Buck to doe ratio

[chadmyers]

I'm curious to know how many people have done camera surveys to come up with a buck:doe ratio and what your results were? I've done a few and I always come up with about 1 buck: 1.5 does. I thought something was wrong, but each year I'll keep a journal with what all I see from every hunt and every year it's very close to 50/50. I still find this hard to believe, but it's really what I've come up with for about 5 years now. This really makes for an amazing rut! Several times each rut I'll see 3-5 big bucks after one doe.
I have several other properties where there are way more does per bucks and the ruts aren't nearly as intense on these properties.
I'd love to hear other people's stories about this and how strong their ruts are?


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[MarkDarvin]

It's been a long time since I even thought about those ratios. Up here, there used to be all kinds of mis-applied theories and led to us shooting the hell out of our own herd. We then found ourselves in a pickle with no deer to count. It's been 12 years since I've seen hardly any sign of a rut. Bucks beyond yearling don't show themselves in daylight hours any time during the year. Fawns stay with does all the way through rut and into spring. It baffles me.

 

[Mennoniteman]

It's been a long time since I even thought about those ratios. Up here, there used to be all kinds of mis-applied theories and led to us shooting the hell out of our own herd. We then found ourselves in a pickle with no deer to count. It's been 12 years since I've seen hardly any sign of a rut. Bucks beyond yearling don't show themselves in daylight hours any time during the year. Fawns stay with does all the way through rut and into spring. It baffles me.

That doesn't give you much opportunity to tag a nice buck. How do you hunt for them? Drive them out?

 

[MarkDarvin]

Still working to monopolize the late season food. This year will be the first big test to see if it can alter deer movement. The other is to simply hunt smart, and get as deep as possible without blowing scent into suspected routes they may take towards me. After about a 9 year hiatus, I'm getting back into October archery. That might provide some opportunity before the orange invasion starts and sends the rut underground.

I'm in the acorn lull right now. My august cam pull was great (for deer, not bucks), first two weeks of September was very poor. They seem to come back around early October. I've watched the plots dominate deer attention for years in October, but I've never hunted it. Now I've got the plots, stands, and access routes all in place. I haven't been this excited about a setup in all my years hunting.

 

[OkieKubota]

Buck to doe on our place is about 1.5-1 with bucks being the 1.5...our game department has been on a doe killing spree fro the past 15 years and it has really taken a toll. Oklahoma used to be a great state to drive around and observe deer throughout the year...not the case any longer. We do have larger bucks now due to less competition for food but you might sit a long time before ever seeing a deer period.

 

[SwampCat]

I do camera surveys every year in September. My camera surveys at that time show anywhere from one buck to one doe down to one buck to .5 does. I have been doing the jacobsen method of camera surveys since 2011. September still sees bachelor groups hanging together - so I always have more bucks than normal. They typically break up end of September. I used to see much more rutting activity when we had higher doe numbers. I believe at a ratio of 1:1, the available does get bred quick and the bucks leave, looking for greener pastures with more does. Our rut is also very short because the does get bred quickly. There is now very little scraping activity also.

 

[Baker]

Keep in mind that early season camera surveys will always skew to bucks thus skew results to reflect a tighter ratio. Helps to also run the survey late winter but before antler drop.

 

[Drycreek]

My scenario is much the same. The bucks I see in August are not always the bucks we hunt. There are always some bucks showing up that I have no history with. The buck I killed last season was only on one camera for two days before he stepped out in front of me at almost dark. That's what happens when your nose takes over your brain !

Keep in mind that early season camera surveys will always skew to bucks thus skew results to reflect a tighter ratio. Helps to also run the survey late winter but before antler drop.

 

[OkieKubota]

We get 1-2 stranger bucks at the tail end of the rut but typically most of the bucks we see in August we see throughout the season unless they are killed off...interestingly enough though is our doe population is larger in November than it is in September...