Hunting Stories

A Year with The Whitetail....2001
 

By Jim Autrey October 25, 2001:  Time gets away from you this time of the year.  But the news is good.  The whitetails are in excellent shape.  From Mexico, South Texas, West Texas and in between the deer are in excellent condition and their ANTLERS are in general are larger than last year according to my personal observations.  I have harvested three mature bucks this year, their weights were 220 lbs., 210 lbs. and 178 lbs.  These weights were all on the hoof.  You can deduct about 20 percent for the field dressed weight.  If you haven't had a chance to hunt yet, you may be in for a pleasant surprise.  Take a picture and send it to me and we might be able to get it posted in our photo gallery. Not Uncommon August 15, 2001:  Sitings of bucks like the one pictured above are not uncommon.  I have seen a lot of large antlered deer this last few weeks.  I was in Lampasas county  and saw a whitetail that had horns large enough, I thought it was an Axis.  This may be one of the best years yet, for hunting large horns. Picture Courtesy of  Bowhunting.net July 24, 2001:  The fawns at the end of my lane have moved or relocated.  I have not seen them in a couple of weeks, but other fawns are growing like crazy.  However, the dry hot summer is causing the deer to seek out supplemental feed sources.  There hasn't been any noticeable effect yet, in body condition or horn development, but where supplement feed is available they are beginning to show up in bigger and bigger groups.  If your lease or favorite hunting area allows supplemental feeding, this might be a good time to get started. July 2, 2001:  I am really amazed at how quickly fawns grow.  The little twins on the road to my house are seemingly doubling in size almost daily.  It seems this way, probably because like most of us I don't usually have daily contact with deer at this time of year.  In the central Texas area, we are still getting the much needed rains that will help carry us through this summer.  From a optimistic view, I bet the deer are going to be great this coming season.  Let's hope!!! June 22, 2001:  Deer, deer everywhere!  In the last couple of weeks, I have seen deer about every time of the day and  almost everywhere I have looked.  The fawn crop seems to be excellent and the antler development is proceeding nicely.  Most of Texas has been getting the beneficial rain needed to take us into the summer.  We even got a nice rain yesterday which was the first official day of summer.  Hopefully, we will not have a repeat of the dry summer of last year.  We all need a good deer season to look forward too.  The fawn sitings are higher than I can ever remember.  Earlier this week, I saw a very small fawn and it was extremely tempting to interfere with mother nature, but it is probably best to leave it with its mother.  I have a doe and her two fawns living right off the road leading to by house.  This may not seem unusual to you but there are very few trees where I live, but I have always heard that the does raise their young in the more open areas.   June 10, 2001:  There has been a tremendous increase in new fawns sitings in the last few weeks.  I was at Headwaters Ranch near Fredericksburg when I saw my first fawn of the year.  There were also a lot of bucks sporting some pretty good antler growth.  The most unusual thing I have noticed is the time of day deer are being seen.  Several people other than myself have reported seeing more deer during late morning and early afternoon hours.  This does not seem to coincide with any particular moon phase, but the fact remains, this is when they are being spotted.  Certain areas are getting more rain than others.  I wonder how this is going to effect antler development over the next 4-6 weeks? May 21, 2001:  Why is it that some days seem to signal the start of something?  It has been weeks, since I have seen deer on a regular basis on my 20 mile drive to work each day, but today seemed to mark the beginning of deer sitings.  On the way to work this morning, I spotted a couple of deer crossing the road.  They were does.  You could tell because there were huge and it was obvious that it won't be long until there are fawns at least for these two does.  Then Robert Hoague and I were out and about, around lunch time and saw a young buck out in the middle of nowhere.  Amanda, the lady that keeps my businesses running smoothly said, she has been seeing does that look as though they may have little ones very soon.  I love it when you start seeing wildlife again.  It has been a long time since there has been that much activity around here.  Hopefully, it will keep up for a while. Picture by Robert Hoague May 16, 2001:  Have you seen any new fawns?  How about new antler growth?  Last time, we had the picture of the doe below, I wonder if she has a new fawn?  Robert Hoague has taken the picture above (Bowhunting.net) and reports the sightings of 3 bucks with new horns in one afternoon.  Many of our ranchers are reporting excellent range conditions and like all of us, they are hoping for a mild summer.  As you go to your leases, be sure and send me an e-mail of what you are seeing. May 06, 2001: .  A recent trip to the Boerne and Johnson City area of Texas allowed me to see a lot of bucks. There are a lot of bucks with antler growth.  I saw one bachelor group with five bucks sporting their new horns.  I did not see any fawns, but there were some does that were getting mighty close, like the one pictured above.  In general the deer are in excellent shape, with plenty to eat.  The spring rains have provided an abundant food supply.  Picture by Robert Hoague April 26, 2001: Time goes by in a hurry.  If you have been keeping up with hunting news from the front page, you know that there have been several bucks seen with new antler growth.  I saw the first sign of new antler growth on the 21st of March.  