sean600classic

FH - I live and hunt in CNY also. Our experience has been to kill off as many does as our management schedule allows. The past 3 years it has been approx. 25 per year. It's a lot of work (and a lot of fun!!!). The logic is twofold. The first is to remove mature does that normally will kick yearling bucks off the 'homeland'. The second, and less discussed, is the fact that each deer will eat approx. 600-1000 pounds of forage per month. We obviously supplement with food plots, but sustaining an extra 25+/- mouths to feed equates to over 10 tons of food per month. Statistics show that deer normally spend 80-90% of their time in cover. While in the cover(not in food plots) they are browsing. Imagine how many tree buds, twigs, needles, etc... equals 600 pounds. That growth does not regenerate during our winter months resulting in overbrowsing the cover area, thus resulting in a migration to better pastures. We kill our does as soon as possible, preserving the forage for the remaining population. We never shoot yearling or young bucks and more than often pass on 2.5 year olds. We have held mature bucks on the property. Our preliminary scouting has already shown great promise for this season. Short of a complete enclosure, there is no way to hold all the bucks to a property. However, proper herd management, food, time and cover management can change the odds to a more favorable position.

Is it time to hunt yet?!!!!!