I am having a problem getting excited about the upcoming deer season.
The country side is very dry no plants or forbs - no rain/ the trees are stressed - not to mention the creeping oak wilt decline / the creeks are bone dry / burn ban in effect - we have had 55 days over 100 in San Antonio (59 days is the record) - fawn survival looks low. Hunting presure was high last year. Now the low fence ranch that was for sale next to us... has sold. More hunters
Corn $10.00/50lb bag

Whoa is me!

Thank you Lord for the run of good years we have had. This makes you appreciate normal years

I agree, thats why I am going north, have one deer hunt in north texas that i dont expect much out of, and then I am going to the dakotas for a few weeks, they got record rainfall.......

The only upside to this year is the deer ought to be coming to the feeders in record numbers. Unlike last year when we had a bumper crop of acorns and the deer disappeared for two months and the pigs walked by corn feeders, this year is looking to be very different. Our feeders are getting hit very hard. A friend had game camera pics of bucks waiting at the feeder for it to spin.

On the other hand, without rain, the two tanks on our lease will be empty soon, and we'll have to truck water to keep the deer around. A lot of work, but without water close by they'll go somewhere else. They'll have to.

LWD

Had bad luck turned into good luck. Freer area ranch bought out from under us in late June. Began search and knowing area wanted did find a super place in N. Webb. Deep pockets owner and they dug water wells (future frac water) and filled five very large tanks that were going dry but fast. Feeding protein now switched to corn. Many very nice deer seen on cameras and with the only water for miles we have already had a successful special white wing hunt and looking forward to bow season and flying the ranch soon. If ya have no water, I wish you the very best, well I wish you the best anyway.

The 2011-2012 season at least in the area I am familiar with is going to be the most unusual one I have ever hunted in. Just heard on one of the TV stations in Wichita Falls that this area has had 100 days of 100 degree or higher temperature. We have also had the driest year on record. I filled two feeders today, 900 pounds of protien in each feeder, and the last time I filled them was 2 weeks ago. Went out to two feeders that I had filled yesterday, 500 pounds in each, to replace the camera cards in two cameras, and between when I was in there yesterday filling the feeders and this afternoon a buck had demolished 3 smallish mesquite trees rubbing his antlers.

Hey CrazyH. Drove thru your country last weekend to Quanah from San Antonio, damn ugly all the way! Even the cedar are dying on the Waggoner between Seymour/Crowell! Best of luck and only hope ya get some of that rain this week! Sure wish I had a few hundred "round bales" would go a long way to paying the S. Texas lease mordida! Bring on the rain.

The real issues will come thru winter. Unless hunters supplement their feed there will be a big die off. There is nothing for them to eat now. Effects of the drought could be an issue for years.

Absolutely! Pray for rain, slow steady for weeks!

Muygrande, even the salt cedars/tamarisks are dying up here.

I killed my first deer just west of Graham in 1970, and during that time much of the area from Olney west toward Lubbock had limited numbers of deer scattered along the Brazos watershed.

Between Newcastle and Graham, on a good lease if a hunter saw more than 1 buck a season he was lucky.

Some of the places I work on around Olney, it is nothing to see 15 to 25 deer of a morning or afternoon in a stand.

We have got everything ready to start planting wheat as many folks up here do, but there is no moisture in the ground or any precipitation of a helpful amout forecasted.

quote:

Corn $10.00/50lb bag

Good news is that there is a good chance of T-Storms and cooler weather this next week.

Supplimental feeding is definatly going to be be needed as much as possible.

IMO, culling this year will need to exclude does with fawns still on them because it's been such a hard year.

Yes, we have had a few showers pass thru up here over the past 24 hours and collectively they have not dropped enough over much of trhe area to even measure.

Thing most folks don't take into considertion about this situation, is that the drought in the 50's lasted for 3 years or so, the deer herd was not anywhere near as large as it is now, deer and turkeys did not have 2 tro 4 million feral hogs to compete with, and deer hunters were not selective in what they shot.

From what I am seeing up here what fawns there are, are big enough to go off on their own, and many does appear to have already cut the fawns loose, and I have only seen 3 sets of twin fawns this year and not a great many single fawns.

With the high grain prices, fuel prices etc. etc. I feel that a lot of folks are going to stop feeding early. If we do not get fall rains so that the pastures will green up or farmers don't get to plant wheat, we are going to lose a lot of deer.

One other aspect that I am concerned about is that the bucks showing up on our game cams have pretty decent looking sets of antlers this fall, but how will those animals look next fall if the rains don't come and people slow down on the protien they are feeding?

I am going to be closing on the purchase of a place next week. It will be my family's hunting place, but also used for timber growing. It's in Cass county, about 30 miles North of Marshall and about 35 miles South of Texarcana. One of the East Tx fires went through that area and my forester says it didn't scortch much of the place I am buying, but did enougn that the owned has lowered his price.
Have some hope that it will be productive, since much of the surounding area was burned to nothingness (except dirt and cinders).
It has two Artesion wells and they may draw some wildlife when hunting starts in earnest.

Sounds like you have a nice place with potential, Best of Luck and Congratulations.

AAhhhhh! -- Rain in San Antonio this am.... but not much out side the city.This rain was not in the forcast....possibly an inch.
Maybe enough to screw up south zone dove opener

Was down at the deer lease, in N. Webb cnty., this week. Half of the stock tanks are dry but we got well water (cattle troughs) and frac tanks so things are not super terrible....yet.

Don't need to sit by any feeders. Just sit near any available water and will see anything and everything. Quail, dove, hogs, havelina, deer, coyotes. It all be there sooner or later as scarce as the water is becoming. Even saw a huge Blue Indigo come down to the tank and go for a drink and swim.

The horns looked pretty good with alot of mass on most and surprisingly only saw some of the does just starting to show some ribs. The bucks actually look fairly decent. All else looks pretty bad though. Did not see a single fawn/nor pregnant doe on our place. On way out saw 2 fawns run across the main ranch road some ways away from us. May have been orhpans.

Saw wild hogs standing with cattle near water troughs. (Of course the cattle are as about as wild as the hogs)

It's so dry even the jumping pear was shriveling up as was the prickly pear. Some of it was even dead. Brush looks bad too.

Another month with no rain and it will be full blown panic mode for the animals.

'Got some rain here yesterday and today. At least the fire danger is a little bit abated.

I am definitely not an optimist, but the drought does slow down oak wilt and hog reproduction.