Texas Parks and Wildlife commissioners decided to pull a proposal to have a gun deer season for Collin, Dallas, Grayson, and Rockwall counties off the table. Commissioners met March 23 for their work session to discuss the proposal, which if approved, would have gone into effect for the 2022-23 hunting season. According to the Herald Democrat newspaper, commissioners had sharp comments about the proposal, and heeded the public’s demand to keep the archery-only general deer season for those four counties in place. About 280 people showed up a few weeks earlier to speak out against the proposal, according to the paper.
Changes for 2022-23 hunting season
Commissioners held their public meeting March 24 and approved the following changes to hunting regulations for 2022-23:
- Establishment of mandatory buck and antlerless white-tailed deer harvest reporting in Collin, Dallas, Grayson and Rockwall counties during white-tailed deer season.
- Modifying the definitions of “buck deer” and “antlerless deer.”
- Modifying the proof of sex requirements for harvested buck deer.
- Creating definitions for two types of commercial cold storage facilities.
- Modifying tagging and proof of sex requirements, log procedures and destination regulations for commercial cold storage facilities.
- Expanding mule deer antler restrictions to an additional 21 counties in the Panhandle.
- Extending the general mule deer season in 15 southwestern Panhandle counties from nine to 16 days and add a special archery season.
- Establishing a mule deer antler restriction in Terrell County within the Trans-Pecos.
- Establishing a veterans and active-duty special waterfowl hunting season to occur concurrently during youth-only season in all duck zones.
- Modifying the West Zone for goose hunting to open a week earlier than current goose hunting regulations.
- Removing the daily bag limit restriction (two) on hooded mergansers.
- Combining the separate merganser and duck daily bag limits into a single aggregate daily bag limit of six per day.
- Reauthorizing the requirement to possess a Federal Sandhill Crane Hunting Permit while hunting that species due to an administrative error.
- Closing the turkey season east of IH-35 in Ellis County to support ongoing restocking efforts along the Trinity River.
Hunters can check the Outdoor Annual for complete and updated regulations. Information currently in the Outdoor Annual reflects last season’s information.
More information regarding season dates for the 2022-23 hunting seasons can be viewed on the TPWD website as of May 13.
