ORIGINAL: JagMagMan
My whole point in the Louisiana deer study, is while antler restrictions help, taking more does will benefit deer quality even more! As I said, many leases don't even take the number of does allowed, so the buck/doe ratio stays bad!
To a point, I can see PK's frustration with public land! There are virtually no doe permits for public land. There should be some type of lottery system for public land doe permits! There may even be one already, but the general public doesn't see many public land doe permits!
As far as private land goes, its a supply, and demand situation! Unfortunately, many of us will be out bid for better lands! If I were a land owner, I'd want to be paid accordingly too!
However, I've been on many cheaper hunting clubs, that have plenty of deer. So the opportunity is there! Just many of the managers, think they are helping the deer by protecting the does, and they won't even let you have the minimum allowed by the state! Which again, in many places the legal doe limit is STILL TOO LOW!
Bottom line, take them does IF you can!
Frank,
I think you are absolutely right about the does. It is a common thing on many of the leases around here to have old guys who have a big say-so in the 'Lease Rules' and limit the number of does that can be shot. They make their own rules outside of even the states rules, and deep down some of these old guys lived through the years where I think they really thought it was a sin to shoot a doe. What is funny about those old guys is that I don't ever see them kill many of thedeer they are talking about producing.
I don't think that the problem here is a lack of big (antlered)bucks.
Frank, you know this country in East Texas. I have always said that the big older bucks are here, it is just easier for them to hide because of the thick piney thickets we have.When you do finally catch up to one of them theyremind me of dark antlered ghost. They are like the'old men of the forest.'What better way to get these big guys out of the thickets and on the move than to reduce the number of estrous does inhisarea.
C. Davis