implementaion of ARs they have definitely noticed a increase in the size of the deer killed, and have been seeing larger deer. They also were for the killing of every spike since they said they will always be mediocre deer

Jack county

The spike agreement comes from many of those biologists having been involved at one time or another with one of several research projects concerning spikes. Several studies done at Kerr from 1974 to present.
http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/huntwild/hunt/wma/wildlife_management/kerr_wma/research/

What has benefited us in Young county is that before AR we were a one buck county. If you took a spike, you were done for the year. It was not uncommon to see the same mature spike from year to year on our place as no one would take it.

I got a response to that. This.....


This buck is 4.5 years old. I watched him grow up every year of his life. He had an injury the first year from getting hung up in a fence that caused a swollen knot on his right front leg. We nick named him "the gimp" cause he limped. You know, he was a spike his first year. Turned out to be the widest deer killed on our place in recent history.

Nice deer, but those biologists wouldn't of called that a trophy by any means. That would of just confirmed their thoughts.

And to add to that. These biologists work on some of the WMAs where some of the AR rsearch was done. ARs were implemented in those areas as a test to see how they worked.

I would have dared any of those biologists to walk up to the fella in pic, at the time we were taking that pic, and tell him that deer was not a trophy. I'd have punched them in the nose before he had a chance to.

It was his first deer with a bow, and his first buck over 4 points. He was, and still is, ecstatic, and who is anyone else to take that away from him? But I guess if someone is just completely out of touch with the avg deer hunter in the woods today, then they might think that way.

And my opinion on the guy that came up with the AR criteria? As I said in another thread....He had a close up view of his colon.

You should really get some different Biologists to consult with if they really told you that. We had a yearling spike on camera that somehow got his right ear ripped almost off his head, looked horrible. Well, it made him easy to keep track of though. And, at age 4, he was a 155-160" 10 point. If that's a mediocre deer to you then you should give up hunting and find another hobby.

BTW, that deer in the picture would be a trophy to me too.

All i can say is the deer in east texas are definitly getting bigger and much more mature because of the antler restrictions...to me that buck in the picture is a trophy...but also that deer in the picture passes the AR restrictions so that in itself shows you that if you let the small ones grow you will have bigger more mature deer...

Funny thing though, last year was the first year for us under the AR rules.

I would never shoot a yearling spike. Way too young to tell the true potential of the deer at that age. Many young spike have matured into trophy bucks in the 150 range. Now a spike at age 3 1/2 or 4 1/2 is a totally different story. That one needs to be culled out. Nice buck psycho. I surely would consider it a trophy.

While I'm pro antler restriction (but not in favor of the increased antlerless bag limits that have accompanied the AR in some counties), I have met some of these so-called biologist TPWD has and some of them don't know their ear hole from their as... well you get my point. I think the AR is a good rule in priciple but it needs some tweaking, like smaller bag limits, in some counties

The trophy is in the eye of the beholder. I would have taken that deer and been proud of it.

...

Definitely a nice deer.

Also those biologists would have told you they needed specific data sets for a specific location, and that a blanket rule over large portions of a state so diverse as Texas was a bad idea.... if they were not spewing the company policy of the state...