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Deer Hunting in Comanche County Texas

Question: “I have been whitetail deer hunting in Comanche, Texas, for about 10 years now. Have never been good at scoring deer, but now I need some help. We never used cameras on our deer lease until this last year. Our neighbor has really nice bucks on his ranch but we have never seen anything on our property to talk about until I put up a game camera up at my feeder.

I don’t really know how to score this big buck that has showed up on the trail camera. I saw him once during the day when I was driving down a road by my stand last deer hunting season. I am thinking this buck is about four years old, but I am no pro at aging deer either. Please let me know what you think about him. I put cameras up in Comanche County about two weeks ago and will be going back in a week to check them out. Hope the buck is still hanging around.”

Response: I have a good friend that hunts in Comanche County, too. I’ve been out on his deer lease several times and have some seen some great bucks. The bucks have very good genetics in many areas, so it’s just a matter of proper management. This means allowing them to age and get some decent nutrition. They shoot some great bucks every year in part to the good buck age structure and the fact that they keep the deer numbers at the proper number for the habitat.

Scoring bucks on the hoof is not easy, but there are some things that you can do that will get you in the ball park. Antler score is all about mass, beam length, inside spread and tine length. The first three can lumped together as a base score. The best way to estimate these is to look at some antlers from bucks that have been shot on your place. Measure the mass, beam length and inside spread. Use this to give you an idea of what the average for these measurements are in your area.

Generally speaking, a mature buck in your area probably has mass measurements that total between 27 and 30 inches. The beams on that same buck are probably 20 to 22 inches in length with a inside spread of 16 to 17 inches. Taking the average of all these ranges, the base score for a buck in your area would be 28 1/2 + 21 + 21 (again, there are two beams!) + 16 1/2 for a total of 87 inches. This means that a mature buck in Comanche County would have a base score between 85 and 90 inches. While hunting in the field, adjust this number to the high or low side depending on the buck.

The only measurements to add in to the gross B&C score would be the tine length, which you can estimate from game camera photos or in the field. Photos are preferred by myself because it allows me more time, and often more angles, to make a decision. However, sometimes bucks that you have zero pictures of show up. This method will allow you to knock out a very close estimate in short order.

Lastly, antler score is a great tool for tracking deer management efforts, but score is not everything when it comes to deer hunting. The harvest of trophy quality animals means that you are doing something right, but mature bucks should probably be harvested, especially those 6 1/2 years of age or older, regardless of antler score. Calculate the gross score of your buck from these photos by using a base score of 90 and adding in the length of all normal and abnormal points.

Egyptian Goose in Texas

People have more options that ever now days. The same can be said of goose hunters. Specifically, regarding Egyptian goose hunting. “Say what,” you say? It seems like everyone and everything that was not born here in Texas is trying to get here as fast as it can. The Egyptian goose is no different, but this non-native waterfowl may not get the warm welcome that it’s looking for. This largely terrestrial species is highly territorial when it comes to breeding, but Egyptian geese seem to coexist with native duck species just fine in the areas where they are both found.

The Egyptian goose is native to inland tropical regions of sub-Saharan Africa where it can be found along rivers, marshes, lakes and similar wetlands, though it is absent from the central western coast of the continent and the densest forest regions. These waterfowl do not migrate, but can be nomadic in drier regions as they follow the best food sources throughout the year.

More about Egyptian Geese in Texas

Source: “Egyptian geese are not native to Texas or anywhere else in North America, but you’ve probably seen them at park ponds or golf course water holes.

The birds look like a cross between a duck and a goose with broad, round, chestnut-colored patches around yellow eyes that make them look as though they’re wearing the latest fashion in sunglasses. The dapper birds sport gray-tan to ruddy-brown backs, black tails and pink beaks, legs and feet.

With more than a 2-foot body length and a wingspan of nearly 58 inches, the birds are hard to overlook. A big white wing patch gives them an even more arresting appearance, particularly in flight.

