The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopted changes for deer hunting in the 2016-2017 season. The new regulations include expanding white-tailed deer hunting in 14 counties across the western Panhandle and creating new deer hunting opportunities in East Texas.
According to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, the changes include:
• Elimination of the Antlerless and Spike-buck Control Permit due to lack of demand;
• Define “unbranched antlered deer” to clarify what constitutes a legal buck across seasons and to alleviate confusion among hunters, and replace the “Special Late Antlerless and Spike-buck Season” with a “Special Late Season” to accommodate the inclusion of “unbranched antlered deer” in the bag limit;
• Allow the take of antlerless deer without a permit on certain U.S. Forest Service Lands during youth-only seasons;
• Clarify that white-tailed antlerless deer harvest during the archery-only season does not require a permit and harvest of antlerless deer during youth seasons is restricted to persons 16 years of age and younger including on properties issued Level 1 Managed Lands Deer (MLD) Permits;
• Implement both a general and special archery-only season for white-tailed deer in Andrews, Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Gaines, Hale, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Parmer, Terry and Yoakum counties, with a bag limit of three deer (no more than one buck and no more than two antlerless), which is identical to adjoining/nearby counties that currently have a season;
• Implement both a general and special archery-only season for white-tailed deer in Winkler County, with a bag limit of three deer (no more than one buck and no more than two antlerless, with the take of antlerless deer restricted to the archery-only season or properties issued MLDP antlerless tags). The new season is identical to adjoining/nearby counties that currently have a season;
• Establish four “doe days” (time periods in when antlerless deer may be taken without a permit in parts of the state where antlerless harvest regulations are conservative) in Bell (east of I-35), Burleson, Ellis, Falls, Freestone, Kaufman, Limestone, Milam, Navarro and Williamson (east of I-35) counties;
• Increase the number of doe days to 16 in Anderson, Brazos, Camp, Gregg, Grimes, Henderson, Lamar, Leon, Madison, Morris, Red River, Robertson and Upshur counties; and implement a muzzleloader-only late season in Anderson, Bell (east of I-35), Brazos, Burleson, Comal (east of I-35), Delta, Ellis, Fannin, Falls, Franklin, Freestone, Grimes, Hays (east of I-35), Henderson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Navarro, Rains, Red River, Robertson, Smith, Titus, Travis (east of I-35), Van Zandt, Williamson (east of I-35) and Wood counties.