Antler Restrictions in Pineywoods
The best is still yet to come for hunters
By MICAH POTEET TPWD Wildlife Biologist

Hunters in the northern Pineywoods should be excited about the upcoming deer season, as they now have survived the first year under the newly implemented antler restrictions. As a rule, the first year under such a regulation involves the greatest amount of sacrifice on the part of the hunter. In other words, the worst part is behind us and the best is yet to come.

Although it is still too early to see a huge difference, hunters this year should begin to see some benefits of the antler restrictions that were implemented last season in 16 counties in the northern half of the Pineywoods. These counties include Houston, Cherokee, Nacogdoches, Shelby, Sabine, San Augustine, Rusk, Panola, Harrison, Greg, Upshur, Marion, Camp, Morris, Cass, and Bowie.

Antler Restrictions: The Logic The purpose of the antler restriction was to improve the age structure of the buck herd by protecting more of the young (1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year-old) fork antlered bucks. The accompanying graph shows the age structure of the bucks harvested in the 16 antler restriction counties during 2006, along with the previous five-year average. All 2006 data is derived from approximately 500 bucks harvested in the 16 county area.

The Results

The percentage of yearlings in the harvest decreased by four percent, and the harvest of 2 1/2 yearold bucks decreased by four percent. The number of bucks harvested (as estimated by the Big Game Harvest Survey) is not available at this time. However, I believe the number of bucks harvested was approximately the same as the number harvested during the 2005 season because we observed (collected data from) approximately the same number of bucks at the meat lockers.

We believe that buck harvest numbers did not decline significantly, because many hunters chose to fill their "unbranched antler" tag. In the past, under a one-buck bag limit, many hunters were reluctant to use their only buck tag on a spike, which indirectly afforded protection for many spikes.

Last year was the first time in many years that a hunter was able to harvest a spike and continue hunting for a second buck, and many hunters apparently took advantage of that opportunity. Although many yearling bucks were harvested, they were mostly bucks that met the "unbranched antler" criterion.

For example, 86 percent of the yearling bucks harvested last year met the "unbranched antler" criterion. During the previous four years, the percentage of yearling bucks harvested that would have met this criterion averaged 37 percent. This suggests that the regulation decreased the harvest of fork antlered yearling bucks from approximately 63 percent to approximately 14 percent, which indicates that the regulation was successful in protecting the higher quality fork antlered yearling bucks.

During 2006, the harvest of 2 1/2 year-old bucks decreased by four percent. However, the decrease would have been greater had the hunters had more experience in estimating antler spread, as 26 percent of the 2 1/2 year-old bucks that did not meet the "unbranched antler" criterion did not meet the minimum inside spread.

In other words, had hunters been error free in estimating inside spread and harvested no 2 1/2 year-old bucks that were less than 13 inches, 26 percent of the harvested 2 1/2 year-old bucks would not have been killed. Had this actually occurred, the percentage of 2 1/2 year-old bucks in the harvest would have decreased by nine percent.

On the bright side, these bucks (less than 13-inch spread) did show up at the processors and were not left in the woods, as many feared would happen. Hopefully, as hunters become more accurate at estimating inside spread and become more accustomed to the regulation, we will see a continued decline in the percentage of 2 1/2 year-old bucks in the harvest.

The harvest of 3 1/2 and 4 1/2 year-old bucks increased by six percent and seven percent, respectively, during the 2006-07 season. The regulation has not been in place long enough to have actually increased the number of older bucks in the population, so why did these numbers improve?

Most likely the increase was due to hunters spending more time in the woods in pursuit of a legal buck. Due to the antler restrictions, fewer legal bucks were available for harvest. Therefore, hunters that had to pass on young, fork antlered bucks (bucks that they might have taken in previous years) probably spent more time in the woods looking for a legal buck. Most hunters will agree that more time in the woods improves your chances of killing an older buck.

Looking Ahead

So what should hunters expect during the 2007 season?

Hunters should expect to see an increased number of quality 2 1/2 yearold bucks. We expect antler quality to be improved for two reasons:

1.) Mother Nature.

2.) The residual effects of the regulation.

Mother Nature blessed us with significant rainfall during the antler growing season, which means that browse quality should have been above average. Quality nutrition means that bucks are more likely to meet their antler growing potential. The antler restriction regulation also may have been responsible for an improvement in antler quality of 2 1/2 year-old bucks.

The same high quality fork antlered yearling bucks that were protected under the regulation last season should again be high quality bucks, only a year older. We suspect that many of the 2 1/2 year-old bucks will this year be very near or in excess of the 13 inch minimum inside spread.

Hunters should use caution when estimating spread to ensure that only those bucks that meet the legal standard are harvested. It would be reasonable to expect to see a greater number of 3 1/2 year-old bucks due to the carry over of the 2 1/2 year-old bucks that were protected under the regulation.

More Counties on Tap?

Due to the success of antler restriction regulations in other areas, we have had numerous requests for the restriction in other Pineywoods counties.

These requests are coming from hunters in counties that are currently operating under a twobuck bag limit, with no antler restrictions.

To date, antler restrictions have only been implemented in counties that were operating under a one-buck bag limit, and subsequently increased to a two-buck bag limit with the antler restrictions. No two-buck counties have had antler restrictions implemented.

Although we have had many requests for antler restrictions from hunters in two-buck counties, it is unclear what level of support there will be for antler restrictions in these counties.

However, if the continued monitoring of the results of the antler restrictions in the northern Pineywoods proves the regulation to be successful, TPWD will likely consider proposing antler restriction regulations for some of the southern Pineywoods counties.

Deer hunters in the northern Pineywoods have survived the first year and we believe they have much to look forward to in the years to come. It's still too early to assign success or failure to the regulation in the northern Pineywoods, but based on the success of the antler restriction regulation in other parts of Texas, we see no reason why it can't be successful there.

Only time will tell.