Egyptian geese have been imported from their native home in Africa south of the Sahara as decorative birds. Those that have escaped private ponds or aviaries have established hardy feral populations that seem to be growing in numbers. Just look at golf courses or city parks, which held only a handful of the birds a few years ago but now may host crowds of the Egyptian geese.”

Slow Cooker Venison Chili Recipe

Venison chili is versatile dish that can serve as a stand-alone meal or top other items, such as a baked potato, to make a meal. Chili is one of those dishes where the recipe can vary a lot from chef to chef and still be just plain good. The great thing about this venison chili recipe is that it works in a slow cooker, crockpot. Throw everything into the “pool” and then enjoy the good-eatin’ at the end of the day!

Ingredients:

2 pounds ground venison
2 15 ounce cans kidney beans, drained
2 15 ounce cans black beans, drained
2 15 ounce cans diced tomatoes
2 medium onions, chopped
1 medium bell pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon hot sauce
1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Saute onions and garlic in a skillet over medium heat. Add ground venison and cook the mixture until the meat is browned. Add spices to onion-meat mixture and then transfer to slow cooking crockpot. Add the remaining ingredients to the crockpot and give it all a good stir. Cook on the low temperature setting for about 8-10 hours You make this slow cooker venison chili recipe a little faster by cooking on the high temperature setting for 4-5 hours. Serve in a bowl by itself or over rice with cornbread or crackers.

Texas Public Dove Hunting Lands

Texas is blessed with some great dove hunting that includes both mourning and white-winged doves. Mourning doves are primarily country birds whereas most white-winged doves will be found in and around suburban and metropolitan areas, where they roost. Whitewings will often fly to surrounding farm fields to feed, and this is where dove hunters can take advantage of Texas’ healthy whitewing population. This is especially easy if you own hunting land, but Texans also have another option.

For hunters looking for dove hunting< opportunities on Texas public lands, check out Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s (TPWD) Public Hunting Program. TPWD offers affordable access to quality hunting experiences with the purchase of a $48 Annual Public Hunting (APH) Permit. From my experience, many of these leases are great properties that do offer good dove hunting opportunities. If you want to go dove hunting but lack a place to go, buy the APH permit and get out there.

APH permit hunters have access to more than 100 hunting units leased from private landowners specifically for dove and small game. TPWD has also made it easier than ever to check these places out. An online map of all of the hunting leases allows for “virtual scouting” of these areas. By clicking on the locator points, you can follow links to detailed aerial maps with highlighted boundaries and links to information pages from the APH information map booklet. Check out the maps here.

Also, for tech-savvy hunters, a downloadable Google Earth file (.kml) is also available that contains all the boundary information along with links to the corresponding APH map booklet pages. This way you can put this information right onto your computer screen and have the ability to really check out the dove hunting leases up close and personal.

Hunters should be aware that in addition to a valid Texas hunting license, a state Migratory Game Bird Stamp, and certification in the Harvest Information Program (HIP) is required. HIP certification is offered when you buy your license and involves responding to a few simple questions about your migratory game bird harvest during the previous season. The often forget to ask these questions or will simply ignore them will they pop up. Make sure you are HIP certified when you buy your license if you plan on duck, goose or dove hunting this season.

Attract More Bucks for Deer Hunting

Question: “We hunt in Northeast Texas and only have about 130 acres. We want to attract more bucks, especially during the hunting season. The property is covered with trees, but few deer seem to live there. We believe most of the deer pass through going back and forth between bedding and feeding areas. What can we do to bring the bucks in. We have our best hunting during the rut, but many bucks are shot even before that. What can we do to get first shot?”

Texas Hunting: Food is always a way to bring in deer and it will attract more bucks to your land. Feeding protein will definitely bring in the bucks, but planting food plots or performing habitat management practices can also get the job done. Fall food plots can be effective, even in wooded areas, if enough sunlight reaches the ground.

If your property lacks cover, then you can also create more of it to attract deer. Dense bedding cover will attract does, which in turn brings in the bucks. A small clear-cut will produce a quick surge of new growth— also known as food—followed by dense cover—also known as brush.

