Too many does?

[Chainsaw]

All that said, on fragmented properties I wouldn't worry about ratios. Id take whatever does I wanted for food. I'd create attractive habitat to support a population that made me happy.I would be very sensitive to the amount of pressure the deer experienced. And I would do everything I could to encourage everyone around to allow bucks to age. I'd realize that I am not managing a deer herd, I am managing a small piece of habitat that is a part of a much bigger picture and I would do everything within my means to have fun and make it attractive to as many critters as possible.

Your quote above is excellent advice that sure fits this area. The deer numbers in this area are very,very inconsistent from one property to another. This becomes even more evident as the frosts come and kill the annual weeds, as the agricultural corn and beans are harvested and as the hunting pressure applied to some properties drives the deer to less disturbed properties. If each landowner takes a doe or two for food the population stays contained; allowing the bucks to age on our property is easy for us as we have lot's of opportunities. The guys with poor habitat and/or those that put heavy pressure on their property are tough to convince regarding letting bucks grow, not impossible maybe but darned near it. Still we try and see some changes here and there.

And here we must be realistic and should be very excited to have quite a few deer in the 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 range with one or two deer in the area surpassing that. It is as good as we can do with the property sizes, hunter population and extra long firearms season. We constantly strive to make this property the best place for a deer to live in this area and it has been well worth the effort.

 

[SwampCat]

I think too, you have to be realistic. Most of our bucks peak at 4.5. They will gain some mass at 5.5, but often start losing points. This is not true of the rare freak - but is true of the average deer. If you pass that 120”, 4.5 yr old 8 pt, if he makes it to next year, he will be a 120”, 5.5 yr old. We dont shoot does on our property because our deer herd has declined and the neighbors see to it that plenty of does are killed. Your reference to the difference in properties - I know a guy in a commercial forest land pine thicket lease 100 miles from me. My ground is bottom land hardwood and NWSG - theoretically much better habitat than his pine thicket. They hunt 600 acres and kill 30 to 40 deer per year - and have for years. We kill two deer per year on my 300 acres and still the population remains static. Yes - know your land and dont base your judgement on what your buddy does on his land ten miles away.

 

[Drycreek]

All that said, on fragmented properties I wouldn't worry about ratios. Id take whatever does I wanted for food. I'd create attractive habitat to support a population that made me happy.I would be very sensitive to the amount of pressure the deer experienced. And I would do everything I could to encourage everyone around to allow bucks to age. I'd realize that I am not managing a deer herd, I am managing a small piece of habitat that is a part of a much bigger picture and I would do everything within my means to have fun and make it attractive to as many critters as possible.

I have learned that it is extremely hard to hunt mature bucks if there are none around cause the neighbors are shooting them when they are 2 or 3 or even 4 when they are most vulnerable and moving around a lot to establish a spot for themselves.

I especially agree with this. My place at home is 87 acres. Most any deer we see is shared by the neighbors, one of which is ....well, less than desirable. My other place is 217 acres, and I'm still sharing deer with several neighbors. On the home place, we take one or two deer a year, never more. My son hunts this place much more than I do. On my bigger place, four deer is the limit, two does, two bucks, and some years, one buck. I feel this is what the traffic will bear. I have the only food plots, summer and fall, for miles around according to Google Earth. Thus, I see lots of bucks in the summer, but few in the fall, and mostly, not the same ones. That's ok, I've given up trying to "pattern" bucks on that small a place. I get the "cruisers" coming through during the rut and you never know what will show up. That's alright too, I like good surprises !

I set the bar for my buddy at 3.5 years on bucks and 4.5 on myself. He couldn't care less about score and I couldn't either, but I don't want to kill bucks just because they meet AR. This is what I feel is realistic on my places.

I also hunt another place that has plenty of nice bucks in the 3.5/4.5 age classes and some bucks older than that. I've hunted there for three years now and I haven't killed a buck yet, but this place manages for minimum 5.5 year old bucks, and I just haven't seen one in front of me that I can say for sure is 5.5. Seen some really nice bucks in the gray light of dawn, but I won't pull the trigger until I can see them well enough to try and judge their age. Maybe this will be the year !