Herd Management

We have a lease that we have had for 3 years now. Not a lot of deer but some dang good bucks. We have not killed many does, implemented predator trapping, no does off greenfields(except a few youth and seniors). Liming fields and even tried some summer planting, but hogs wore that out.

Trying to rebuild a deer herd we believe was over hunted. How many years does it take “typically “? Anything else we need to be doing? Can’t do much timber manipulation since it is a timber lease

I am on my new Main lease for second year- I am not taking does - hav lot of predators- Not a lot of does - did decent on coon removal - bunch already replaced the 16 I took - need to get coyotes and cats gone - I hav a few huge cats

Luckily don’t hav hogs - this would b lot of work - I hav friends that have put up small sections of fence successfully and put the feed inside the fence to hav a steady feed program To keep hogs out - don’t hav to be huge pin

I am no deer biologist but I would think somewhere in 3-5 years you would see something

planting clover may give u some good protein on into the summer - U may want to mow it aprilish

I have seen it take 8-10 years with no doe harvest to recuperate from folks shooting every deer they saw to get back to a decent population.

Not what I want to hear

I’m sure the circumstances are different from property to property.

Depends on the size of the property and your neighbors

Not shooting does and giving them a reason to stay around has worked well for me. It ain’t a quick turn around, though. However, it’s definitely worth it when it gets where you want it.

I had a place that had been a shoot everything place. First year you might see a deer every 2-3 days of hunting. By year five we were seeing 5-6 deer a day and lots of good bucks. Years 1-5 we shot no does and very few bucks off of 2000 acres.

I'd say in this day and age that trapping would probably help really speed up the process. I feel like does recognize the lack of coyote presence in an area and are more drawn to those places for fawning.....plus it may help with your fawn recruitment itself

I hav seen coyotes and bobcats getting after my deer this year - they put lot of pressure on deer - hav only killed one dog - gone try to trap hard in feb and may try when we get dry stretch in near future

One gang set in the right location can do some damage....You dont have to go all out with a trap on every 40 or anything.....location is the most important thing.....Find the right spot......like an intersection of two long interior roads that cut across the landscape

We try to take around 20 does off 2k acres. Stop doe harvest around Christmas each year. Most adjoining land owners hardly kill any does. Usually are 20+ deer per sit.

Timber company wants us to kill 12 does per year on almost 2k acres. I bet we don’t see 12 does a year. We killed 4 does last year and maybe 4 the previous year

You gotta kill more deer to see more deer

Do the math. At least 5 or 6 years of zero doe killing. Remember your neighbors are still killing them.

Crap we’ve only killed probably 5 or 6 does in 13 years here at the house. We have lots of properties around us not shooting does and we still can’t seem to get big numbers. Seem to still hang around the 15 or so area I believe. I’d like to see it up around 25 but don’t think we can get there for some reason.

That's depressing. I'm not sure that's going to get a lot better, short term.

I’d say its one of two things or more than likely a combination of both……

1) When the population reaches a point that food or cover either one start becoming limited compared to the amount of deer using it……then social dynamics kick in and doe groups begin to become territorial over it……So your population becomes limited by the amount of food and/or cover……either one or both
2) The other one is coyotes exacerbating #1…….Cover becomes an even more coveted resource

I see the same thing here at my place.....I get to a certain number of doe groups and that's it......You see start seeing more aggression between doe groups and doe groups toward young bucks.....competition for resources

I don't disagree, but some areas of the state are simply deer deserts. There just simply aren't deer there, period, end of story.

I grew up in one of those areas in Marshall Co and its why I enjoy living where I do now........In my opinion most of that is due to the way we manage the land. Everything is fragmented into 40 acres here and 60 there.....Anything that may be suitable habitat is left like an island for predators to take advantage of.


The thing about where I lived in Marshall Co is that there was still a vibrant coyote population driven by the cattle and chicken industry. Deer still tried to come up Short Creek from time to time and take up residence but the habitat is just too fragmented to sustain a population. The only way that those areas are ever gonna have deer is to reconnect bigger blocks of good habitat and reduce the predator populations....Changing the way we manage cattle land would really help areas like that to reconnect blocks of habitat

I have seen particular properties almost void of any deer and they have been that way for years and years. One had been a hunting club we leased and they shot lots of does prior to my involvement. You are reading QDMA and this seemed like an awesome place. Without all those pesky does around we can build it back. AND, most importantly, should have plenty of mature deer running around in short time due to lack of said pesky does eating up all that luscious food we have prepared to them.

I kept trying to convince myself a quality buck was just around the next bush because of all the awesome habitat. Big hardwood creek bottom right up the middle and some bonus hollers and hills around the terrain was very good looking, Awesome plots and good stand locations as well as approach and departure screened from fields. Just no deer. I finally went in the snow one winter when we had about a foot fall on the place. Deer bed down in the snow but they can't bed for days on end. I gave it a day or two and went to look for tracks. Very few. I was shocked again. I ceased to be involved after that I've got better places to spend my time and money.

How could this be... nearly 2,000 acres of prime deer habitat and after hunting it for 5-6 years not many bucks much less age structure at all ever materialized because of the lack does.

That was when I realized all this. Shoot enough does.... and your hunting is about to take a downturn.

I've been involved with this property and another where the neighbors blasted EVERYTHING they saw and both were not enjoyable experiences. That's completely on me because maybe I should have just been happy to shoot what was there... a 90lb doe. That's another way to look at it.