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Minimum Antler Spreads

3347 Views 4 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  BrowningA5
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?
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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.
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
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