Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Question on shooting does???

So here’s a question for y’all……Lets say we have the scenario below where we have a 2,000 acre hunting club surrounded by a bunch of smaller parcels as well as a farmer with a depredation permit……The hunting club doesn’t shoot a single doe off of their place……meanwhile the famer and the surrounding small properties blast away and “fill the freezer” with does……Will the hunting club become overpopulated??

No, because the 2000 acre club can't shoot and uses tracking dogs. This runs most of the deer off the 2000 acre club and keeps the population in check. Bahahahahahaha, I kill me...

Man. The wheels are always turning ain’t they?!😂

That club is sh*t out of luck

Depends on how much pressure is on the club. If a doe gets popped every time one walks out into the farm land, of course they will stay on the 2000 acres. Especially if this is happening when no one is on the club property like during the summer.

Will they be over populated? That depends on what you consider overpopulated.

I know if 3-4 guys were hunting that 2000 acres, and they did it right to keep pressure to a minimum, the deer would thrive there if they went about it right. But if you pile 10 people on it, and they are there every weekend riding 4 wheelers all over the place… yeah it’s going to struggle.

Is that what farmer’s report happening??……They just quit coming onto their farms after they shoot a few???

It’s like I said in the other thread……Most people who blast does and get away with it are able to do so because someone else isn’t…….What happens in this scenario if the 2000 acre club decides they need to start shooting does??.......You cant manage inside of your own box without considering what’s going on around you. I mean you can but its just being naïve about the reason for the results you see.

If that club knows how to make their place a sanctuary , with food and cover. And keep pressure LOW , LOW, LOW as in hunting very little till rut , they'll enjoy their season. But most have to worry about something they can't change ( neighbors) , rip and roar on SxS , putting out a bag of corn every few days in front of a camera. Stinking up the best stands before prime time.

And as far as your question will they become overpopulated , not on my 2000 acres .

Your "neighbors" shown do not touch the 2000 acre club all the way around the property line. What are those not shown doing?

I thought I smelled something burning. CNC is probably on fire.

You are describing 90% of all hunting clubs in Alabama. And we still have does.

Are you saying that deer will go where there is more pressure??? ?????? ??????????????????

That’s dumb CNC

Exactly…….and if we expand this idea out then the concept still remains the same for the 2000 acre club doesn’t it…….And if all the boxes surrounding the 2000 acre club increase their doe harvest killing rate by another 40%.....that would matter to the 2000 acre club wouldn’t it??

I could see two things happening 1) doe problem solved, neighbors handled it for you or 2) you have a bigger doe problem because they got tired of seeing their sisters get killed and now live on the 2000 acres who dont kill does

Could you elaborate on how much corn each property is putting out per month, I need to know this before I can answer. Also, what county is this? Which properties game check?

The reason we still have all these "does" in this scenario is simply that on the 2000 acre club they kill mostly 2.5 year old bucks and so does everyone around them.

What's left?

Does.

Increase doe harvest.....

What's left?

Fewer Deer for everyone.

That's the real scenario here.

Other issues... Club acres aren't a square box. Most are irregular shaped so this compounds the problem in that you are potentially touching even more small parcels AND also this means you have limited home range acres to "keep deer on your property"

That's not happening.

2,000 acres in a block is about 3 square miles. 2,000 acres not in a block means you can't keep the deer on your property. I have plenty of pictures of the same deer 2 and 3 miles apart as the crow flies. Especially during the rut.

Except it doesn’t happen that cut and dry…….Deer shift their patterns and shuffle around a little several times a year due to resource availability…..At the end of the day, food and having babies still factors in…..

For example, right now at the tail end of winter you have a lot does heavily concentrated on the remaining food sources….you see a lot in food plots…..As soon as spring green up starts budding out though you’ll see that cease as those concentrations spread back out. All of those does grouped up on the 2,000 acre club greenfields will spread out in late Feb early March to take advantage of the new growth…..That’s when some of those empty holes around the 2000 acre club will get tenants moving back in. You’ll have another shift late summer and then concentrating up again the next winter and so on and so forth through time…..There’s a slight reshuffling and redistribution periodically going on across the bigger areas. That's how the farmer with the depredation permit just keeps getting more does moving back in.......The total doe killing rate for the whole map I drew matters more than any one square.

Why don’t you just tell what you want everyone to say that will make you happy so all this horse shucks can stop!! No one here has has said what you want to hear so let’s have it. Good Grief man!!!!

Wait, I think this was this question on the GMAT.

This ^^^^^…….Goatkiller gets it. Its also why you’re not going to jump into one of these boxes….especially the small ones….. and fix or change the buck to doe ratio…..These kinds of things are happening at a much bigger level and involve many more properties

This is what I see in most all hunting clubs. If its a Westervelt lease, then they are supposed to shoot 3.5 year old or older bucks. Most club members cannot judge a deer. Then to top it off, nearly all the bucks I saw this year were in the woods and moving, which gives you a very limited window to judge if the buck is a shooter or not. Most clubs put in a rule to help, which is 6pt or better. What that creates is the situation where probably 90% of the members will shoot a 6pt if they see one. It doesn't matter if its a beautiful 1.5 or 2 year old genetic freak that you want to leave a lone, they kill it. Why? Because if they don't, the next guy who sees it will, so in their mind, they need to kill it first.

The other issue is the doe a day rule. Like it not, that creates the mindset of there must be plenty if they will let me kill one a day, so I can kill as many as I see. I was in a club that had a rule that after December 31, you couldn't shoot a doe off a green field. Everyone said, well as soon as it steps off, I am shooting it.

You have to make it hard for people to kill all your deer if you want to grow big ones. The typical club member comes out, sits in a shooting house on a greenfield, and then doesn't see much. They don't really pay attention to the wind either. Then they don't see much. I saw a bunch of deer last season. I saw more bucks than I have ever seen in a season since I started hunting.