Yep, a good situation for a guy is to have property next to or very near a large landowner or cooperative of landowners that are under strict trophy management with their deer.

Did you come up with 100 bucks on 1200 acres estimate by doing a camera survey or is it a guess? Not disputing your numbers, that just seems awfully high. If you had a buck to doe ratio of 1:2, that would be 300 deer on 1200 acres - 150 deer per sq mile.

Mississippi or Alabama?? Either way one buck per 15 acres is a lot of deer after you throw in the doe numbers but some places can sustain it but most can't.

Camera surveys and deer sightings over the past 5 years. We are very blessed to have a high deer density with good, quality habitat and neighbors that don't shoot a lot of deer. This past weekend there were 3 of us (myself and 2 neighbors) that were bowhunting within a 100 acre block. We saw 45 deer between the three of us including 11 bucks. Some of those were likely the same deer but I would guess the large majority were not.

What's your offseason nutrition routine?

You have much to learn grasshopper...

What do you think this fellar is doing

Flooding.

In all seriousness, most springs we are under water. When we aren't, clover from the fall plots will take us through June. We also feed protein, although not like we should. Have tried beans/peas before when the water allowed but it's just too much of a headache knowing you could lose it all in no time with a high river.

Dang right wish I could afford to fence our place. That would solve a bunch of problems. It would be awesome to say the neighbor won't shoot that 115" 3 yr old 8 pt.

Hmmm... that's interesting. I'm wondering if they won't establish semi-permanent residence due to being pushed out every Spring. In my opinion, if you could do a better off season nutrition with mineral spots etc, they would stay around better.

Aahhhh......so true!

Since it's been brought up someone define "stock piling bucks", and tell us why it can't be done.

Here is one quick article:

Click

But, there are plenty more available. I just did not have the time, nor compulsion, to do a big search, copy and paste.

I think I know where you are headed. Have the best food, cover, and least pressure and you will have the bucks?? Now, is that stock piling?? Works for me.

Am I that predictable?

I've seen a couple of definitions and though by those definitions, yes you can to some degree.

You can attract bucks and fill voids. But, you can let them ALL walk.....and not see an appreciable difference due to dispersal.

Interesting quote from the article

Don't buy it. Never say never. Until a large property reaches the saturation point, call it what you will, sounds like stock piling to me.

I've seen certain properties that were slammed with bucks, year to year. Not huge tracks either�500 acres or so. These properties had good cover (but no different than other property around) and about the same pressure as adjoining properties. I'm sure it had something different, but I couldn't see it. This would go against mature bucks wanting their elbow room. Not saying they don't but I don't think their desire for solitude is as strong as their desire to be on property with good cover, food and low pressure. Beyond that having the "right" property is all luck IMO. Some places have it and some just kind of have it and some don't have it, even with all the effort in the world.

So what I've gained from this thread...

1)You can have too many deer
2)You can't have too many deer
3)Bucks like solitude
4)Bucks like socializing
5)You can stockpile bucks
6)You can't stockpile bucks

And the most accurate statement of all...it's all about luck.

Trying to figure deer out is harder than trying to figure out women!

A deer's home range shrinks in size considerably as he gets older too. I know I don't run a camera per 100 acres on my place. I've thought lots of times that I'm missing deer.