I was falling asleep as I read the article, so pardon me if I cross this up... but the latest issue of Quality Whitetails I read noted something about having too many young bucks in the area and not enough older deer. I don't remember all the specifics. But here is my connect the dot armchair biologist logical shot at it:
Back in the day Schultzy, you had a lot more hunting pressure, and probably like everyone else, back then before the renisscance of QDM, small bucks probably got shot like everything else. We all know the dumbest deer in the woods is a yearling buck.... so I'm sure a fair number of fork horns, spikes and basket 8s got chopped out of that place every year. That left the big boys, who were/are much smarter, to have free run of the place, and rub and scrape and carry on. Now, with more and more does being shot, and small bucks being passed up, you might be having an influx of young bucks.... there will always be more fawns and yearlings than mature deer just due to hunting and natural deaths, or at least a decent split. So maybe you've got a teenage gang running things in your woods this season? Just a thought?
Very Interesting stuff here! To be honest I didn't think having too many young bucks Is a bad thing. Another thing too I have one neighbor that practices the same management plans my brother and I do- Let the young bucks go and hold out for the 3.5's and up. This same neighbor will also shoot doe's just as we do. We both try to shoot the older looking doe's that are without fawns or the older big doe's that only have a single fawn. The rest of the neighboring land owners/hunters It's brown It's down kinda thing.
Can a woods have too many small bucks? An over abundance of them?
Thought number 2:
The woods can change a lot in 15 years.... maybe there isn't quite as much cover or browse as there once was... all deer do need one thing... food.... and the carrying capacity will be what it will be and no more. It could be a very very subtle change that has less to do with hunting pressure, and more as a reflection of natural vegetation/agricultural cycles.
About 15 years ago my dad had this woods slightly logged out so the under growth could get growing. The woods now Is much thicker then It once was.
You had some very good opinions Andy, thanks for the Info.