Another more novel approach would be to consider planting some mast producing trees if you do not currently have many. This will attract bucks and and does during the fall. You can also create more deer foods using hinge cuts, where you cut a small live tree half way through the trunk, allowing the tree to falls over on its side and grows upward from the horizontal trunk. Deer will be attracted to the instant browse and this will improve the deer hunting on your tract of land.

Deer Hunting in Wisconsin is Good, Kroll Says

There are hunters all across the US that enjoy white-tailed deer hunting, but the camo-clad men and women of Wisconsin are particularly fond of their deer. Wisconsin has a good thing going according to the latest assessment of the state’s deer hunting situation from private biologist, Dr. James Kroll. The report sounded good. The only problem was the $125,000 price tag for the hunting study told hunters and state officials what they already knew about their robust deer herd.

Source: “State Rep. Brett Hulsey, D-Madison, is right to point out that Wisconsin seems to be paying Gov. Scott Walker’s “deer czar” an awful lot of money to tell us things we already know.

“$125,000 of our fishing and hunting fees which came from the pockets of Wisconsin sportsmen and women paid for James Kroll, Governor Walker’s deer czar, to tell us what we already know: Wisconsin has some of the best deer hunting in the nation,” says Hulsey, an active hunter and member of the Assembly Natural Resources Committee. Continue reading Deer Hunting in Wisconsin is Good, Kroll Says

Texas Dove Season 2012

It’s almost August so that means the Texas dove season is just around the corner! September always means good times, warm temps and usually some decent dove hunting action. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Service Regulations Committee (SRC) has approved the 2012-2013 Texas early migratory game bird seasons, including a 70-day season and 15-bird daily bag statewide for mourning, white-winged and white-tipped doves.

This year, the Texas dove season in the North and Central Dove Zones will run from Saturday, September 1 through Wednesday, October 24 and reopen Saturday, December 22 through Sunday, January 6, with a 15-bird daily bag and not more than two white-tipped doves. Sounds like it’s time to grab my shotgun and break a little clay until September rolls around.

The South Zone dove season will run Friday, September 21 through Sunday, October 28, reopening Saturday, December 22 through Tuesday, January 22 with a 15-bird daily bag and not more than two white-tipped doves. Good dove hunting can typically be found across Texas on any year, but the rains received this year should have dove production at a multi-year high. Expect good shoots over dove fields and around stock tanks.

The Special White-winged Dove Area will be restricted to afternoon-only (noon to sunset) hunting the first two full weekends in September running from September 1-2 and 8-9 and reopen when the regular South Zone season begins on Friday, September 21 through Sunday, October 28 and again from Saturday, December 22 through Friday, January 18. The Special White-winged Dove Area season takes four of the allowable 70 days, so when the regular season opens, this area must close four days earlier than the rest of the South Zone. Make sure to look for banded doves, as well as know your dove species before heading into the field.

During the early two weekends, the daily bag limit is 15 birds, to include not more than four mourning doves and 2 white-tipped doves. Once the general season opens, the aggregate bag limit will be 15 with no more than 2 white-tipped doves. The Texas dove season usually starts off the fall hunting seasons with a bang, and I expect this year will be no exception. Looking forward to it already!

Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) Found in West Texas Deer

Chronic wasting disease (CWD) is the deer version of Mad Cow Disease and it’s been lurking just across the Texas border in the state of New Mexico. Wildlife officials assumed it was just a matter of time before it stepped over into Texas, but no one wanted to imagine what impact it may have on deer hunting or the deer breeding industry. Unfortunately, the wait is over — CWD is in Texas. Two West Texas mule deer tested positive for CWD, the very first such cases to have been documented in Texas.

The discovery of CWD, a fatal illness that destroys a deer’s brain, this week has created a greater sense of urgency to impose stricter statewide regulations that will lessen the chances of the deer disease spreading elsewhere in the state.

The deer that tested positive for CWD were from the Hueco Mountains in El Paso, Texas, and Hudspeth counties. These areas now look to be restricted to “containment” and “high-risk” zones covering West Texas under proposed deer transport regulations.

