Biggest personal rule for me is to stay out of the woods and tree stands in the morning during early season. Great way to blow the area up for rest of year.
I feel more confident with my rifled barrel shotgun than my old 30:06. I can still reach out 150 yards w confidence and know I have the knock down power.
My first thought was 3.5 year old with great genetics due to smaller body size. Me being from MN makes this a smaller bodied deer with a HUGE rack. But I see TX so that changes things.
FNG from S.E. MN here. Do a lot of deer hunting locally. Would love to get out West but need to figure out a lot of things still. Always looking to learn.