Have any of you seen and studies done in the southeast on this subject. I have read some done in Texas that say 10%-20% a year. What is your own opinion on what percentage of bucks die each from something other than a hunter. Let's say you had a piece of unhunted property that had 100 1 year old bucks on it how many of them would make it to 2 Then how many of those would make it to 3 and then to 4 and then to 5. At 15% you would end up with only about 1/2 of those 100 bucks making it to 5 years old. Here is the conclusion to a study done in TX.

WHAT DOES THIS ENTIRE RESEARCH MEAN?
First, managing for mature, trophy bucks is not very efficient because many bucks will die each year of natural causes. To illustrate this, let’s start with a population of 100 six-month-old buck fawns. Our buck mortality research indicates that an average of 46 percent of buck fawns will die of natural causes from December-May, reducing the buck population to only 54 1.5-year-old bucks. Our data shows that an average of 37 percent of 1.5-year-old bucks will die of natural causes so, after the second year the buck population has decreased to only 34 2.5-year-old bucks. Our research indicates that an average of 7 percent of 2.5-year-old bucks die each year, knocking the population down to 32 3.5-year-old bucks. We found that 20 percent of 3.5-year-old bucks die of natural causes, so we are now left with 26 4.5-year-old bucks. Natural mortality in 4.5-year-old bucks is the lowest of any age class (1 percent) and all 26 bucks survive to 5.5-years-old. Of the 26 5.5-year-old bucks, 6 percent will die before reaching 6.5-years-old. Therefore, only 24 bucks, out of the original 100-buck fawns, will survive to 6.5-years-old, the age at which antler growth peaks. This shockingly high rate of natural mortality means that without any hunting at all, 76 of 100 buck fawns will die before 6.5-years-old! Ranch owners, managers, and hunters interested in managing for mature, trophy bucks need to realize that in south Texas the majority of bucks will die of natural causes before reaching maturity.