SAN ANGELO, Texas- Archery season begins across the Concho Valley for deer and turkey on October 2nd. State Game Warden, David Hopkins says if you’re new to hunting there are some things you should know before heading out.
“You do have to have a valid hunting license, if you’re born after September 1st 1972, you are required to have hunters education,” said Hopkins.
Once you have completed the education course, it is valid for a lifetime. Hopkins adds that usually, he sees more experienced hunters participating in archery season.
“Archery generally requires a little bit more skill, a little bit more patience, and requires you to be closer to the deer. So you have to do a little bit better of a job masking up and hiding in the brush and that kind of stuff so, the new hunter, the beginning hunter, finds it typically a lot easier to use a gun rather than archery,” Hopkins says.
If you’re looking for a place to hunt, San Angelo State Park does grant hunters access. Jerrett Miller, Superintendent of San Angelo State Parks tells us the outlook for the season is a good one.
“The overall population numbers are not declining by any measure, we actually had a lot of twin sets this year during our fawning time. We’ve had a good success rate with the fawns and have not found very many that didn’t make it. Population is going to be good, rain at the right times, pastures look good everything is still green so its going to be a good deer season,” said Miller.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Biologists say this season could be a record year for white-tailed deer hunting across the state. Last year the overall white-tailed deer population was about five and a half million — and experts say the late spring and summer rainfall provided more natural forage.