This buck was photographed in late November on a high-fenced Hill Country ranch that practices selective buck harvest, controls does, and feeds protein to native home- grown Texas whitetails and enjoy seeing what can be produced from native genetics. Deer are smart and evasive. Mature ones have learned to avoid danger except when distracted during the rut. As the rut wanes, some bucks become less wary. If you still have tags, use ‘em! (Photo by the landowner)

by John Jefferson

So, clean your guns and put them away.

WHOA! Not so fast. That’s what you do when the season ACTUALLY CLOSES. And it Hasn’t!

The white-tailed deer season is open until January 5 in most counties in North and Central Texas. By all means, check the “Texas Outdoor Annual” (OA) for your county. Some counties may be closed.

Closing date for whitetail season in South Texas counties comes later, on January 19.

Most counties have a special late season for antlerless deer (including bucks with no more than one unbranched antler). It’s open for two weeks immediately after closing of their regular season. But not in all counties.

Check the OA County Listings starting on page 67. CWD information, Antler Restrictions, Tagging, and Mandator Harvest Reporting also apply and are listed in the Index and under Deer in the Game Animal section (P. 54).

Although many hunters have tagged a buck and “stacked arms” (military term for setting rifles away safely when not in immediate usage), there’s still plenty of hunting left.

Many counties allow a second buck and several does. Sure, most of the hunting season has passed, but there are good bucks available.

Hunting pressure has also lessened.

A lady landowner took a ride around her South Texas ranch on the last day of the season years ago and killed a true trophy buck they hadn’t seen before, with a .243. It was close to being the biggest buck of the year! I verified her story with her and TPWD Wildlife Biologist Butch Young at a wildlife program.

Butch had scored the buck. It really happened.

A Missouri hunter shot an albino buck on the last day of the 2019 season, according to the Internet. And recently, a woman named Cindy killed a deer on the last day of last season with a .44-40 caliber black powder rifle replica of an 1866 Winchester rifle.

And, I watched a buck tending a doe for ten minutes once on the last day of the season. Late season success happens.

A late rut for yet unbred does may still keep bucks busy. But an article by Brian Grossman, Communications Director for the National Deer Association, shows that toward the end of the season, bucks often change their eating places and plants. But after an active rut, they’re worn out and hungry. They don’t feed where and on what they dined earlier in the season. Crops are gone as are most acorns. If feeders run low, they turn to woody browse. Look for any green areas and woodlands with good understory. Do more scouting. Look for tracks. Move cameras to suspected sites.

Antlerless deer season nullifies excuses for not taking does. My wife and friends just finished making muchos doe-venison tamales for Christmas Eve.

Backstrap steaks are great on cold nights. And doe overpopulation is rampant. Most hunters don’t take ONE doe. And wonder why they don’t see more bucks.

Get out and help control does. Unless you really don’t like to hunt.

JJ