why more doe than buck

[RustyRedneck]

I was wondering why i lay out salt blocks and deer lick all summer long till deer hunting season and why i got decent bucks but have more doe than buck for some reason?Every 5 deer i see 4 out of 5 is a buck.

[Tree climber]

Every 5 deer i see 4 out of 5 is a buck

I am assumeing you mean 1 buck to 4 does.
I see the same thing,of course if you only take bucks out of the heard,if the heard is only 100 deer and in a season you take 1/4 of the bucks after a while the buck population is thinner.
you may need to take a few does to level out your heard.
I know there are some folks that doesn' t believe in taking does.if the heard is small and there are fewer bucks I say leave the does alone for a while.
some places it is not good to take does,and othere are over run with does.
it depends on the area.
I have one place we take 4 or 5 does a year and still see 20 a day and one buck.another place you may only see 2 deer a day.

[Jimmy S]

I think one of the main reasons is because deer live in a maturnal society. Does are kept with the mother and that is why when you see a number of deer, it will be mostly does. They are family members from past generations and all will
follow the oldest mature doe. Bucks on the other hand are loners but will gather in bachelor groups before the onset of the rut.

[Buckbuster4ou]

It sounds like you have the same problem as many others. The buck to doe ratio
is out of proportion. This is usually due to hunters havesting to many bucks and not enough does, leaving a herd imbalance. Many of the older hunters have a hard time taking does because of the way the hunting regs use to be set up. Buck only harvests. It is hard to teach some of us old dogs new tricks.

In my state the wildlife department is trying to get a better herd balance by giving very liberal doe harvest laws. We even have a couple of 3 day weekends for special hunts for does only.

If you want to see more bucks, take does to fill your tags and your freezer and give the buck herd in your area a chance to grow.

[mrfishy34]

we had the same problem. alot of does and small bucks. well my family members havent been able to get buck tags the last 3 yrs so they have taken does. well last yr we saw alot of big bucks. i think our ratio is good now. probley 1 outa 2 is a buck or maybe 1 outa 3 is a buck somthin like that. just dont take bucks for a yr or 2 and just take does

[JagMagMan]

In our area we have the age old problem of people thinking that by NOT taking does, they are doing the herd a favor! I call it the " cattle ranch mentality," twenty cows to one bull!
In a natural deer herd, there would be more does than bucks, and when it is compounded by hunters taking only bucks, the situation only gets worse!
Add in the fact that bucks are more wary than does, it adds up to seeing way more does than bucks.

[cball]

What some of you guys have sounds good.The big farm we hunt has probably 15 does to 1 buck.Its a 1100 ac. farm and borders another 800 ac farm,both owners don' t want does killed.We tried talking to them ,to no avail.Theres 10 of us allowed to hunt this 1100 ac and we killed 14 bucks ,bow and gun..A couple times we saw 60 deer in one big 200acre field and couldnt see one set of horns..

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