Hardly any acorns last year
We’ve touched on this a little in past conversations but what is likely happening in Jackson Co is folks are wearing out the does on bad acorn years…..The last two rounds of bad years they’ve just worn them out another 30% harder than usual…..Now on this good year you cycled on, you have a few less deer with tons to eat and they spread out a little……Doe groups arent gonna stay heavily concentrated on any one piece of land for long when this pattern is occurring over the broader landscape around you…..Folks say let me manage my does as I please but yet the reality is that the group is managing them just as much as your individual decisions
'23 was a bumper acorn crop up here as well.
This is why it’s good to do things in 5 year increments. Trying a new food plots technique? Give it 5 years. Gonna not shoot any does? Do it for 5 years. Going to change harvest restrictions on bucks? Do it for 5 years. It tends to take the ups and downs out of it.
I'm not on board with not shooting any does for 5 years on population control on a large property. If you have huntable numbers of Whitetails , 5 years with no crowd control ........ can get pretty crowded. 5 years of harvest restrictions on bucks , what happens after 5 years , ya start mowing them down?
If something isn't working , I'm not waiting 5 years to change it.
