We aren't killing to many deer. What we aren't doing is killing enough bucks. Since I basically have 2 square miles, I can "carry" 60 to 120 deer on my lease, based upon the last denisity data for Shelby County I have found. We have killed 7 deer this year. That's not to many. Only one was a mature buck. My son killed a 2 year old 8pt while I was with him. I haven't even seen a rack buck this year, except the one my son shot. All my camera's show more bucks than doe's. I have 7 or 8 out, what are the chances that I managed to hang 8 camera's in various places on the property, and ALL of them are in buck rich area's, not doe rich area's.
The problem is the buck to doe ratio is way off. The only way I can keep my population where it is right now is to kill an equal number of bucks and doe's. We have killed 4 doe's, 2 bucks and a button head. Last year we killed I believe 6 doe's and 3 bucks. All I know of the prior year was 3 doe's and 2 bucks.
Since the limits have been heavily skewed towards doe killing and heck even the biologist I had come out suggested we kill 15 doe's, its creating a system where I am "carrying" more bucks per sq mile than doe's. I don't need 30 bucks to breed 30 doe's. And we don't see bigger bucks chasing doe's. Why? Well I would say because we have to many bucks.
And based upon the useage of my green fields, I am not on the high side of the denisity curve. So for me the solution is a couple years of very limited doe harvest, and way more buck harvesting, even immature bucks, to bring the ratio back into one that is better suited for deer movement. Then deal with the doe situation differently.
The only doe's that were killed on a green field this year were killed by kids. Most of the guys have let them slide. So I am part of the way there. But your average hunter in a club doesn't even own a climber. The come out and sit in shooting houses or ladder stands. The main climber hunter in my club is me.
And I can't hunt the pine thickets. I can hunt the edges, but there are trails coming out of them everywhere. I would need 50 camera's to monitor those.
I have everything I can plant planted pretty much. I can carry way more deer than I have, based upon my utilization and lack of a browse line. I just do not see a way to fix it except to not shoot any doe's for a while, or kill off some of the immature bucks until I have a larger resident doe population. It probably needs to be both.
That’s the first time I’ve ever heard someone say we aren’t killing enough bucks. Like has been said and like I’ve said in another thread. You have too many hunters on that property. 7 would prolly be the max I would have on that property and it’s gonna have to be 7 guys who are willing to let deer walk for about 3 years in order to get more does. You said you have way more bucks than does but yet you don’t see big ones chasing during the rut? That’s totally backwards.you should have bucks fighting each other every day to breed the few does you have. When we took over the lease I have now there were too many members and they didn’t cull much. After 4 years of trying to manage for 3.5 or better we are starting to see some real differences. Main thing we did was reduce members and bring in guys who are all on the same page. Now we plant well and do what we need to do in order to be able to have more deer per acre than what we used to have. But never once did I think we had too many bucks and needed to kill em. You need to spend a few years killing nothing and then see where you are. The area you are in has always been hunted hard and they’ve always killed whatever and however many they wanted. In my opinion that area isn’t worth the time and money you put in it unless you are gonna reduce your membership by 2/3 and stop killing deer for a while.
