[kenton6]

In case you missed the story over at the Black Bear Blog, Texas has made a new ruling about antler sizes and shooting bucks. Here's the deal as I understand it.

Any buck that is a spikehorn - that is as long as neither side has branched - can be shot. After that, the spread between horns has to be at least 13 inches.

They say Texas hunters want bigger deer! Will this do it?

 

[bigbuck200]

Are they trying to say that a spike can never grow into anything larger? If they are, they are sorely mistaken. I know of a piebald that had distinct markings in my area that was a spike a few years ago therefore did not meet the antler requirements. The following year, the same deer was harvested and was a 7 point with a 14 inch spread.

How many of you are really interested in Texas deer hunting? Nearly every program I've ever watched was a guy sitting in a box blind overlooking a sendero. Out comes 4 or 5 bucks that all have at least 8 points and look to be about 90 pounds on the hoof. Hmmm! Which one do I shoot? Let me watch them for an hour and decide. Where's the excitement in that?

For me, seeing a glimpse of a buck and making a split second decision of whether to shoot or not is what makes hunting exciting, not desert hunting....just my opinion guys.

 

[stweedie]

What kind of tools do they give you to measure the antler spread while out hunting? Do they train "Texas" deer to stand still while you dig out your ruler to measure it?

 

[bigbuck200]

In PA an average 115-130 lb buck will have about a 14-15 in spread when the antlers are the width of the ears. In Texas, a 13 in spread would indicate that the antlers go 8-10 inches past the ears. This is simply because the rack is sitting on top of an animal about the size of a beagle!!! LOL

 

[BrowningA5]

It gets on my nerves that there is so much talk about antler size. I grew up in maine where a true tophy, to me anyway and the people that I hunt with is body size. Sure, I've shot some decent racked deer that would score well should I have chosen to have them scored but what do you hunt for? You can't eat the horns. A few years back I shot a 3 pointer the weighed around 175 if I remember correctly. To me, even though it was just a 3 pointer, that was a fine deer. Kansas is the same way, everone wants the huge racks to have scored and maybe have their name in a record book. I'd get a lot more satisfaction out of tracking a doe even and taking her than a 170 inch buck from a fenced in sanctuary anyday! Just my two cents on the matter!!