ORIGINAL: IL-Cornfed
ORIGINAL: Cougars09
There were 45 deer in about a 1 acre field. I realize the bucks will hang back in the woods but I know theres not that many. Out of the 45 deer 3 were bucks.
WOW.... that's a TON of deer!!! [:-]
I couldn't imagine how stressful it would be to try to have any foodplots in that region ?!? The areas I hunt seem to be managed pretty well concerning overall deer populations and Buck to Doe ratios. In fact, IL is such a great QDM state because of UNLIMITED Doe tags and hunters that WILL do their best to tag several every season.
Last year I probably seen deer over the course of the entire season (Oct 1 to Jan 11) at nearly a 1:1 ratio. Of course when you have days in Nov where you may see only a Doe or two but then something like 6 pr 7 small bucks, it manipultaes the sighting ratio considerably. That being said, I don't think any property I have hunted in the past 20 years ever seemed to have much worse than a 1:3 ratio.
I know one thing, IF deer ratios and populations were like that on any tracts I hunted..... everyone I know would have all the venison they could handle!
Shooting Does is just such a fun way to test tackle and to prepare for that shot of a lifetime!
I kid you not 45 deer in a 1 acre field, maybe 2 at most. I saw it and it reminded me of cattle, no joke. We ended up seeing like 60 deer total in about 2miles of road. Then we saw 6 behind the house.
We really need to have some more doe tags. I know if we would put about 2 weeks in rifle season to kill does. Say, 2 to 3 for the week, I have no doubt in my mind that hunters would kill them. Tennessee's seasons and such are a little silly. We can kill 3 deer per year and in my unit we can only kill 2 bucks. Antlered bucks that is, which an antlered buck is a buck with atleast 3" on one side here. I honestly think that should be changed to atleast 3pts to a side. Other parts of Tennessee you can kill up to like 3 does per day, that is a little bit better. I just think they need to reconstruct the seasons a little. The only opportunities given to take does are all thru bow season, juvenile hunts, and a week in muzzleloader.
