Your thoughts on too many does?

[JustUs4All]

Unless you are managing thousands of acres or are behind a high fence it is going to be very difficult to determine whether there is a harmful imbalance. In my opinion, if there is no high fence the population of bucks will spread itself out into areas where there is a buck shortage by natural dispersion. High fences would interfere with this process but not much else.

My preferance would be to keep the females. Every year we see many more does and fawns than bucks until the season gets under way. Every year we see bucks once the action gets started. I would like to personally thank my neighbors who feed the bucks when they are not chasing my does.

 

[Jim Boyd]

Most assuredly, you can have too many DEER.

Unless you are shooting every buck you see, it is going to be just that - too many deer.

I am sitting here having my coffee and about to get on the tractor. I can see a peanut field and a food plot, both of which are loaded with too many deer on a regular basis.

We can definitely stand to thin the herd. Put in a pea or bean patch and watch what happens to it. I am not talking about a hidden 1/4 acre... I am talking 3 acre plots.

 

[JustUs4All]

Too many deer will show pretty quickly as a browse line in the trees and brush.

 

[Nicodemus]

Too many deer will show pretty quickly as a browse line in the trees and brush.

Yep. It`ll be obvious when you have too many. You won`t need to ask.

 

[Deernut3]

I wouldn't judge the heard based on what you see from a stand while hunting over food sources. Not to say your not overpopulated but that bucks,especially those over 2 1/2 yrs. old are the least visible part of the deer herd.

 

[sleepr71]

I’d say unless you are hunting inside a HIGH fence property..then NO! If they start running out of food/having to compete for browse..then they are going to disperse on their own. I’ve always looked at having a big group of Does around as a good thing. Leave them Alone,keep them fed & safe...and the Bucks will come..?

 

[Mark K]

When I can sit in a stand watching natural browse and my son in a stand a good 400 yards away and we’re texting back and forth about the deer we are seeing and I’m at 37 and he quit counting at 30 and guesses 40+...and only 5 scrubs seen between the two of us...then we have too many does. And I’m fairly confident we aren’t seeing the same deer seeing how a creek is between us and we’re seeing deer at the same time.
Now, you can still have too many deer without a browse line. If you have a browse line, then you are severely overpopulated. We aren’t overpopulated, we are unbalanced.
Rarely do we see big bucks chasing, only the younger bucks. I still believe big bucks don’t have to move when you have too many does.
When I first started hunting here I was in awe at the number of deer. We have big bucks, they just don’t move much, they don’t have to. After a year or two I inquired about taking does...it was take a couple. I tried saying maybe we need to take several...dozen! The manager wasn’t hearing of it. Well that sorta ended last year when the manager was trying to get his son a buck and saw up to 40+ deer on one sit and only 5 were to small of bucks to shoot.
He asked my son and I what we thought and my son mentioned how many they take at their place and the bucks they saw and killed. Think it finally hit home with him that it wouldn’t hurt to kill a few...dozen...does!

 

[ucfireman]

I think its funny how everyone thinks that less does equal big bucks. Or that more food equal big bucks.
Yes food is needed, but not killing young deer is the way to get big bucks.
I'm not a biologist and don't hunt every inch of the state. The areas I do hunt, food is not the problem. Killing 1.5 and 2.5 and even 3.5 is why you don't see bigger bucks.
Seems the whole buck/doe ratio is for a more intense rut.
Me personally I would rather see deer, does or bucks and hope to shoot a big deer but kill what I need, than sit all day and not see anything and still hoping to kill a big buck.

 

[phillips david 123]

If your goal is to see more quality bucks then get your ratio as close to 1 to 1 as you can. If this means killing more does then do it. Quality bucks will pass on quality genes.

 

[Deernut3]

When I can sit in a stand watching natural browse and my son in a stand a good 400 yards away and we’re texting back and forth about the deer we are seeing and I’m at 37 and he quit counting at 30 and guesses 40+...and only 5 scrubs seen between the two of us...then we have too many does. And I’m fairly confident we aren’t seeing the same deer seeing how a creek is between us and we’re seeing deer at the same time.

Sounds like you need to shoot a few does ! We did this several years back on my club but I think we shot a few too many. It took much longer than we thought for the deer population as a whole to re-bound. I think coyote predation and our doe harvest were the perfect combination to keep deer numbers down for about seven or eight years. It got me to thinking that it would be best to harvest the younger does as the old doe are wily enough to raise their young without as much loss to coyotes.

 

[Mark K]

We have an extensive trapping program. Major predators are kept at bay.
As far as your statement about harvesting younger does, yes I agree. I’ve always heard to leave the matriarchs. They are the ones that keep the herd in line and together.

 

[bfriendly]

We have an extensive trapping program. Major predators are kept at bay.
As far as your statement about harvesting younger does, yes I agree. I’ve always heard to leave the matriarchs. They are the ones that keep the herd in line and together.

Uncle Ted says so??

 

[Milkman]

Too many deer will show pretty quickly as a browse line in the trees and brush.

Yep. It`ll be obvious when you have too many. You won`t need to ask.

You boys musta read post #2.

 

[JustUs4All]

Yessir, and found it worth repeating.

 

[rattlesnake1]

when you have too many Does , you make lots of sausage !

 

[rugerfan]

Wish I could see a few of them deer y’all talking about ?

Me too!

 

[elfiii]

Does are sacred on my place because they are few and far between. My buck population has increased dramatically. Call it what you want. I call it the good times are back.

 

[JB0704]

I don’t understand the whole idea of killing does to get bucks moving........those bucks have legs. They ain’t confined to one piece of dirt. Next door might have plenty of does for ur bucks to find. And they gonna find em.

 

[pch308]

I always shoot at least a 6 point, just sometimes they are 2 up and 4 down!

 

[Mark K]

Does are sacred on my place because they are few and far between. My buck population has increased dramatically. Call it what you want. I call it the good times are back.

So less does equals more bucks? At least that’s what I understand from your post.