Despite the positive tests, one Texas official said that the two instances of Chronic Wasting Disease among the 31 tested deer should not create cause for concern, this despite the fact that scientific reports cite CWD as comparable to Mad Cow Disease for cows and Cruetzfeldt-Jakob Disease for humans. “This is definitely not a crisis,” Clayton Wolf, wildlife division director for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, told the media.

With its two positive tests, Texas became the 19th state to document positive tests for the disease. Texas has tested more than 33,000 total deer in the last decade, none of which had tested positive for the deer disease until now. The exact effect that the findings could have on the annual $1.5 billion brought in by the state by recreational deer hunting in Texas as well as the additional $650 million annually from the captive-deer industry remains unclear. One thing is for sure though, CWD now calls Texas home.

Texas Deer Hunting Impacted by CWD Regulations?

There is no doubt that white-tailed deer hunting in the state of Texas is both socially and economically important. The state has taken measures to protect deer found in Texas over the years by limiting movement of animals within the state, potentially slowing or preventing the spread of harmful diseases. Now, the Texas Animal Health Commission (Commission) is currently accepting public comments on a rule proposed at its June 5 meeting to amend Chapter 40, entitled “Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)”.

The proposed rule will affect certain cervid species and delineates movement restriction zones and other necessary disease management practices related to the control of CWD in far west Texas. CWD has been discovered in mule deer in the Hueco Mountains of southern New Mexico, very near the Texas state line. The potential risk of animals moving back and forth between Texas and New Mexico has raised significant concern among wildlife and animal health officials that the disease is also present in deer living in the Texas portion of the same mountain range. Currently CWD is not known to exist anywhere in Texas, but has been found in 16 other states in free ranging and/or captive cervid herds. Continue reading Texas Deer Hunting Impacted by CWD Regulations?

Deer Hunting at Kerrville-Schreiner Park

Regulated deer hunting is a requirement for managing white-tailed deer populations and the habitats that they occupy. In the past, deer hunting for whitetail, axis deer and other exotic species has taken place a Kerrville-Schreiner Park in Kerrville, Texas. Area bow hunters will get another chance this year to help manage the deer population at the city-owned Kerrville-Schreiner Park through a continued lease with Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD).

The Kerrville city council voted Tuesday to renew the agreement for the annual hunt that has taken place in the park since 2008. Each year, about 60 public hunters are drawn in a lottery for the chance to bow hunt in the 517 acre park off Bandera Highway. The city started the program with the state in 2008 to manage the deer population in the park. At the time, there were estimated to be more than 100 whitetail deer in the park, in addition to numerous axis and blackbuck antelope. TPWD recommends a deer density of one deer for every 15 to 20 acres of habitat.

In addition to the diminished natural food sources, the high density of the deer population led to problems for passing motorists. In the first year of the hunt, 32 deer were harvested from the park during the public hunts. In subsequent years, there were 13, 24 and 17 deer taken by bow hunters.

Since the city began working to manage the whitetail deer population, feeding deer has been prohibited in the park. Visitors also are discouraged from interacting with the deer, which for years were so tame they would walk up to vehicles and people.

“The most significant reason for partnering with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for the bow hunts is to manage our wildlife population,” said Mindy Wendele, director of business programs for the city. “A bonus to the partnership is having Kerrville in a statewide program that could bring new visitors to our city.”

The bow hunt that occurs in the park also brings in revenue. The city receives a payment of about $4,000 annually from TPWD for the hunt. Because the Kerrville-Schreiner Park is inside the city limits, hunters are limited to archery only. They also are given limited geographic areas to hunt away from the boundaries of the park and on the south side of the park. The north side of the park along the Guadalupe River will remain open during the month.

Hunters are selected by a drawing process through the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Public Hunt Program. The program also uses standby hunters during specific periods to fill any open positions. The dates for the standby hunters for the upcoming year have not yet been determined. For more information about public hunting opportunities at Kerrville-Schreiner Park, call the parks and recreation department at 257-7300.