General mule deer season in the Trans Pecos will open in late November, and hunters can look forward to an average harvest this year.
Shawn Gray, Mule Deer and Pronghorn Program Leader for Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said, “Numbers should be about the same as last year. We had a decent spring, so the antlers starting out were okay. But our monsoon didn’t come until late September, so I would say average to below average on antler development.”
Gray thought numbers should be higher this year than last, with a 25-50% increase over the 100,000 count for last winter. TPWD conducts helicopter surveys to count the animals, flying random transects over certain areas that it monitors to determine if the population is growing, maintaining, or declining. According to TPWD statistics, 80-85 percent of the mule deer in Texas inhabit the Trans Pecos region, with the remainder in the Panhandle and western Edwards Plateau.
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