ORIGINAL: Rick James
ORIGINAL: HuntingBry
ORIGINAL: Rick James
ORIGINAL: kickin_buck
It is near impossible for one man with a limited amount of land to manage the buck-doe ratio. Where I do most of my hunting in Illinois, I have way more does than bucks. Sure I take almost every doe that walks past me, but I know doing so is only a very small drop in a very large bucket.
I respectfully disagree with this. I have journal entries from 2003-2007 on the 130 acre family property we have showing that it is possible. My best bud (Jawshooter) has the same thing on his property in NY with journal entries to back it up. Both of these properties 5-7 years ago were producing 1/4+ buck/doe ratios. Keep in mind, you have to pull fawns completely out of the equation. Now both of them are producing 1/1 or even slightly more bucks than does. It's possible, it's just a lot of work and discipline.
Matt, I'm not saying that the results you have seen and documented with your own experience aren't true, but even the QDMA says managing properties 250 acres and under is difficult to impossible without entering into a coop with neighboring landowners. Reason being the effects of outside properties bleed into the controls you are trying to apply because the property is so small. Do you have coops or at least neighbors that are following management practices as well? If so, that is great and I hope you guys continue to see the positive results. If not, maybe your results will inspire some of them to follow suit.
Bryan:
I'm familiar with what QDMA says, I've been a member since 2001. My property has one neighbor that isn't QDMA exactly, but he won't shoot bucks unless they 8+ pointers. He won't shoot does. The other neighbor has given Dan and I exclusive permission to bowhunt, but gets slammed during gun season.My other neighbors are a circus and often trespass on our patches as well, although I think we will fix that this year.
Dan's property is surrounded by public property and other neighbors that shoot everything that walks.
I do not think it will be an easy task to improve age structure of the bucks unless you have 500+ acres. You may see measurable results, but certainly not what you would have if you could control an entire 500+ acre patch. We have seen limited success with that so far, but nothing that I would say is measurable and can be contributed directly to our choice to not shoot. I hope this will change, if not I will continue to do the same thing only because I know I can't shoot a big buck if my tag is already full with a small one. I do however strongly believe that you can directly affect the buck/doe population by thinning the doe herd. For every doe you take, if you have good bedding/food resources available another deer seems to replace it within a year. I've seen this consistently. It's a 50/50 chance it will be a buck/doe. Keep shootingthe does at a higher rate than what your attracting to relocate to your patch, and it's simple math. It works, and what Dan and I have seen is measurable, and no........none of our neighbors have helped with this.
Matt, I figured with what you are doing you knew that about the QDMA, that was more for those that didn't.
It really sounds like an uphill battle you have, but I like the perspective you have on shooting does that you have a 50/50 chance of it being replaced by a buck. It's true that while that doe is alive and living in your area that you have zero chance of it being replaced by a buck. So you are giving yourselves a fighting chance in that regard. I just never thought of it like that. It's unfortunate that your efforts are not beingfollowed by your neighbors, but not all that surprising either.
Good luck in keeping the ball rolling with your management plan. It does sound like you are making progress, so I hope that you will see the fruits of your labors sooner rather than later.