Applications to hunt are now being accepted

I was concerned that budget issues could wreck the program, but program director Linda Campbell said, "Yes, we are working right now on finalizing the hunt opportunities for the 2011-12 hunting season."

Now the issue is getting ready to apply because last year many of these hunts had early August/September application dates. So if you need a place to hunt for yourself, your children or a group, you might want to start planning to apply now.

The TPWD normally offers hunts for alligator, exotics, white-tailed deer, mule deer, pronghorn antelope, javelina and turkey. It offers general, guided and youth hunts. Allowing hunts during both archery and gun seasons opens up more opportunities for those seeking a place to hunt. (Fees are waived for youth applicants and waived for all participants in youth-only hunts.)

The application fee for most hunts is $3 per person. A few special guided hunts last year for deer, bighorn sheep, gemsbok and scimitar-horned oryx required a $10 application fee. "Our application fees will remain the same as last year," said Campbell.

The Application Process

Each year, I apply for a number of public hunts within the TPWD system. Most hunts allow for four applicants per application, though you can apply individually or with up to three others. One key to the process is to not apply for two hunts in the same category or you will be disqualified.

Each year I apply for the gun deer either-sex hunt on the Chaparral Wildlife Management area. This is a 15,000-acre high-fenced research and management area 15 miles west of Artesia Wells.

I put me and three others on the application and hope to win the lottery-style drawing for the hunt. The application allows you to make application for several dates. If I had been drawn last year, each of us would have had to pay $130 for the five-day hunt (three full days and two half days).

This is a real quality hunt that I have been applying for since the mid-1980s. My name has never been drawn but I keep hoping.

My odds are not great because this is a popular hunt area. In 2009, 3,673 people applied for the area and only 40 (either-sex deer gun) permits were allotted. But I have been drawn twice on bow hunts for this same quality area. Only 842 people applied in 2009 and 70 archery permits were awarded.

So if you just want to take a deer to put meat in the freezer, there are many areas that offer a much better chance of your name getting drawn. Take for instance, the James Daughtrey Wildlife Management Area, 4,400 acres between Three Rivers and Tilden. This also is in South Texas "big deer" country but only 465 people applied for the either-sex gun deer hunts in 2009 and 10 permits were awarded. It offers much better odds than the Chaparral hunt.

Doe Management – Intermedia Outdoors

I was perched in one of my favorite early-season stands one afternoon when I heard a disturbance in the underbrush. The timing and direction were about right for a deer, so I unhooked by bow and readied for a shot. My suspicions were correct, and to my delight not one, but two, deer entered the small clearing below, a spike buck and a yearling doe. It didn’t take much deliberation to determine which one to take. At the shot, the yearling doe made two bounds and dropped.

It was a rewarding experience in more ways than one. My scouting, preparation and practice paid off. One tag out of the way and meat in the freezer took some pressure off the rest of my hunting season. Now I could ease up and look for antlers. Plus, I’d done my good deed for the day, reducing the local deer herd by one. I was hunting an area that biologists claimed had too many deer. Removing does represented the most efficient remedy, and I was happy to oblige.

Why Shoot Does? Shifting your hunting effort toward female deer is an integral part of the Quality Deer Management (QDM) philosophy. At the most basic level, it’s a means of reducing the deer population to bring it more in line with what the habitat can support. As a result, the overall health, body weights and reproductive rates of remaining deer increase, along with improved habitat conditions. If crop damage and deer-vehicle collisions are an issue in your area, you can also take credit for reducing them.

In nearly all cases, increasing doe harvest also leads to a more balanced sex ratio. Even in this modern age of abundant deer and enlightened management, most hunter effort is directed toward bucks. Shifting effort toward does helps counteract that. Then, the number (or proportion) of bucks in older age classes increases. Subsequently, more mature bucks are available for breeding, resulting in less stress on yearling bucks and an earlier, more defined rut. The following spring, fawns are born during a narrower and more appropriate window of time, meaner healthier young and greater survival rates.

Admittedly, harvesting does is not a wholly unselfish act. There’s a certain amount of personal satisfaction that comes with killing a deer — any deer. Then there’s a shopping bag full of all-natural protein that will help defray the grocery (and perhaps the medical) bills.

The real carrot for most hunters though is that we’re also protecting and improving the male segment of our local deer herd. As already mentioned, fewer deer means more food to go around for those that remain; and reducing buck harvest allows a few more to reach the next age class. Older deer means bigger deer.

Quality Deer Management, The Basics and Beyond

Quality Whitetails, The Why and How of Quality Deer Management

Proceedings of the ... annual conference Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Field & Stream

Alabama conservation