Texas Hunting Report (cont.)

Hunting has been tough with all the rain fall, which seems to have created a massive acorn crop in many parts of Texas.
Prior to the archery opener trail camera provided us with proof of deer in the area where our stands were set up.
Heavy rainfall and a large acorn crop after the opener has decreased deer sighting; the game just don't have to travel with water and natural food all around them.

Hunting trails and crossing may provide the best luck to harvest a deer until the acorns are all gone or they sour. After the availability of the natural foods decrease the deer will become more predicable and visible since they will traveling out of their comfort zones in search for food.

The other thing that is going to create better odds for seeing deer movement is the cooler weather and the rut.

For the past several years Texas has been hot during the archery and into the general season, leaving most all of the pre-rut activity for the cooler night time temperatures.

So far the cooler temperatures have created a fairly comfortable October for pre-rutting activity.
I have see and heard reports of younger bucks with their heads low surveying the area for that hot doe.

With the passing of the full moon Nov. 2 and the cooler temperatures the rutting activity is sure to increase and causing the does to begin to cycle bring the bigger mature bucks out in the open.
 

---------Article Update Nov. 1---------

I've been playing close attention to other reports from hunters.
During the weekend of Oct 30-Nov 1 it seems like the folks have been seeing more deer movement and a few more bucks have been killed.

This is significant change and shows the bucks are now becoming more interested in searching out for does that may be coming into their estrus cycle.

Now is the time we need to be in the woods and not watching those good collage and NFL football games...

----------Update Nov. 22, 2009----------

Well, the movement has picked up across the entire state of Texas!

Deer are leaving the comfort of the woods and venturing out now that the natural food sources are dwindling down, plus the cooler weather is forcing the deer to move a little more to keep warm.

Also, I have been hearing the bucks are chasing the does from North Texas to Central Texas
and deer rutting is starting to increase.
We expect the rut in Central Texas to start this week peeking around Thanksgiving. It seems like every year Thanksgiving week is the time to the Hill Country deer really start to rut.
What ever does don't get bred will cycle again in about 25-30 days.

Now, is the time to be in the woods!

Good luck!!!

------ Last Report ------

Well, as I heard from other hunters this year was terrible for
seeing deer and harvesting deer. Nocturnal has been the best way to describe
the deer's movement.
Texas has been under a drought for the past four years and this past summer was
the worst! Area lakes were dropping at rates of 12" or more per day dwindling them down to
rivers and dry creek beds. This super dry conditions has lead me to believe the deer migrated closer to water sources and or there has been a die off of the deer in certain areas.
Natural food sources were non existent until the late rains began to fall in Mid December. When that happened there was a explosion of acorns crops.

The Texas Hill Country was some of the toughest hunting I have seen in 20 years this season.
Our trail camera showed evidence of deer, but not the numbers that would be expected to seen in the area and all at night or between 7:00pm and 6:00am.

The hogs were plentiful as well as the turkey. The hogs were all nocturnal and the turkey came and went as they desired and usually seen in the mid morning to early afternoon time frame.

Now that the season has come to an end we are going to take a break and start hunting hogs!
In the spring we will start after the Gobblers as well.