Never filled tags?

Just thought about that on another thread mentioning not wasting your tags... I myself have never used more than two tags in a season. Never been much of an issue as hunting is a bit tough where we are. Do you get your buck every year? Fill tags ever year? Would you continue to hunt if it didn't happen for at least 4 years? Love it out there I tell ya!

I don't usually fill my tags. I usually kill what property dictates rather than what State of Texas says I can kill. If we have an over abundance of does, I will help lower the numbers, but I usually kill 1 doe and 1 buck.

Never fill my tags. 2 to 3 deer a year will keep me and my wife in venison meat all year long along with providing deer sausage for my friends and family until the next season. Been cleaning out the freezer from last years 2 deer harvest. Still got burger meat to make chili on opening weekend. Note to self. Eat more deer over the year.

I've never filled my tags. I think the most I've harvested in a year was three. I've never felt the need to fill all my tags. I just get what I can eat till next season.

Never filled tags, I always hope for 2 if not 3 deer in a season. That keeps us from buying any red meat for the family throughout the year. I have gone seasons without hardly having a deer sighting before and the first 15+ years of hunting you were lucky to have very many chances. The last 5-6 years we could have filled our tags in one trip every year but didn't. I just don't have a need to use them all since we can't eat that many in a years time and wouldn't want to jeopardize the future of the herd on any place i hunt. Of course this year I am back on public land archery hunting only so I hope to at least fill 1 tag!

I filled my tags for 5 years in a row in a 5 deer county with almost all does, maybe one or two bucks. My brother did the same and we encouraged as many others on the lease as we could to shoot does. It helped our population out a lot because we had way too many deer.

Now hunting on our own property we have 3 guns hunting 320 acres, we no longer fill our tags.

I base it on last years consumption. If I have venison left over from previous year I will only take 3 deer. If I run through it pretty quick and am out before the upcoming season I will tag out. Most years that is all does. The past 2 years I have tagged out 1 buck 4 does. The deer I process my self is mostly steaks and stew meat out of the quarters and backstrap and tenderloins whole. Doesn't take long to eat that up. If I do have leftover meat the next year it is usually the stuff from a processor like chili or link sausage.

Theres something about the progression of hunters that suggests one of the first steps after killing your first deer is to kill your limit. I never hit that stage. My father and grandfather taught me to take a mature animal or two. We never needed the meat for more than two or three per family. I still kill one or two for my little family these days.

I also never felt the urge to tag out just to fill my tags. It was after I started thinking about management that I filled my tags because we were overrun with deer and especially does.

I've never filled my tags, mostly because I like to pass on deer that I feel my friends would enjoy taking more than myself.

Problem is, most of them don't hunt often or diligently enough to see them.

I haven't filled my tags before, usually only shoot two to three a season cause that all I can eat in a year.

I have never used more than two tags.

I have one of the grandkids kill me a doe are spike every year or two for the freezer but I haven't shot a deer since 1995 unless it was to put one down hung in a fence. The wife killed a nice droptine buck in 2009 was her last one. We camp and keep grandkids almost every weekend during season but enjoy leaving the killing to the young adults and kids now days.

Some years I fill my tags and some years I dont.

Shot a 10pt two years ago. The "right" (5.5+, 10pts) buck never showed last year. Looking at a mature buck on camera this year. Might take him if he still looks good "live." Everything else has been does.

As a kid in the early 80's in a construction family we tagged out because we lived off venison threw the slow months of winter. I have not tagged out since then because 2 deer a year was plenty for us. I once took a buddy hunting and let him shoot a big spike, he got upset when I told him he was done hunting.

He argued that the state says he could kill 4 deer. I agreed with him that he can legally kill 4 deer but his license did not say that he had to kill all 4 deer on my place. That was his first and last time at my place.


Kill as many or as few as you can eat and your property can handle.

I have filled my tags and then some every year for the last 24 yrs now.

property limits vs state limits are very different. i typically get 2 and let the wife and kids shoot one each…that's the 4 for my place…but i get some other opportunities on other places as well….

