Deer Hunting in Palo Pinto County Has Antler Restrictions

Palo Pinto County is a 5-deer county in TPWD's North Zone, with no more than 2 bucks across all seasons combined. The buck limit has the same 13-inch inside-spread guardrail that trips up hunters who learned the rules in a different county.

Only one of your two bucks may have an inside spread of 13 inches or greater. A legal buck either has at least one unbranched antler, or it reaches that 13-inch inside spread. If your first buck is the wide-spread kind, the second legal buck has to be the unbranched-antler kind.

The county page carries the current archery, general, youth-only, and special-late date windows, and archery hunting requires the archery endorsement. The fixed part to keep straight is the bag math: 5 deer total, 2 bucks at most, and just one 13-inch-or-wider buck.