Polident & oatmeal.

south texas isn't full of 200 lb deer that grow 25" wide racks.

I can take you to a lot of river bottom country that 15" inside spread is the norm.

common misconception that all south texas deer are wide.

then why bag limits, or buck only counties, or 13" rule if overpopulated?

AR's were put into place for/by trophy hunters ... period

Way too much revenue loss, to suspend hunting.

The common misconception is that everywhere was stocked and that ETX genetics and that of the imports are the same. They're just not and a 15" deer on this place would be wide. Most will be between 10.5-12.5 and weigh in between 180 & 210. They're different deer than what ppl have grown accustomed to in ETX.

I don't really give a rats rear end on AR's one way or the other. What I want to know is why the "Hill Country" can raise more deer than "East Texas"? There are thousands of acres of forest, parts of which you can't get through. There can't be a hunter in every tree, yet the deer population has not exploded like it has here.

What is green is not always good for deer to eat. What is good for deer would take a deer crossed with a giraffe to reach it in all that forested acreage.

well, like he said above, too much revenue would be lost, also every county is different, some entire counties are overpopulated, some only in certain areas of the county, some not at all. some areas are nearly shot out every year regardless of bag limits, eliminating them would just make the problem worse.

tpwd cant be expected to restrict every property correctly, thus the blanket regulations.

Since AR went into effect, we are seeing bigger bucks on a regular basis on camera instead of the occasional big deer. I also stated protein 3 yrs ago which I believe is a contributing factor to size and overall herd health. We have done an excellent job of taking out the spikes 3-4 a year for the post 4 yrs. This year we only have one in camera and I have some nice young 6's and 8's. We also take our share of does. Bottomline I think it's working.

deer don't eat pine needles don.

People who need the gubmint to tell them what to do make me weak. Real weak.

I weep for you buncha sheep.

Cedar is not their favorite but they will eat it. Are AR deer too good to eat pine?

Pine isn't exactly the problem..the spraying that's done to kill out everything but the pines is a problem.

high five. down with the man!

I need it to tell my neighbors what to do

we used to hunt a pine plantation. after about 7 years old the pines choke out all the undergrowth which are benifical to deer. when they clear cut they took out most of the hardwoods and then after the pines come up that's all there was.

we had two places one was just pines and one was about a 60/40 mix of pines to hardwoods with a lot of yaupon and other stuff and the deer density was night and day. only scrubby bucks were ever seen on the pine tree farm. lots of good bucks seen and taken on the other property.

I love ARs and if you do not then why don't you just pack your bags and move to Russia?

The guvment shut down today so does that mean they can't tell us what to do?

The States did not. Only the feds.

A lot will depend on how they were plotted. We have a place right up against a timber company tract, timber is the same age, plotted the same. They spray, we don't and there's a world of difference in the amt of browse found throughout the plantation. I've yet to see a buck there that actually impressed me, but it's going through my 5yr plan after the initial survey.

Main place I hunt was cut Fall/Winter '06 (with very thin SMZs) and left to natural regenerate since it was an extremely wet winter; it holds a bunch of deer, however, it holds a bunch of nesting sows.

So does that mean the national forests are shut down?

that's why the bigger hill country deer come from places around sisterdale, hunt, harper,sandy, cypress mill, llano, where a lot of the cedar has been eradicated

Absolutely. But in a good way.

Go shoot everything you see in there today. There is no season and there are no rules. You will have great success and put meals on your table impressing the wife and earning you bedroom favors.

Sunday I watched a doe pass my corn up to eat soggy oak leaves that had been fallen from the storm earlier that day...