I use all my tags either does or stags

I fill mine each year. Any remainder after regular season goes on doe

I've never filled my tags, and don't see it happening this year, although I would have liked to have taken a couple more doe here at the house. We are overrun with doe and need to take more. The folks around us only rifle hunt, and Austin Co is buck only during rifle season.

But unfortunately, the in-laws scheduled 3 retreats this month and I've been swamped have only hunted 3 evenings and taken 1 doe. I plan on giving my parents and siblings a lot of meat this year, since dad refuses to hunt from a blind and hasn't hunted in 15 years or so, and my brothers are workaholics and don't take time to enjoy hunting these days. I keep telling them that they need to slow down and enjoy life before it passes them by, but they don't listen

I have never filled my tags but did take 5 deer last year. 4 were MLD though. I would never expect to fill tags at my lease. One or two does is enough and if I am lucky a buck.

We are overrun. Looked at last years license, was 1 buck (mature) and three does. Year before was a cull, a spike and three does.

When I was younger I would tag out every year because I was trigger happy all the time but now I never take more than 2 and most years those are both does

I have never hunted on a property that you needed to fill your tags for management purposes BUT if you need to fill a spot on a lease like that then let me know!

Never have tagged out, but have taken 4 several years. At least one doe for a family member/friends, and 2-3 for my freezer.

We love our venison

I do know some people that will shoot just for the hell of shooting, and the meat ends up sitting in their freezer for years before they throw it out. I've never understood that...

I never use all my tags!!! I'll shoot 2 (buck and a doe) and be happy!!!

I have the chance to fill my tags every year and in the past I would. It's been a while since the last time I tagged out. Deer just haven't done enough for me to that mad at them, I guess. If family or a friend wants a deer and its been a good year I tell them to go to my place and get one.

In VA we get 3 buck tags (you need to earn a buck by shooting a doe after your first buck) and almost unlimited doe tags. I have 150 acres that I own and can manage....high hunting pressure around me with a "shoot any buck mentality." At 68 I have killed more bucks than I probably deserve so I am picky on the bucks and try to shoot mature deer (for us that's 3 1/2 plus)...usually one buck for me and let my son and daughter shoot anything they want... and save the last buck tags for a monster (for us that would be a 150 plus deer). I fill as many doe tags as I can eat or donate without hurting the deer herd on my property.

Yup, 5 does a year.

I have filled all my tags only twice, and both were many years ago when I hunted almost every weekend in Junction. Since then, I usually tag about 1-2 does a year, and my son gets a doe. I have not shot a buck worth shooting in about 8-10 years (other than a jacked up rack, cull buck type). On that front, I'm over due!

Find most any lease in the southeastern hillcountry or any other hi population region and you will know why. We filled our tags with does for over 5 years straight and the dressed weights of bucks and does rose by about 20% not to mention bigger bucks with more points etc.

I shot well over my limit last year with a camera! Cleaning them is much easier.

Seriously though, I let my kids shoot the does and culls and I wait for the big guys.

any good deer management program on any decent size piece of property will require a number of deer to be harvested.

that's why the MLD program is out there. because many of these ranches need to harvest more deer than their license or even licensed hunters allow. keep in mind MANY of these deer are excess does and lesser bucks. but you have to keep your numbers in check. keep in mind many of your larger ranches under extensive management programs probably have a few hundred deer harvested off of them annually.

if you have folks hunting on a free range lease with no management....just folks tagging whatever deer suits their fancy (nothing wrong with that, I did it for years and loved every minute of it)then its not necessary to harvest so many deer unless you just want to.

under good management though...you've identified a number of deer that your land will support. in that number you need some does, and you want to retain the most promising bucks that you have. anything above and beyond that number is just excess mouths eating stuff that the deer you want to retain could eat. you shoot them. many are does, most aren't real big, they're just deer shot in the name of management. we still eat them all...and I have fun hunting all of them. but we routinely pass a nice buck to shoot a spike or doe or hog.

We've never filled all our tags. Between my two kids and myself, we have 15 tags. Our lease is a single trophy buck lease, so my kids alternate each year on the buck and then we usually take a couple of does. Our goal this year is 4 or 5 deer; three for us and the two for some friends.