Texas May Expand Counties For Antler Requirements

[Corey Graff]

[font=arial]Texas Parks and Wildlife (TP&W) may expand special antler restrictions for the harvest of buck deer to include another 18 counties, for the 2009-10 season.  As the Dallas Morning News[/i] reported, that would be in addition to the 61 counties where antler restrictions currently define a legal buck deer as having at least one unbranched antler or an inside antler spread of at least 13 inches.

"Antler restrictions are a controversial measure when first imposed, but they've been very successful in increasing the percentage of older bucks in a deer herd," Morning News[/i] outdoor columnist Ray Sasser noted. "According to TP&W, hunters tend to approve of the regulation after a couple of seasons."

The counties where the new antler restrictions could be imposed are:  Archer, Callahan, Clay, Cooke, Denton, Hill, Hood, Jack, Johnson, McLennan, Montague, Palo Pinto, Parker, Shackelford, Stephens, Tarrant, Throckmorton and Young.  
However, determining a buck's inside antler spread can be difficult for a hunter to accurately gauge in the field.  Last deer hunting season, for example, TP&W wardens, "issued 105 citations and 114 warning tickets for violation of the 13-inch rule in antler restriction counties."

 
--Brian McCombie[/font]

[adirondackhunter]

I don't have aproblem with antler restriction as long as new hunters have some exceptions to the rule.I use the ears of a buck ,if the the main beam is out to the tips of the bucks ears, the inside spread is approx 16 inches and then add approx 1 inch for the thicknest each of the main beam i estimate it at 18 inch outside spread. If there is approx an inch in between the inside of the main beam and the ears  i estimate the inside spread  at 18 inches. So far this works for me.

[EatDeer]

I agree with antler rules, thats why states like Tx, are getting more and more press for a high end quailty buck herd. More state's should follow thier lead and implement more laws like these. The state of Mo. has also improved it's buck herd through similar buck antler rules. When young hunters are raised with such restrictions, they tend to except not shooting young bucks more readily, because they know that the buck will grow into a mature deer someday. In Mo., the surveys of the hunters harvest showed, that not only lest young bucks were harvested, but that more doe's were shot earlier in the season too. Makes me think that a early doe only season would improve the herd's buck age structure as well, even with out the 4 point rule. The problem is that most weekend hunters shoot the first buck that walks by when a guideline isn't set, to help them better understand QDM, and passing buck's into older age classes.