Taking stock after deer season ends
Texas hunting seasons finally closed Friday, so now would be a good time to review the season just passed.
Things were slower this year at Camp Verde Ranch, although trophy buck-wise, it was a banner year. Ranch owner Bobby Parker and his son Robb actually both killed archery bucks that scored an even 200 and 207 on the Boone and Crockett scale.
There was another buck killed that had a gross score of nearly 160, which is ironic because 160 used to be the threshold that hunters tried to reach to claim a really big buck. This buck was almost a management buck at CVR.
But times have changed, and our knowledge of what it takes to grow big bucks — and that’s mostly age and low numbers — has increased by leaps and bounds since the early 1980s.
The bucks that were killed at Parker’s this year were all old gents, 7 to 9 years old. We had watched them for several years to give them time to grow their best antlers but also to be able to breed as many offspring as they could.
Those deer and their high scores are a clear indicator that restraint in harvest is key here. I know, though, that it’s hard to pass up a decent buck when it’s likely that he’ll cross over onto a neighbor’s property and get himself killed before he gets a chance to grow. It’s a test of your resolve and dedication, and it will pay off someday.
Just last week, I spent a couple of hours walking around in the brush, looking for shed antlers, which is a good way to monitor the bucks you have left. It was too early to find much of anything except old sheds from seasons past.
I found the right antler of a buck that was killed in 2020 that scored 192-plus. That would place the shed from the spring four years ago. The mass was frightening for a Hill Country buck, over 40 inches total.
I had named him Hellacious two years before that, and we let him grow as long as we could. I don’t know how we missed that shed, since it was only about 75 yards from a feeder that lots of bucks like.