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How to field judge Texas Whitetail Racks?

2K views 13 replies 9 participants last post by  Jose Boudreaux 
#1 ·
As some of you know, I am going on a Texas Whitetail hunt. As someone who hunts in Illinois, I am very concerned about being able to judge the rack size of a Texas whitetail. Because of the size of the deer, the racks are going to look big compared to the body size.

Anyone have any tips on judging the texas whitetails?

Thanks
 
#5 ·
Chris, I sure you already know this, but I hate it when hardly no one answers my posts so I'll do what I can. As a general rule of thumb we estimate the outside of their ears to be 13". On our place if you see a deer and he is a couple of inches outside each ear he is getting close to being a shooter. We see the high and narrow racks but they need to be real high for us to consider them. If the rack looks like it is made of pencils we hold off as well. If your going to South TX you'll see a ton of big deer, and don't worry you'lll know what is a shooter. We try to judge age first then apply the stuff above to see if we want to shoot. I know it's not much but I hope it helps.
 
#6 ·
Ohio Bow said:
I believe the guide will tell you how big the deer is and how much dinero it will cost $$$$$ to shoot that particular deer.
Do you honestly believe this is how Texas hunts? :rolleyes:


Chris........like keep said, you'll know a shooter. Heavy bases, long beams, thick tines. It'll be like Illinois except in South Texas the bodies aren't as heavy. North Texas, the bodies of mature bucks will be pretty heavy......more like a Kansas strain.

Where in Texas you gonna hunt?
 
#7 ·
What part of Texas are you going to? Texas is a BIG state. Once you let me know I can give you very detailed info on judging deer here (I'm a biologist).

13" may hold for some areas but I can tell you since the state started looking at going to spread restrictions we started measuring tip to tip spread on mature deer and basically anywhere your likely to pay to hunt that average has been running right at 15" for the last 3 years on mature/quality deer.

In south Texas you can see 200" deer that won't weigh 220lbs live weight - 150ish dressed. I've hunted in a lot of states and it can make a big difference. You can see some 150lb-180lb deer with 140-150" racks that will look like 220" deer if your not careful.
 
#11 ·
Post some pics and we'll let you know if you did ok.


That is, before you shoot!

Seriously, I have never hunted that part of the state but you hope you know a shooter when you see it but watching the huting shows there's big bucks running all over the place and they always let the first one go and shoot a bigger one on the last day of the hunt:confused: .

Good luck and have fun now that I have totally confused you.
 
#12 ·
bigrackHack said:
Do you honestly believe this is how Texas hunts? :rolleyes:

Where in Texas you gonna hunt?
If he is going to the YO Ranch...then Yes...he will be fitting to the Texas "sterotype" trophy hunt where you pay big $$$ for the particular deer that you shoot.

Weird how his first instinct on the Texas hunt ended up being right isnt it?
 
#14 ·
ChrisM said:
If he is going to the YO Ranch...then Yes...he will be fitting to the Texas "sterotype" trophy hunt where you pay big $$$ for the particular deer that you shoot.

Weird how his first instinct on the Texas hunt ended up being right isnt it?
just cause you shoot a deer on a ranch don't mean it is big $$$$

unless you accidently shoot the 3.5 year old breeder buck :tongue:
 
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