Originally Posted by wk2hnt
You guys better lay off lockjaw because when I tried to give him the same advice on the 1.5 million my a$$ thread he called me a dick and questioned whether I had any experience on managing property. I’ve still not heard a from him after I responded with my qualifications and invited him to come see my qualifications at my house or land. I know the land he has very well and as has been stated numerous times it’s been hammered since I know the early 80s. Lockjaw you are obviously passionate about deer but I still think you need better land to do it on and killing young bucks won’t accomplish anything. You would be a good asset to a nice club somewhere for sure.


Only if he is willing to listen and learn. I think his heart is in the right place, but he doesnt have a clue about basic deer biology and deer management techniques to achieve a certain goal. Honestly, I'm not sure he has a specific goal for the place. Lockjaw, if you really want to see what is on your property, what your buck to doe ratio is and what your buck age structure is. Run a real camera survey on it and quit just guessing. All this "I should have somewhere between 30 and 60 deer per sq mile and this doe should have at least one or two fawns that survive" is complete BS from a management perspective. Those are basic generalities across the whitetails SE range and while it represents the general average across multiple states in the SE, that's just something you read somewhere, and it might or might not be applicable to your property. Every property is different. Location, neighbors, hunting pressure, property history, available food, cover, diversity, bedding, water, past harvest history, all play a part. Like I said, quit guessing and run a true camera survey. Remove all bait or feed from your property for two weeks. Grid your 1100 acre property off into eleven 100 acre blocks. Use a map to make sure your get even spacing (dont just put the bait piles where it is convenient for you to get to) and place a camera and a bait pile in the middle of each block so that the bait piles are as evenly spaced out as possible. Pre-bait for two weeks to get the animals used to the site and then turn the cameras on and run the cameras for two weeks. You should get pics of 80-90% of the deer using your property on a regular basis. You'll be able to identify the bucks by age to determine your buck age structure and you can identify your does and yearlings and somewhat determine what your real fawn recruitment is. Total up the bucks, does, yearling bucks and yearling does and you'll know what your real ratio is. Identify different deer if you can because they can and will hit multiple bait sites over the two week period. Now is the best time to this before the spring green up when there is not much food in the woods. If you do a real camera survey, I think you'll be shocked at what your density, ratio and age structure really is.

And yes Ronfromramer, Lockjaw could very well be whild bill off on a tangent messing with us.