Boy Dan, I don' t know. 15 feet of snow?

As others have said, shooting does may not be the answer in your particular situation. 99% of the time, doe harvest is a major management issue, but you are in a unique situation up there. You could actually do more damage than good depending on the condition of the deeryards and severity of the winter.

It sounds like you have a comparable situation to some areas in the UP. " High-snowfall" is considered to be anything greater than ~ 13 feet there. Because of the severe winters (lake-effect snows) and depleted winter range in some areas, increasing doe harvest is not recommended in those particular areas. Increasing the harvest of anlerless deer would not reduce browsing pressure enough to allow winter habitat (deer yards) to recover and improve the overall health of the herd. What is confusing about your situation is that areas of high natural mortality and light hunting pressure (like the UP) normally have more balanced buck:doe ratios to begin with. ???

Again, it is very difficult to understand what kind of a situation you are dealing with up there. Are the deer using your land for yarding? Can you improve the wintering habitat on your land through forestry techniques? Is there a local biologist you can talk to that would understand what you want to do?


S.Texas - By SCC, do you mean optimum sustained yield (OSY - 60% to 70% of K)?