So I'm at Raggedy Creek in Crowell, TX - Foard Co. this past week and get to talking with the guys there about the season so far and quality of deer, etc. They say the volume is still there but the buck to doe ratio has flipped flopped. Last year was 70/30 bucks to doe and this year 70/30 doe to bucks. I could see this - as if horns aren't the normal size due to the drought that hunters might pass on more bucks this year and hope for a better horn season in 2012.

The discouraging part of this talk was when they mentioned the local biologist saying their would be a big buck die off this season and don't get too picky on passing up quality deer as they will likely die anyway. The reasoning behind this thought was that the area didn't recive enough moisture this year and allow the bucks to fatten up for the rut and the winter months. Has anybody else heard of this across the state, as everywhere has suffered from the dry conditions?

We have not seen the most mature of deer this season as we have previously during the rut, so I'm hoping the big smart ones realize they can't make it through both the winter months and the rut and are just taking a season off to survive. I'm going to believe this anyhow, as it's way too depressing to think of a big buck die off.

Can't wait to hear you guys thoughts on this.

Bucks and travel up to a 10 mile area. Just because they were in your area last year, doesn't mean they'll be in your area this year. You need to have a "Safe" area for deer on your land so they can bed down. If you have a lot of people on the land thats running around, the deer will run off to neighbor properties and leave yours in the cold.

Agreed, but not sure what that has to do with the local biologist predicitoin of a "big buck die off?"

There will likely be a higher winter mortality in that area this year but it won't be "big buck" specific. It will affect both bucks and does, young and old. The middle age deer will probably be less affected. There may be a few more bucks than does go down due to getting run down from the rut and not having as much food and water to help them re-cooperate.

Any wheat fields near you? Most of the northern 2/3 of the state is supposed to get rain this weekend...Still not too late to grow forbs.I'm not a biologist,but deer are very resillient,keep your numbers at or below carrying capacity,they'll do just fine.

I wouldn't agree with his die off theory. These late rains that started in that area in late September and October have greened things up so much that at least on our place the deer aren't even hitting the feeders. They are fat and sassy and I've watched deer walk right past corn under the feeder and not give it a second look. Most of the wheat fields around us are lush and thick too. At least in our little area of the state the deer are in no danger of starving at this point.

I dont know what to think of all of it. We have been rebuilding our place herd wise since we got it and have seen an increas in both horn, numbers of deer and body condition and weight every year since 2007 counting this year. The deer we have harvested this year have wighed more than similar aged deer did last year. They have had good amounts of fat built up on the ribs and rump with some having alot of internal fat inside the ribs. We do suplemental corn and protein, but that is by far not all that these deer are eating there is still alot of native browse in their guts.

I would suspect to see the mortalities fall like adam_p said, does will be run down from fawning in the dry conditions and bucks will be worked over from the rut, same as any year, the strong live. Do your culling asap and feed what you can they will be fine.

matt

Makes sense that all deer would be affected. I was just quoting what the biologist told the guys at Raggedy Creek and "big buck" was used for whatever reason.

The bucks I have seen so far in Foard county have all been in excellent shape. There may be a couple of places with a 70/30 buck to doe ratio but county wide whoever told you that is very very wrong. I doubt there are more than a handful of individual ranches statewide with that ratio.

Some bucks do die every year b/c of stress and/or injury from the rut and the range conditions are not great but I dont buy the shoot all the good bucks b/c they will die anyway either.

Yep. I agree with you guys...and hope we're all correct!

All the deer we have taken this year have been very healthy - and yes, since the recent rains it has greened up a lot of the area and corn is building up under feeders...so they're fattening up on something.

It's gonna be a rough year for them, but I think most will make it. Recent rains have really helped green everything back up, and bucks should recover from the rut pretty quickly. The hard times will come after the 1st hard freeze, and through mid-spring, when natural vegetation is dorment.

The 70/30 buck to do ratio was what Raggedy Creek was taking in for processing last deer season - and this season they said it has changed to 70/30 doe to buck. This is for the volume of deer being processed there. Not saying this is the buck to doe ratio of any particular ranch or county.

It would depend mostly on the deer concentration in that area and if you've been getting these rain squalls like DFW and the Nac. area have been getting. I would think it would not be a major die off if the area isn't over loaded and you've been getting some of this late rain.

Opening weekend I saw about 7 deer total during hunting hours at the feeders (a good amount for how scarce they are out in our corner of Nac. county). Almost all does or illegal bucks, one legal 7-pointer.

After these rains passed through though I've only seen one yearling doe eating our corn, and a whole bunch of crows and squirrels. The forbes are sprouting up and the deer around here seem to be hungry for them.

Hunting junkie- when bucks chase does during the rut they normally don't stop chasing until they get a peice and theyre satisfied. Therefore they will run and run without eating or drinking water and eventually run themselves to death. This Is called exertion miaprothy. It's sad but true

Of all the counties in the state, Foard county would not be the one I would be most concerned about this winter. Most of the free range, Central Texas/Hill Country Deer are looking pretty poor. Southeast/East Texas has seen a fraction of their normal rainfall.

There is a lot of wheat starting to surface in Foard Co and many fields still have their volunteer wheat that they never cut last year begin to grow from recent rains. Ever deer we've seen looks more than healthy (seen several deer that would probably push 150-200 lbs). We've seen mostly bucks this year and very few doe. I would put the ratio at 80/20.

We got lucky in WHeeler COunty we had tons of acorns and I mean tons. And we have received about 5 inches of rain in Oct and Nov. I don't think we will have any type of winter die off because the deer are pretty fat especially the bucks before the rut.

Yeah but the fawns up there suffered big time!

That makes sense. Maybe I will run into you out there sometime. I take my kids hunting just up the river from you.

Fawns are suffering most everywhere

Sounds good. There was about 20 of us at Sweet T's this past weekend eating pizza. Not sure that place has ever seen a crowd like ours walk in. The kids wanted Dairy Bar but they were closed at 7pm on Sat. night????

I learned a long time ago to take what game biologist (experts) have to say with a grain of salt. Their success rate is about 20%.

My highly unscientific observations so far this year tell me that EVERY buck over 4 years old has already died.

I may be wrong in my thinking, the deer that suffered the most from this years drought were the Fawns adn does with fawns. next would be the current 1.5 year olds buck or doe, this should have been a year of gaining a lot in body structure but they didnot nave the chance to gain much at all. The older deer 4.5 and op to the point they start declining in your ares seem to me to have physically made it tghe bext. The the bucks and does (without fawns) appear ni great shape from the limitied ones I have checked. Fat healty looking deer. Removed chunks of fat off a free range buck the other day that were as big as my hand covering his Tenderloins.

Its been my experiance that during poor range conditions like we have had in most of tx the whole yr. That does and fawns suffer most late summer and early fall. If the conditions dont improve the bucks suffer the worst in jan feb because they are run down from rut. Ithink some bucks will move long distance during pre rut but lots of factors play into that, they return to hm range and will die there if range conditions are bad enough.During a early yr die off the bucks and fawns are most certain to be the first to die. I saw die off on part of ranch before and wondered why they didnt travel to other part where conditions were better due to food plots but they didnt they stayed in hm range and gave up the ghost go figure.

Most of our doe's had twins and they didnt loose them either.