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Cost of a Trophy Whitetail Deer Hunt
The average price to hunt Whitetail Deer on a game ranch is between is between $2,000 for an affordable meat, cull or doe hunt, and up to $18,000 for a trophy buck. The final total depends on the size of the rack, trophy fee, rifle or bow hunt, number of days, taxidermy fees, guide fees, quality of accommodations, amenities and services available.
Whitetail Deer Hunting Season
There are many hunting seasons for Whitetail, typically in October, November and January.
Visit the TPWD website for specific dates in the county youre hunting in.
Hunting Trophy Whitetail Deer
The whitetail deer is plentiful, but its also difficult to hunt due to an incredible array of senses. It has keen eyesight, a sensitive nose, and ears that can hear a stick crack hundreds of yards away. Whitetail are most often found in the South Texas and the Texas Hill Country as they come out of the treeline to eat in the open fields.
Whitetail deer have wide antlers with many tines, which are sometimes typical;with the same amount on each side;and sometimes atypical. A typical buck may have antlers between 22 and 30 inches at the longest point, but some are much bigger. Additionally, when scoring a whitetail, measurements are done by looking at the cumulative inches of all of the tines. Only a handful of whitetails have ever broken 300+ inches, and a trophy like that would be close to a world record.
These antlers are shed and grown back in every year. In the spring and summer, the antlers are coated with velvet-like hairs that are scraped off in the fall. The day-to-day movements of a whitetail are fairly predictable, sometimes down to the minute. They tend to cycle, moving out of the cover in the early morning to feed, laying down in the hot hours of midday, and then moving again at dusk.
Physical Characteristics
A standard whitetail buck weighs between 130 pounds and 220 pounds, while females sit between 90 and 200 pounds. Monster bucks have been found weighing as much as 350 pounds. The body shape of a whitetail changes during the year; a buck will look scrawny and lean in the summer, no matter its age, but they fill out toward the fall, when the hunting season opens.
The coat on a South Texas whitetail is brown tinged with red in the summer, and the colder weather causes it to turn more of a grey-brown by hunting season. The underside is white, as are the ears, and the tail that gives the deer its name is a brilliant white on the bottom. When alarmed or running, the tail is erect, exposing this flash of color. Young deer have white spots, but lose them as they age.
Origin, Native Habitat and Countries
No large game animal is more common in North America than the whitetail deer, and Texas has the biggest population in the United States, with three or four million animals. However, the deer is native to the Americas in general, and its found in Canada, Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and throughout Central America. Additionally, deer have been transplanted into Cuba, New Zealand, the Bahamas, the Czech Republic, Russia, and many other countries around the world.
The whitetail mostly lives in heavily forested areas and swamps, where cover is abundant. However, it also looks for fields and grasslands to graze. It often stays near water sources, and each deer has a range of a few square miles; they typically circle these ranges, without leaving entirely. In mountainous areas, they stick to the foothills. Often, the whitetail will bed down at night in the tall grass or under a tree, and it will then move out into the grasslands in the early morning hours.
Behavior/Social Characteristics
Whitetail will move in small herds, typically with a dozen or so deer;or less. Males are much more solitary, except for when the rut hits. The bucks do not have anything to do with raising the young, instead leaving them with the does.