Hunting News

New experimental mule deer antler restriction begins

New experimental mule deer antler restriction begins

By Texas Parks and Wildlife Department

Hunters pursuing mule deer this fall in Briscoe, Childress, Cottle, Floyd, Hall and Motley counties will be required to comply with a new antler restriction regulation that prohibits harvest of any mule deer buck with a main beam outside spread of less than 20 inches.

Parks and Wildlife Department is implementing the new experimental regulation with the goal of improving buck age structure and sex ratios in these counties by reducing excessive hunting pressure on younger bucks.

A similar antler restriction for white-tailed deer has been in place for a number of years in other parts of the state, and has successfully shifted the age class structure toward older bucks.

The experimental antler restriction will be conducted for four hunting seasons. Wildlife officials will collect age and antler measurements at voluntary hunter-harvest check stations to assess the effects of the regulation on buck age structure.

Annual aerial surveys will be used to document sex ratios. Based on findings after four years, TPWD will either propose to extend the regulation, modify the antler restriction, or permanently terminate.

Mule deer archery-only season in the antler restriction counties occurs Sept. 29 to Nov. 2, with the general firearm season Nov. 17 to Dec. 2.

Information about hunting licenses can be found online.

Information on ear-tip to ear-tip measurement can be a useful guide to mule deer hunters attempting to field-judge mule deer bucks with at least a 20-inch main beam outside spread.

To view the guide with illustrations, click here.

To protect young bucks, TPWD has set minimum legal outside spread of the main beams at 20 inches based upon many years of harvest data. Any buck having main beams with an outside spread smaller than 20 inches is NOT legal to harvest. 

Additionally, any buck with at least one unbranched antler (e.g., spike) is NOT legal to harvest, unless the outside spread of the main beams is 20 inches or more in width.  Based upon data collected by Parks and Wildlife the average ear-tip to ear-tip spread of 2 1/2 to 8 1/2 + year old mule deer bucks with ears in the alert position is about 21 inches.

To gather the most harvest data possible, TPWD will offer incentives to hunters who check their harvest.  Hunters who bring their harvest to a check station will be entered in drawings for items such as rifles, lifetime hunting licenses and gift cards donated by Dallas Safari Club, the Texas Panhandle Chapter of the Dallas Safari Club, the Mule Deer Foundation, and Houston Safari Club.

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