SOUTH TEXAS
Biologist Jimmy Rutledge set up his season report with a review of climate conditions. "Our habitat conditions started out wonderful as the season opened," he said. "We had record rainfall amounts for most of the first eight months of 2007. But it pretty much quit raining last September -- and it has gotten drier and drier ever since."

Going into last season, Rutledge noted, South Texas deer were in pretty good shape. He reported above-average physical condition, and observed that above-average fawn survival had resulted from the improved habitat.

Without question, the presence of sufficient fawning cover can make an amazing difference in a year-class of whitetails. When it exists, fawns do a much better job of escaping predation; when it doesn't, they're easy pickin's.

"As the season played out, I kept hearing the same song, different verse -- no matter where I was or who I was talking to," Rutledge said. "Hunters found it real tough getting on 'em because there was so much cover."

Biologist Alan Cain, who also works in the Hill Country, corroborated Rutledge's report. "The biggest complaint I heard from hunters last season is that they just couldn't get on the deer," he said.

As was the case elsewhere, however, hunters who persisted earned the reward of a buck with a rack of much higher quality than is the norm for many areas of South Texas. And, of course, the two counties being managed with antler restrictions also are seeing many more of the older bucks.

"Hunters in our antler-restriction counties are seeing a lot more 3- and 4-year-old deer," he explained. "Now, our lockers are getting a lot more hunters bringing in bucks that score in the 120s and 130s. Pre-restrictions, those same hunters were shooting 1 1/2- and 2 1/2-year-old deer that were scoring in the 60 to 80 Boone and Crockett range."

Cain also mentioned another important element of the overall improvement in buck quality. "We are definitely seeing positive impact from the wildlife management cooperatives in the region," he said.

Quality continues to vary, of course, but the overall trend is upward. Cain remarked that some ranches in the region do indeed produce bucks that'll score 180, 190, even upwards of 200 inches. Each ranch is different, of course.

But the cooperatives and antler restrictions -- where the latter are in place -- definitely are helping balance deer numbers with available habitat, and to balance overall age structure in the South Texas herd.

"Any time you can carry over pretty much a whole age-class," Rutledge said, "that's never a bad thing."