TPW Commission Adopts Changes To Deer, Bird Seasons
Texas hunters this fall will see changes in regulations for hunting of white-tailed deer, a longer dove season, a slightly later-opening duck season in the state’s North and South zones, and a continuation of generous waterfowl hunting bag limits and season lengths, reports the San Antonio Express-News. The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopted the changes March 24. They go into effect Sept. 1.
Deer Season
The new changes for the 2016-17 deer season 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 “branched antlered deer” in the bag limit
• Allow the taking 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 taking 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 IH-35), Burleson, Ellis, Falls, Freestone, Kaufman, Limestone, Milam, Navarro, and Williamson (east of IH-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
• Implement a muzzleloader-only late season in Anderson, Bell (East of IH-35), Brazos, Burleson, Comal (East of IH-35), Delta, Ellis, Fannin, Falls, Franklin, Freestone, Grimes, Hays (East of IH-35), Henderson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Navarro, Rains, Red River, Robertson, Smith, Titus, Travis (East of IH-35), Van Zandt, Williamson (East of IH-35), and Wood counties
Dove Season
Texas’ 2016-17 dove season will be the longest in at least 80 years. The state took advantage of a change in federal migratory game bird hunting frameworks that added 20 days to the dove season. This year, Texas is allowed a 90-day dove season, up from the 70-day season federal rules have allowed in recent years.
Migratory seasons set
Changes in the federal timetable for developing annual hunting regulation frameworks for all migratory birds allowed Texas to set all 2016-17 migratory game-bird seasons in March instead of as late as August. The federal frameworks for the 2016-17 waterfowl seasons mirror those from this past year. The Commission approved a statewide, teal-only season to run Sept. 10-25, the 16-day maximum set by federal rules. The daily bag limit remains at six teal. Duck season in the state’s North Zone will run Nov. 12-27 and Dec. 3-Jan. 29. South Zone duck season will run Nov. 5-27 and Dec. 10-Jan. 29. The daily bag limit will remain at six ducks per day, with the same species restrictions as this past season. Goose season in the East Zone will run Nov. 5-Jan. 29, and Nov. 5-Feb. 5 in the West Zone. Daily bag limits are unchanged.
