Author: Buck Manager

Texas Bowhunting Good

Texas, Oklahoma and Louisiana were blessed with late-winter rains that carried through spring and into early summer of this year. The relatively mild winter last season allowed white-tailed deer to come out of winter in good condition and then they stepped right into excellent habitat conditions. In short, deer populations are in good shape going into the fall hunting seasons.

Reports from the field indicate that buck antler growth is well above average by age class this year. This is simply the result of an ample food supply and good habitat conditions that lasted into mid-summer, a time when the majority of antler growth has already taken place. This is good news for both deer and bowhunters.

Good Food, Good Bowhunting

All that food, as well as great cover, leads to increased reproduction and recruitment into our deer herds. That means more white-tailed deer, as well as bigger deer. For those hunting in Texas, the archery season has been especially good!

As good as the first-half of the year was rain-wise, since about mid-June it’s been a complete opposite—very dry across most of Texas. This has caused deer movement to increase into the fall. With many areas reporting low acorn crops, whitetail have been hitting feed stations and fall food plots hard, at least in areas that caught some of sporadic moisture earlier this month.

October Lull

Source: With the long drought gone for now adult deer are fat, healthy and likely reproduced well this spring and summer. “They should be in great condition and there should be a good crop of fawns from this year,” said Craig Endicott, northeast region supervisor for the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation.

Archers in the field the first few weeks will find deer concentrating on natural food sources, he said. Oak trees are loaded and the chinkapin oaks already are starting to drop their small, sweet acorns, he said.

“Persimmons have been productive too so there is plenty of soft mast out there as well,” he said. Deer may be difficult to see, but the October lull will fade away once the bowhunting season ends and even cooler weather begins.

One of the greatest challenges for archery hunters this year may be something they had not faced during the years of drought – heavy vegetation and a lot of natural foods. “If anything that’s the only problem, the woods are a lot thicker and that can kind of hurt the hunters just in terms of visibility,” he said.

Bowhunting for Beginners

Hunting white-tailed deer at close range is no easy task. Doing so with a bow only makes that job more difficult. For anyone that plans to take advantage of bowhunting season, the first step is to get a bow that you are comfortable with. That takes a bow that fits you, that you can draw comfortable, are experienced with and have confidence in.

READ: Plan for Deer Hunting Success

The rest boils down to outsmarting deer so that you can get them within range for a bow shot. Whether you are in Texas, or elsewhere, the key is using the wind to your advantage. Despite what folks say, a whitetail’s greatest line of defense is its nose. Stay downwind of the deer you are hunting and the shot will take care of itself, assuming you put in the practice beforehand.

Hunting Gets Support

Reading the headline, “Hunting has Big Support Nationwide,” brought a smile to my face this morning. I cut my teeth hunting small game, honed my skills pass shooting doves and finally got the go-ahead to pursue white-tailed deer. My family was instrumental in introducing me to the outdoors, which hunting was a part of. Good times!

We live in a highly polarized world. Technology is great, but nothing allows people to slug one another right in the face easier than a computer, especially when social media allows otherwise “nice” people to dogpile onto individuals for a “cause.” That cause could be a number of things, but hunters get their share of cyber-bullying.

I would venture to guess that most hunters were introduced to hunting at an early age. It’s easy for them to “get” what hunting is about. However, the majority of the people living in the US have not and will never be introduced to hunting. That’s okay. I have nothing against them, so it made me smile when I realized that most of them do not have anything against what we, as hunters, do.

Hunting Approval Rate High

Source: According to a nationwide survey it conducted this year, 77 percent of those polled strongly or moderately approve of hunting. That compares to 73 percent overall approval in 1995.

The support for hunting has been fairly consistent so far this century, previous surveys have found. Its lowest dip came in 2011 with a 74 percent approval. Just as important, disapproval of hunting overall has fallen from 22 percent in 1995 to just 12 percent. That leaves another 11 percent undecided.

The survey was in depth enough not only to find out attitudes toward hunting, but also which species is more acceptably hunted. These numbers are a little surprising because mourning dove come out at the bottom of the heap, below both black bear and mountain lion. Only 40 percent of those polled approved of dove hunting.

Deer hunting had the strongest support with 78 percent, followed by turkeys and small game such as squirrel, waterfowl and elk. All of those were above the 50 percent threshold.

Probably not surprisingly, hunting for meat got high marks, while trophy hunting and hunting within a high fence both scored last in support in categories called motivation and methods. The latter is understandable because they are issues even hunters can’t agree on, and without a deeper understanding of what really happens to create trophy hunts or within a high fence the names alone make it sound sinister.

Under the category of motivation, several reasons for hunting scored high along with collecting meat. Protection of habitat, wildlife management, population control and to protect humans from dangerous animals earned support from more than two-thirds of those polled.

Even hunting for sport had the support of more than half of respondents. While the public supports hunting overall, it has little support for hunting methods. Only hunting with dogs, presumably for upland birds and waterfowl, had an approval rating over 50 percent. Hunting on Sundays, hunting over bait, use of scent attractants and high tech gear were only as popular or slightly more than hunting within a high fence.