Antler restrictions paying early dividends for mule deer hunters

Parks and Wildlife’s ongoing experiment shifts harvest toward more mature bucks

An ongoing experiment aims to make mule deer hunting bigger and better.

Just the way Texans like it. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s four-year antler restriction assessment has reached its midpoint as a third deer season looms.

Hunters in seven Panhandle counties are subject to antler restrictions that prohibit the harvest of mule deer bucks with outside antler spreads of less than 20 inches.

The experiment is designed to protect young deer and shift hunter harvest toward more mature, heavier-antlered bucks.

Wildlife officials and hunters both like what they’re seeing early.

“It’s built a lot of excitement around the antlers,” said Shawn Gray, TPWD’s mule deer and pronghorn program leader.

Briscoe, Childress, Cottle, Floyd, Hall and Motley counties have been subject to the 20-inch minimum spread since 2018. The experiment was expanded in 2019 to include Lynn County to the southwest.

Hunters in those counties will continue to hunt under the regulation until at least through the 2021 deer season before TPWD re-evaluates. Participants in the Managed Lands Deer Program are not subject to the restriction.

Hunters and landowners had asked the wildlife department to help improve age structure of bucks in those areas of the Panhandle. TPWD’s preliminary data suggested that intensive harvesting had skewed the sex ratio and moved the age structure disproportionately toward younger bucks.

From 1994 to 2016, 23 percent of the mule deer buck harvest consisted of 1½- to 2½-year-old deer. Mule deer between 3½ to 4½ years old made up 44 percent of the harvest and 5.5 and older were 33 percent.

Two years into the experiment, the numbers already tell a different story.

“The age structure looks like it’s getting older in the harvest, and the sex ratio is becoming more natural, instead of being skewed from overharvest,” Gray said.

The 5½ and older buck ageclass accounted for most reported harvests from 2018-19 at 51 percent.

Perhaps most drastic is the 1 percent that represents a single 1½- to 2½-aged buck reported during the first two years of the experiment. That buck, as it turns out, did not meet the requirements of the 20inch restriction.

TPWD collected data at four check stations in the Panhandle on a voluntary basis. Participating hunters were put into drawings to win lifetime hunting licenses or new rifles as incentives to help expand the data pool.

Data from TPWD’s postseason helicopter surveys also indicate the restrictions are helping to improve the gender ratio. Those surveys, taken for almost two decades before the experiment began, showed a 4½ doe-to-buck ratio. Stats from the 2019-20 seasons portray a 2.7 ratio, a 40 percent decrease and a sign of a much healthier herd.

Gray said hunters are seeing those results afield, too, as not only more bucks are being spotted across the landscape, but bigger, more mature animals. He said it appears that total buck harvest decreased during the first year of the experiment, perhaps a sacrificial year for hunters to reap the rewards of the regulation this past season and in the coming years.

Gray said he expects the trend to continue in a positive direction and for older-aged bucks to comprise most of the harvest. He also said more deer on the threshold of the restriction will slip through the cracks and be given a chance to live another year, too, as hunters take precautions with the restriction. Gray said a lot of mule deer are becoming legal at around the 4½-year-old mark, with the regulation providing protection for several buck breeding years.

The mule deer experiment mirrors successful steps taken with Texas’ white-tailed deer herd.

Management of both deer species with antler restrictions is similar. Both mule deer and whitetail antler restrictions use a deer’s ears as guides.

The 13-inch inside spread restriction for whitetail hunters can be determined if that spread extends past the ears. Instead of the inside spread, mule deer hunters use the outside, easier for identification of the bulkier racks. TPWD suggests that mature mule deer bucks’ ears have a 21-inch spread when in the alert position, helpful for hunters trying to ascertain a 20-inch minimum.

The state began its whitetail experiment in 2002 with six counties. Hunters in Austin, Colorado, Fayette, Lavaca, Lee and Washington counties were prohibited from harvesting bucks with less than a 13-inch inside spread.

The regulations reduced hunting pressure on young bucks. Before the regulation was implemented, 20 percent of the bucks harvested were 3½ or older. The third and final year of that experiment showed a remarkable increase, with 71 percent of bucks harvested at least that age.

After the whitetail experiment, 15 more counties were added, and the current rules of the antler restrictions began in 2005. Forty counties were added a year later, 52 more counties in 2009.

Collin, Dallas, Galveston and Rockwall counties were added in 2012, bringing the current total of counties with a 13-inch spread requirement to 117.

“It’s been a very positive improvement in age structure distribution in the buck population,” said Alan Cain, TPWD’s whitetailed deer program leader.

Cain said there are other potential benefits to the restrictions. Antler restrictions are saving bucks and tightening up sex ratios. A well-balanced age and sex structure can improve fawn production as older, more efficient breeders can shrink a breeding season.

Hunter satisfaction has improved, too, Cain said, with hunters seeing more bucks and rutting action than they’ve previously seen.

The white-tailed deer antler restrictions paved the way for the mule deer experiment.

The way hunters and landowners view deer management has changed because of the gains made with whitetails. Long gone are the days of counting points as a viable deer management method. The correlation between deer age and points is a poor one.

The data shows that the current management methods with antler restrictions are effective.

The hope now is that the trend shown in whitetails across the state continues to be replicated with muleys in the Panhandle.

Texas Master Naturalist Training Class 6-9 p.m., Schertz Area Senior Center. For information or application, email Michelle at mdarnelltex@gmail.com or Sandi Wheeler at wheels5683@gmail.com or click on txmn.org/guadalupe.

44th annual Hunters Extravaganza, Fort Worth Convention Center, Fort Worth, is postponed until Aug. 13-15, 2021. Click on ttha.com.

Women-only bay fishing tournament headquartered at Cove Harbor Marina and hosted by the Coastal Bend Guides Association. $100 per angler with up to four per team. Guided and nonguided divisions. Click on saltwatersweeties.com.

The Boots n Shoots sporting clays event benefiting youth scholarships is canceled. Contact Jeanne Ploch, jchamptex@aol.com or 210219-1019.

2020-21 hunting and fishing licenses go on sale. The Texas Outdoor Annual Hunting, Fishing and Boating Regulations booklet will be digital only because of economic impacts of the corona virus. Click on outdoorannual.com.

Online application deadline 11:59 p.m. for drawn hunts for archery white-tailed and mule deer, exotics and javelina. Go to tpwd.texas.gov, click hunting tab and scroll to “public hunting;” email hunt@tpwd.texas.gov or call 512-389-4505.

Women-only offshore contest; headquarters, Port Aransas Civic Center. Events at Port Aransas Civic Center; weigh-in, Fisherman's Wharf, 900 Tarpon St., Port Aransas. Benefits the Women's Shelter of South Texas. Click on gofishtx.com.

Hunters in seven Panhandle counties are restricted from harvesting bucks with outside antler spreads of less than 20 inches.