Since that time I have seen several other whitetail bucks with antler growth and several elk.  Robert Hoague of Bowhunting.net  took a picture of a buck this week with new horn growth.  Plus, he told me today that some of his lease partners saw a couple of new fawns yesterday.  I thought, I had seen some the day before, but the brush was so thick it was hard to be sure.  Greg Denman of Deep Creek Ranch, told me that they have some elk with 24' of antler growth.  This sounds good.  All reports find the hunters already looking forward to this coming season, but what's new.  We always look forward to next season, that's what keeps hunters going. April 03, 2001:  If things are not confusing enough!  Try this on for size.  On a recent hunt at Greystone Castle, located between Fort Worth and Abilene at Thurber.  I saw bucks that had shed their antlers, bucks that were growing their new antlers and Leroy Sisco and Sam Hardin saw an eight point buck with last years antlers, all in one day.  When do they drop their antlers?  They say Axis deer sometimes loose and grow their antlers in relationship to their birthday.  Could this be possible with some Whitetail?  There are a lot of people that know more about this than, I do.  I am just passing on what we observe in the field.    March 19, 2001:  The deer activity has noticed a considerable drop of observations.  This may be because there is fewer of the observers in the woods and deer fields at this time.  There may be an increase in reports once spring turkey season opens.  There have been a couple of reports.  Robert Hoague has reported seeing quite a few deer and none with antlers.  Another man in my store the other day reported a 10 point chasing a doe during the first week of may.  This is the latest date , I have ever heard of personally.  Keep you eyes open and let me know what you see. March 03, 2001: It has been quite a while since I have seen deer in their regular hangouts.  I was in the San Antonio area and saw quite a few deer but done with antlers and done of the others were close enough to tell if they were bucks that had lost their antlers or not.  Robert Hoague has been in Webb County and he reported seeing some big bucks.  He even referred to them as the eleven Big Boys after a deer we named while hunting on Rancho Del Zorro. Big Boy of Rancho Del Zorro Rancho Del Zorro Maybe, I need to set up a trip to Rancho Del Zorro to look for sheds.  Can you imagine eleven Big Boys on one Ranch.  Let me know if you see any indication of the deer shedding their antlers, and when you see them growing their new ones. February 12, 2001: The last few weeks have seen very little change according to my reports and personal observations. One reporting area has stated that the whitetail there have still not returned to their regular routine.  This is credited to the amount of hunting pressure in this particular area.  Some other areas are reporting decreased visible deer activity.  I wonder if this may due, to the lack of interest in deer movement after the close of the season.  I personally was in the Kerr County area and noticed a lot of whitetail carrying on normal everyday business.  The bucks still have their antlers and there are still some sparring matches.  I did have one report of a buck shedding one of his antlers in December.  This apparently was somewhat of an isolated case.  Let me know if you see evidence of deer shedding their antlers: when and where? The good news is that the winter range is still in good condition in the areas that I am aware.  There was one lady in a cafe in Junction, said the deer were beginning to watch her garden which isn't even planted yet! January 23, 2001:   This period of time found interesting new behavior for the whitetail deer.  As stated in one of the daily updates, I saw a buck in hot pursuit of a doe on January 9th, this was in Bosque County.  There had been reports from some sources that the deer activity the last of the regular season, being January 7th was rather slow.  Other sources indicated that the deer activity was higher than normal.  It goes to prove that what you find in the deer woods could vary across the state or just county to county. South Texas, Webb County had strong deer activity, with a lot of rutting activity.  I was able to witness buck fights, sparring matches, bucks chasing does and new scrapes, that had just been made by rutting bucks.  There were bucks with hocks black all the way to their heels.  So in South Texas at least the rut was still in full swing as of January 21st. The best news of all is that the deer seem to be in excellent shape physically.  A little colder  and wetter than normal season has seemingly left the deer in good shape.  This is probably due to the extra vegetative growth caused by the wetter conditions. It is time to start watching to see when the bucks start shedding their antlers.  If you see this, please let me know when and where. January 8, 2001: The first week of 2001 brought varied reports on the whitetail deer behavior.  Several observers reported bucks chasing does.  This may have been some of the younger does that came into heat late.  There were also those who saw very little deer activity of any kind.  This could be attributed to the moon phase or the cold weather in much of the state.  I personally noticed a decrease in deer movement.  However, there was one buck chasing a doe, another showed no interest in the does, but this was on a very small number observed. The best news of all is that the deer seem to be in good shape physically.  There has been plenty for the deer to eat due to the good rains and snows.  With the signs of a colder than normal winter, it will be important to watch the range conditions and how the deer come through the winter months.  This is a good time to make sure the feeders are still working to help the deer through the winter months.  Check with your local wildlife biologist to find out what they recommend to help the deer in your area.