Oh, deer: Brazoria gears up for a major holiday

When Texas outdoorsmen mark the start of the new year on their calendars, it’s Sept. 1 that gets circled in red. That’s when the state’s new hunting regulations kick in, as does open season for sport hunting of dove, javelina and squirrel in part of the Lone Star State.

It’s also the time when hunters start preparing for their most-anticipated time of year, when they head to leases and blinds ready to start thinning the deer herd.

Mike Bergeron and his nephew John Stanley have a tradition of hunting in Lexington on land owned by Stanley’s grandparents. They started preparing for the season in late July and will be on their hunting grounds the day deer season opens. They won’t come back to Brazoria County until they’ve bagged two does or a good-size buck.

“We prepare to go out there by mowing and cleaning right of ways, setting traps for hogs and, for the deer, we have to put feeders out,” the 65-year-old Bergeron said.

“Then we have to get everything set up on timers,” Stanley said. “The deer have an internal clock and need to learn the routine of when that timer is going to go off.”

Only then, when everything is set up and all the precautions have been made, is it hunting time.

“Before we go to the field, we pray for each other,” said Stanley, 45. “We just want to pray for a safe return home”

Stanley, who went hunting in July, said the biggest buck he ever got was when he was wearing his work uniform. It was a 23-point buck and he took it down with a crossbow.

Outdoors outfitters

During gun-hunting season, the duo are fans of the traditional camouflage outerwear associated with the sport. Bergeron’s go-to attire is a pair of chest overalls with the “real tree” camouflage pattern and a camouflage shirt.

Like the hunters, suppliers also start preparing for the season before it’s time to fire the first shot.

Academy Outdoor Sporting Goods starts preparing for deer season at the end of summer, said Lake Jackson Academy operations manager James Bates.

“What we do is we get deer season items in and put them on the floor, market and showcase them,” Bates said. “Deer stands, deer feeders, camouflage clothes. Cold weather clothing, hunting bibs, face masks, gloves, hats all in camo.”

Those items start appearing in Academy by late summer, he said.

“I would say that the start of dove and deer season would be when this area of the store receives high foot traffic,” communications manager Allan Rojas said.

Bergeron has upgraded to a more powerful gun in recent years.

“I used to shoot 7 mm Remington Magnum,” he said. “Last several times I’ve gone, I’ve used a 300 Win Mag.”

Stanley’s gun of choice depends on whether any of his children come along, he said.

“The Tiki 270 is a really nice gun; if one of my kids come, I let them use that and I use the Win Mag,” Stanley said.

Rules and regs

With Texas being such a large state, there is not a single set of rules governing hunting. When certain animals are in season for hunting varied by region, and trekking across a county line could find an outdoorsmen suddenly subject to different rules.

“Regulations are county-specific,” said Scott Jennings, who has spent 16 years as a game warden in Brazoria County. “We still have people thinking that just because they have always hunted in a location or in a certain way, that it means it’s OK and/or legal. A lot of the time it’s neither OK nor legal. Our population is growing and things are changing fast.

“We have to constantly be prepared. Our seasons and schedules vary and overlap so much, we have to be ready for anything at any time.”

For anyone confused about hunting regulations in Texas or Brazoria County, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department has an app called Outdoor Annual Texas Hunting & Fishing Regulations it regularly updates. For the more traditional hunter who prefers a printed pamphlet, the department still has outdoor annuals that explain the rules and regulations.

Meat or stuffing

Once a hunter has the garb, knows the rules and bags the deer, he has to decide what to do with it. Some people go to a taxidermist, but most people process the meat.

“We process it ourselves,” Bergeron said. “We skin it, clean it, quarter it, put it on ice. Then, we leave it for a week and it’s as good as store-bought. We use the meat to make sausage and ground meat.”

Even though this duo likes to process the meat themselves, for the marginally less-savvy hunter, some meat markets are open year-round. One such processor is Greak’s Smokehouse on Froberg’s Farm in Alvin.

“We’ve been in Brazoria County for 57 years,” said Ray Greak, owner of the smokehouse. In addition to venison, the meat market processes turkey and pork.

“The average doe weighs about 160 pounds and bucks can come in up to 210 pounds. We can get a good 28 to 32 pounds of meat off a quartered whitetail.”

Greak recommends processing the deer into summer sausage, snack sticks, Italian sausage, seasoned hamburger, jerky and, of course, backstrap.

“We stay ready,” Greak said of when the shop prepares for deer season. “We were born ready. We are always prepared supplies-wise.”

Stanley’s preferred family recipe for sausage combines both of the animals they hunt.

“My nephew makes half pork, half deer plus beef fat and a special seasoning,” Bergeron said. “Then we put it through a meat processor to make sausage links and stuff like that.”

“We like to make the venison into bratwurst or andoille or regular link with jalapeño or cheese, some spicy, some not,” Stanley said.

Stanley explains the reward that results from all the hunters’ hard work preparing for the season.

“We go from the field to the freezer.”

Unlike other hunting grounds in Texas, Brazoria County hunters mostly are locals, though it’s not because the deer found here are of lesser quality then elsewhere.

“Our deer have good genes and good numbers; we just don’t attract the outsiders from other parts of the state the way other areas do,” Jennings said.