Archery hunters looking for an early buck and gun hunters using Managed Lands Deer Permits for management will be heading out soon for Texas’ October season.

There are two things every Texan is absolutely certain of every fall, their football team is going to be the champions and this is the year they are going to kill the biggest deer of their life.

Who knows what is happening for football, but some deer hunters their chance to find out if they are right begins Oct. 3 with the opening of archery season and hunting with Managed Lands Deer permits.

October was once the domain of bowhunters, but that changed in the late 1990s with the advent of the MLD program which offers all hunters an extended season in order to take a prescribed number of does and bucks.

While the number of hunters using a bow or crossbow at some point throughout the entire hunting season has held steady at an estimated 170,000-plus, the MLD program grew to 28.5 million acres last season. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Department does not keep monthly harvest totals from either group, so it is hard to say which group owns October from that point.

It is also hard to say what region of the state attracts the most hunters in October. In the early days archery season lent itself to East Texas thanks to the development of self-climbing and ladder tree stands. Over the years, however, hunters have adapted as they always do with pop-ups and other ground blinds suitable for bowhunting. Improved equipment that allows longer ethical shots has also benefitted the sport.

The drawback to the early season is that October can be an extension of summer especially in South Texas. But even in East Texas the average high during the month can be in the upper 70s, which means temperatures in the 80s are normal. It is still an important time for hunters trying to meet their quota under the MLD program.

“Removing deer earlier in the season helps to ensure more forage resources are available for the remaining deer, hopefully keeping them in better shape going into or coming out of rut,” said Alan Cain, TPWD deer program leader. “Some hunters may focus that early harvest on management bucks and does, but others may be hoping to connect with that trophy buck earlier in the season when they are more easily patterned compared to that period around rut when movements are more unpredictable.”

While range conditions around the state dried later in the summer, they were actually in pretty good shape during the bulk of the antler growing season.

“The spring rains helped many areas of the state, including South Texas, Edwards Plateau, and areas west, recover from very dry conditions persisting from fall and winter of 2019. Vegetation has responded positively to the spring moisture with an abundance of quality forbs and an explosion of new growth on shrubs both of which are critical for providing good deer nutrition,” Cain said.

The harvest of does is an ongoing issue for deer management statewide. For some reason hunters backed off the harvest of antlerless does in recent years before a slight year-to-year harvest rebound last year.

Texas has an estimated 5.5 million white-tailed deer or about 49.35 deer per thousand acres. Of course some areas have more deer than others. Last year hunters took an estimated 846,000 deer, which was down about 4% from the previous year. The 2019-2020 harvest was 54% bucks, but overall the buck harvest was down almost 9.5%.

Hunters around the state have a good chance this fall to come across a mature buck because of conditions years ago.

“From a statewide perspective, hunters might expect to see a higher proportion of bucks in the 6.5- to 8.5-year age classes as a result of above average fawn crop in previous corresponding years while other age classes reflect a more even distribution,” Cain said.

Although deer density in the East Texas Pineywoods lags behind many of the areas of the state there has been a population growth in recent years.

Hunter success in the region last year was 56% last season, and more than 53 percent of the bucks taken were 3.5 years old and older, a benefit of the antler restriction rules in the region.

Cain is predicting hunters should see high numbers of 2.5-, 3.5- and 7.5-year-old bucks because of previous fawn production.

There is concern about the deer population in the western portion of the Edwards Plateau after an anthrax outbreak.

“Anecdotal reports from ranchers in that affected area estimate localized mortality rates as high as 90% on some properties, but mortality loss was not uniform, and many ranches reported only minor death loss attributed to anthrax,” Cain said.

Despite the outbreak the region still has the highest deer population with an estimated 2.37 million deer. Deer numbers should remain high outside the impacted range, and its 75% deer hunter success rate should remain intact. Trophy potential is high with good numbers of 4.5- and 7.5-year-old deer expected.

Portions of South Texas have been impacted by drought since last August.

“Range conditions were on the decline with very few winter weeds and little to no green growth on many key brush species,” Cain said.

This could impact antler quality on unmanaged properties. A mild, wet spring should offset the issues on less-managed properties. Cain expects antler quality to be average to above-average despite last winter’s conditions.

According to TPWD, 53% of the bucks taken by hunters in South Texas are 4.5 years old and older.

The archery season runs through Nov. 6 with the general season opening statewide Nov. 7.