I spoke to a Panhandle County Game Warden this week. Processors seeing about 50% of what they processed this time last year. Harvest of good scoring bucks down the same. Let's hope 2023 sees an increase in rainfall.

I think there are other factors involved besides a drought. Less landowners leasing out for hunting, less people paying for a lease due to the economy, folks processing their own because of the prices the processors are charging....the list goes on.

I have heard multiple similar assertions.

In my area it is due to mast crops and late summer into fall rainfall. I spoke with 2 processors and both said they are down about 33% more or less. Same for a taxidermist I spoke with...his numbers are down about the same. I think the biggest impact was the lack of spring and mid-summer rainfall. Fawn crops are down and most people are not shooting as many deer due to the lack of deer sightings. The lack of deer sightings in my area is from the mast crops and then the rainfall late summer to date. We had persimmons, acorns(3 species of oaks), mesquite beans, pecans, tunas, etc ripen or hit the ground from early August with some acorns still on the ground today. Then the rains that started to fall in late August and continued till this date really made the pastures look like spring greenup. Forb growth everywhere, new tender green grasses everywhere and trees/brush that were struggling now put on new growth and greened up. Feed consumption went down 70% or more since late July with it dropping noticeably every week and continues to drop today. Deer just weren't coming to corn feeders nor even oats/winter pea plots at all right now. Deer rarely showed up on road corn and road corn may lay on the ground 3 days. On my place I turned my corn feeders down from 5 seconds 4 times per day to 2 secs then 1 secs mornings and evenings AND still had corn piling up on the ground. Protein consumption on my little placer totally ceased. Feeder traffic has improved since Thanksgiving and with upcoming really cold period and freezes it will go way up. I think this last 2 or 3 weeks of the season will see a major shift in deer traffic back to feeders or plots. This photo was Monday this week after the good fall rains and the wet week around Thanksgiving.

Knox county report. Haven’t been since thanksgiving. It seems as though the deer left or died, can’t find them. The deer population was low to begin with and seeing little to no deer each sit. Hopefully the deer movement will pick up by the last week.

Same thing in the hill country. Processors reporting a slow year and a wildlife biologist said deer numbers down 57%. He stated the high summer temperatures took a toll on the young and old. I have seen no yearlings on our NW Burnet County lease but did see 2 driving out on county road Sunday. Corn is not piling up under our feeders but the deer are not hitting them hard. I believe that the late summer and fall rains have provided plenty of food for the deer resulting reduced movement. Burney County is as green as I have ever seen it this time of the year. We do have plenty of turkeys. Saturday morning I saw about 60 hens and gobblers and shot a Tom.

We had fawn survival, not sure % but seeing yearlings. Definite reduction in rack size and body weights on mature bucks.

In south texas we shot the two heaviest bucks we ever have. Not a super wet year but not bad. At home it was dry as heck for majority of the year, still have fawns.

A flyover was done in Oct on our place in Schliecher county and we were told we lost about 32% of our fawn crop. The two blinds I hunt normally
have 15 to 20 deer each time I sit untill this year and now i"m only seeing 2 to 4. Our oat fields have only a few deer where in previous years there
could be 150 to 200 in the evening and night. What few bucks we have seen have lost alot of horrn inches or just didn't grow right
at all.

Dry conditions spring thru summer really stressed the deer herd here in north Brazos county. Numbers of doe and fawn seem to be holding steady but mostly seeing "not yet shooter" bucks and all are thin making it difficult for me to age them accurately.

I videoed the best two bucks on Sunday as I was doing the game camera check down in the river bottom..

Very slow in south San Saba County corn. Seeing very few deer and even less fawns, corn building up under the feeders even though we have cut back on the number of feedings. Have a feeder pen made of hog panels 34" high. Corn had built up to the point cows jumped in the pen. Put 2 strands of barb wire up and it seems to be keeping the cows out now. Pen height is around 48" high now.

Our place is in Young county. Likely our best year in the last 10 or so in terms of number of deer seen. That said, very few mature bucks seen in person or on camera.
Also the fewest pigs we've seen in many years and the ones we have are almost completely nocturnal.

Saw a single shooter from Opener of Archery to Dec 2. Hunted every day!!!

My place in Dicken is a jungle from flash flooding on 8/22 and 9/1 over 5 inches each day.

NO fawns at all at any time either on sittings or on cameras,

Had shinnery oak crop which complicates but no action at feeders at all. Corn piles up!!!

Heading up on the 26th to close out season hopefully acorns gone and Frosts killed off some of the natural food!!!

This will probably be the first year since 1999 that I didnt take a deer. Our deer were hit really hard by the drought and a few other factors beyond my control. Rack size has been the worst I have ever seen. Even the biggest mature buck I have seen would not be as big as the smallest buck I have ever killed on the place so I seriously doubt I will be taking a buck this year. Honestly next year looks even worse for us. Many of the mature bucks I passed on have been shot and I dont see much in the way of up and coming younger deer either. We have several age class of deer missing and absolutely none of our fawns survived the drought. Really not sure if I want to stick it out another year and see what happens or move on. I dont have to kill a buck every year to be happy but I at least want to see one. LOL

We had a decent fawn crop despite the horrid drought. I thought I would see zero fawns but I’ve seen a pretty fair amount.

What I have not seen is the middle age class bucks.

JCB where do you hunt? That is pretty much the way we are except we got on our place in 2012. We started with 100 inch deer at best and have worked our way up to 140 to150 the past couple years.
This year if he is mature he might be 110 to 115 but most are younger deer.

Coke county

Poor year for me
No fawns
No mature bucks
To many pigs
Acorns

Off year for pigs in NW Burnet County. We have only killed 2 on 1100 acres and seen very few on cameras.

5 1/2" of rain from January to September, and record days above 105 this summer has made for a tough year on the herd in my area. The November and December rains and warm weather are helping what is left of the herd. Harvest totals will be off for us. Concentrating more on doe than bucks. "No trophies" this year...

Where you at? Sounds like our area.

North Tom Green county

Harvest is a little the opposite for us. Shooting spikes if older then 1-1/2 instead of does. Leaving the does to rebuild the herd.

I hunted the following counties Gillespie (14 + sits), Mills (6 sits), Williamson (10 sits) not big ranches by any means but good number of deer. I have seen 1 doe in Williamson and 1 in Gillespie, zero in Mills. No fawns and a few bucks in Gillespie and one in Williamson.

At our ranch in Leon county sighting’s are way down, we haven’t taken a deer this year and only a spike last year.
In Coleman county it’s about the same as the last couple years, we don’t have any oak trees and the deer are hitting the feeders, we don’t have high numbers and only average seeing 3-4 deer/ sit.
On the bright side we did have some fawns survive.
In Burleson county it’s been the same for 25 years ( trigger happy neighbors) you can take a good buck but you will have to hunt hard, the guy I let hunt said he saw the biggest buck he’s ever seen this year ran right under him running a doe, he couldn’t get a shot.