Texas deer hunters should see good harvest numbers and a fair shot at quality bucks this season, according to biologists at Texas Parks and Wildlife, who estimate the statewide white-tailed deer population has grown to about 5.64 million after three straight years of above-average fawn survival.
"Even an average year in Texas is worth hunting," Blaise Korzekwa, who leads the department's white-tailed deer program, said in the agency's season outlook. He noted that Texas leads the country in deer hunters, harvest and deer numbers.
Rain made the difference
Almost all of the state entered spring in some level of drought, the department says, but rain in late spring and early summer sharply improved habitat. Antler growth tracks rainfall from April through June, so biologists expect slightly better than average antlers across most of Texas. Parts of the Pineywoods and South Texas that missed those rains should see about average antlers.
The outlook singles out the Cross Timbers, Edwards Plateau, Eastern Rolling Plains and pockets of the Post Oak Savannah and Blackland Prairie as areas that came through the spring in better shape and should have a slightly above-average season.
North Texas numbers
The Cross Timbers, which the department describes as a north Texas ecoregion, holds the state's second-largest deer herd at an estimated 924,242 animals and is still growing. Bucks there are spread fairly evenly across age groups, biologists say, though hunters will likely see fewer 4.5-year-old bucks because few fawns survived in 2022.
The department says hunters chasing mature bucks in the region "should not be disappointed."
