The 2014 deer season has been …

OK, you fill in the blank.

For the lucky few who have been in the right place at the right time, there have been some quality bucks scored.

For the remainder sitting in blinds overlooking feeders, it has been so quiet even the hogs haven’t shown up.

“I would say that is fairly accurate,” said Sean Willis, Texas Parks and Wildlife Department Wildlife biologist from Lufkin, when asked if there has been a slow start to the season in East Texas. “Everyone I am talking to said nothing is eating corn because the acorn crop is so heavy.”

The same is true in the Hill Country.

“I was at a landowner’s last week and he had corn piling up under feeders. The corn was actually growing under the feeders. I told him it was time to turn them off,” said Kevin Schwausch, TPWD technical guidance biologist in Burnet. “We know the deer are there. About a month ago we had three inches of rain and the forbs came up. Between the forbs and the acorns, corn is just not very appealing.”

In the Pineywoods, a heavy acorn crop can especially create problems for hunters on club leases anchored to one or two stand locations.

“What I recommend is guys get away from corn feeders and go into the bottoms where the acorns are,” said Willis, who added he is still hearing acorns fall at his home.

The biologist said some East Texans, who did move or were lucky enough to have a rutting buck run by, have seen and taken some good bucks this season.

“In some of these counties there are some new county records. There is a lot of quality. There are a lot of good deer, but not as many as last year. Last year for the Pineywoods, we had the most deer entered in the Big Games Awards since 2001-2002,” Willis said.

Overall, Willis added, the entire harvest appears to be down, and that it will be difficult to catch up before the end of the year.

“The bulk of the harvest is before Thanksgiving. If you don’t get one before Thanksgiving, the odds go down. It is after the rut and with all the activity on the ground, especially on lease land where you have four-wheelers buzzing around. They aren’t dumb. The deer get nocturnal,” Willis said.

Schwausch predicts the harvest will also be down in the Hill Country, but that is based more on hunter habits than deer visibility.

As far as deer movement, he expects it to start increasing as the acorns disappear.

“It has been slow because of acorns, but the acorns have been slowing down the last two or three weeks. The ones that are still falling are hollow,” Schwausch noted.

Like East Texas, the Hill Country has produced some good bucks this season, but Schwausch looks back at the drought years from 2009 to 2011 and notes their numbers are limited because of low fawn crops.

“We are starting to see a lot of bucks in some places, but they are young bucks. Hopefully hunters can lay off those deer for a year or two,” Schwausch said.

He said the overall impact of the drought on buck numbers varies greatly from high fence to low fence properties, and from highly managed low fence ranches to those not managed.

Schwausch added that by letting 2 1/2-year-old bucks walk another year or two, hunters could be looking at trophy years down the road.

The biologist said there is typically a late-season push in the Hill Country because of the Christmas holidays and hunters finishing up their Manage Lands Deer permit quotas. With the slow start, there could be even more hunters looking to take a deer in late December.

During that time, hunters in South Texas should really be getting started. With a rut that doesn’t begin until mid-December, South Texas hunters won’t be plagued with acorn issues like hunters in other portions of the state. They could see a slowdown of deer coming to feeders if there is an abundance of wild forbs available.

The general season closes Jan. 4 in most of Texas; Jan. 18 in the 30 counties that make up South Texas.

 

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