Hey guys I have 135 acres of bottoms and a few ridges,I keep this strictly for bow hunting. It stays either in corn or soybeans. I never gun hunt it and I,m usually the only hunter except a buddy once in awhile. My question is this, this year I saw no bucks on the place, tons of does. I never kill does because I'm the only one in the house that eats deer meat, so I don't need the meat. More than once I had 8 to 10 does under me for long periods of time. The area around me gets a lot of rifle pressure.
Are they killing my bucks or do I need to start thinnig my doe crop for management?
I've had this area for ten years and killed bucks on it before. I keep the trespassers off during gun season...what's up?