GregH

I'll tell you why you should shoot does. If you start off in the perfect world with a 1:1 buck to doe ratio, over time, the ratio will deteriorate. You will end up having way too many does. This is because the mortality rate is greater for bucks than it is for does. Does disperse their buck fawns each spring. This leaves the buck fawns to head out to unfamilar territory in search of a new home ground. This can be dangerous because not knowing the land makes them easy prey for predators and greatly increases their chances of being killed on the roads. Also, older breeding bucks spread themselves thin during the rut. Sometimes they wear themselves down so much that they will not survive the winter. Worn down bucks are also easy prey for predators. They also travel into unfamiliar territory during the rut and become at risk the same as the dispersed yearlings. By just this, in itself, you can see why the does will start out numbering the bucks. Now throw hunting into the equation. Hunters by tradition have always sought out bucks way more than does. A lot of state regulations helped add to the problem by making it mandatory to hunt only bucks. Over time this leads to disaster. I've hunted in areas where there was a 1:20 buck to doe ratio. This is bad because EVERY buck is going to breed. Even the 1 1/2s, spikes, forks, every buck. There goes the "survival of the fittest". The gene pool becomes weak, you have gross overpopulation and the end result is an unhealthy deer herd.

I have an example of this. I hunted a place near my home since I was 12 years old. At first,I never saw any deer or even knew that they existed in this place. By the time I was 15, I started seeing tracks and finally spotted my first deer. When I was 25, I had a decent population of deer and started hunting them. At this time every 1 1/2 year old deer that I saw (buck), had a small 8 point rack. I even shot one that had 10 points as a 1 1/2. All of the 3 1/2s and some of the 2 1/2s would make P&Y. There were no spikes, forks or even any 6 pointers that I saw. This lasted for about 10 years.Thenthe land around there started being sold and developed. No one would let you hunt. They wanted to see all the deer. I was still able to hunt because my landowner was the last one to sell. I got about 5 more years there. Pretty soon, with changing weather patterns and abundant food supply, things began to change. I started seeing more and more does, 1 1/2s that had 4 and 6 points, then finally one day I was shocked.... I saw a SPIKE!!! What was going on? Well, like I said up top, more and more younger, inferior bucks began breeding, due to warmer winters, more and more doe fawns began breeding and before I knew it, the quality of the herd had drastically went down. I saw a 2 week old fawn on the opening of archery season (Sept. 23) Back track from there 210 days. That doe was bred in late Feb or early March. Usually the prime breeding bucks have lost their antlers and have become sterile by then. The breeding was most likly accomplished by a younger less desirable buck. Not a good situation.

I hope this makes sense to you so you can see the importance of doe harvests and its impact on the quality of the herd.

HRAOP

Killer_Primate

Once again, great post by GregH.
Thanks for the education!

GMMAT

GregH.....

Wow.

Thanks.

Jeff

Rob/PA Bowyer

And there ya have it. Not too many get to see that first hand, something that has happened to PA long ago and why PA needed straightend out and now it's happening and Greg explained it perfectly. It's something not too many think about. I know you don't need to hear it from me but Great Post GregH.

tsoc

You hit the nail on the head with this great post!

RTA47

Well for maby the first time i think i understand the importance of taking doe`s more than i did?Thanks for explaning things GregH.

bloodcrick

Thanks passthru for bringing up this post. it just got some really good info to surface on this forum. Greg that was an amazing explanation on buck doe ratios. passthru what state are you hunting in?
Dan

GregH

Thanks for the ARAPPAHO award, Rob. What the heck does that mean?

Rob/PA Bowyer

Honoray Rack Award for Outstanding Post!

It can only be given by a mod, non-mods and self imposed don't count.

GregH

Thanks again, Rob.