RE: Who kept weight records of deer this year?
We have about 150 acres and are part of a 500 acre management area. We have kept records of all of our deer harvests over the last 4 years. All of them antlerless except 1 buck harvest this year. To date 25 antlerless deer between the ages of .5 to 3.5 that weighed between 48 pounds to 105 pounds (dressed weights). So this seems consistent with your weights (we are in PA). I did not notice any drop in weights this year. The only buck we have harvested was a 2 1/2 year old 10 point that weighed 130 pounds dressed once again, consistent with your data. We are trying to increase the number of 3.5 year old bucks. Sounds like you guys are pretty successful hunters but the number of bucks killed off a fairly small management area seems high. Overall we have only killed 4 bucks off of our 500 acre management area in the last 4 years. But we are looking for 3.5 year olds. If there are too many doe on your management area harvest as many as possible, you'll never kill too many, recruit help if needed. In the last 4 years on the overall area we have harvested well over 50 doe and only 4 bucks and have seen little impact on the doe population. Once again, Harvest as many doe as possible. Just my thoughts from someone who has done this for a while and lives to do it.