All the signs are good for an excellent hunting season this year. That's good news for hunters, and it's good news for the Texas Hill Country. Especially for Llano, which bills itself as "The Deer Capital of Texas," hunting season provides a huge boost for the local economy.

       As in many areas (in our humble opinion), Texas leads the nation in the number of deer and the number of hunters. Above-average rains most of the past year led to an explosion of vegetation, which in turn has resulted in a large population of very healthy deer. At the same time, the economy in Texas has begun to recover from last year's recession, and hunters are feeling more comfortable with their spending money.

       A lot of that spending money comes to Llano County, where thousands of hunters shell out as much as $8 million in a good year. Probably $3 million goes to property owners for hunting leases; the rest goes to area merchants, restaurants and other affected businesses. The economic ripples reach almost everyone in the county. "Hunters may not buy a vehicle from the local dealer," says Bryan Miiller, of Miiller's Llano Smoke House. "But I do."

       Miiller's benefits two different ways from the influx of hunters. Not only does the plant process around 2,000 deer each winter, but hunters stock up on Miiller's jerky and other groceries for their time in the wild. During some of its earlier years, the 25-year old business "wouldn't have survived" without hunting season. Now diversified, the Llano Smokehouse is one of the leading businesses in Llano, supplying restaurants with wholesale sausage and online customers with a variety of mail-order products (see www.miillerssmokehouse.com).

       Josh Rode, of Llano Feed and Supply, says his family's business gets a huge boost from hunters, beginning early in the fall. On opening weekend, he estimates corn sales (for deer feeders) at 48 tons, and  sales average about 18 tons a week through the remainder of deer season. Super S groceries reports a similar boom in business each fall, as do all the restaurants in town (especially Cooper's BBQ and the aptly-named "Jessie's Hungry Hunter").

       While Llano may be the "Deer Capital," it is certainly not the only town to benefit from the annual hunting season. Junction is the county seat of Kimble County, another county known for wide open spaces and abundant wildlife. All the smaller towns and less-populated counties celebrate hunting season. Even Kerr County, with its larger towns, has a large deer population and looks forward eagerly to the arrival of the hunters.

Interesting facts (from Texas Parks & Wildlife):

• Texas’ white-tailed deer herd, estimated to hold 4 million animals, is the largest in 
the nation, more than twice the number of any other state.

• An estimated 648,686 Texans hunted deer during the 2009-10 season, according 
to Texas Parks and Wildlife Department surveys. That was a record number of deer hunters, up from a record 645,398 the previous season.

• Not surprising considering the costs associated with deer hunting, the average household income for Texas deer hunters ($66,316) is higher than the state average ($43,425).

• Whitetails are found in all 10 of Texas’ ecological regions. But the majority of the deer and deer hunters are found in three regions: Edwards Plateau (Hill Country of Central Texas), East Texas’ Pineywoods and South Texas brush country.

• During a typical season over the past decade, an average of 60 percent of Texas deer hunters took at least one deer. This past season’s success rate of 57 percent was the lowest in the past decade. Two ecological regions — Edwards Plateau (the Hill Country) and South Texas — typically lead all other areas in deer hunter success. This past season, 69 percent of deer hunters in the Edwards Plateau and 64 percent in South Texas took at least one deer.

By John Hallowell

John Hallowell is the past editor of several Hill Country publications. He has been exploring the Texas Hill Country for almost 20 years.