I realized something tonight...
 

I realized tonight just how bad the buck to doe ratio can be. I went out driving tonight to some known deer hotspots. Overall I saw 66 deer and 6 bucks. Around my hunting area it's probably about 3-4:1 which isn't ALL that bad but to the spot I went it was HORRIBLE. No one hunts this area either. It's a big agricultural area. I stopped at a corn field and got out and I swear it was like herds of cows. There were 45 deer in about a 1 acre field. I realize the bucks will hang back in the woods but I know theres not that many. Out of the 45 deer 3 were bucks. Just thought that was pretty bad. What is the approx buck to doe ratio in your area.

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

1-1 im not joking, its because there arent anywhere near 60 deer behind my house where i hunt

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

They weren't behind my house but within about 8miles

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

the buck to doe ratio in my area was pretty pathetic. id honestly say it was near 20 antlerless to 1 antlered deer when i started hunting in the late 90s.

since then we underwent major herd reduction and antler restrictions...i want to say 2002...

the area i do alot of my hunting is special regs...you can rifle hunt for does for 5 weeks. plus all the other seasons. the herd is definently thinned out. we dont see half of what we used to see...BUT...one thing ive noticed is i atleast see antlered bucks now. now id say its somewhere around 4-6 antlerless to 1 antlered...not tooooo bad...now for all them sub-legal bucks to become legal....for some reason the antler restrictions just dont seem to be doing a whole lot in my area...weve always had the nice ones that somehow make it...and weve always had the younguns..just not as many...something is wrong...we should be seeing lots of decint 2.5yo shooters..my guess is illegal taking of sub-legal bucks, jrs and others allowed to take sub-legals and hunters taking bucks in the late season with rifles, bows and flintlocks after they shed their antlers...

been neat to watch it all unfold...before in PA it was HARD to get an antlerless tag...im pretty sure that if you took a buck you couldnt even use your antlerless tag...so although we see less deer im atleast glad we see more antlered deer...wishful thinking keeps me looking forward to each season to see what made it....hopefully this year theres a couple more shooters...

please oh please guys dont turn this into a PA debate/arguement...im just stating what ive noticed in my area that ive been hunting hard for near 10yrs now...

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

not a close ratio in my area either, but we are working on it!!

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

I am not really certain what the ratio is here, but during the winter we had about a herd of 20 that would hang out in our yard and sometimes even come up to the backporch to eat birdseed:)But out of those 20 about 3 or 4 of them were bucks.

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

Not sure of the ratio but I wish the hunters around here would start filling their tags with does for atleast 2 seasons I think it would be a great help. To many horn hunters around here.

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

our ratio is bad, so I shoot every antlerles that walks by.

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

well what really needs to happen in this area I'm talking about is either:


A: The residents need to let people hunt. This is big wide open agricultural land. I may go take pictures tonight so everyone gets an idea.

B: The farmers need to get kill permits. No joke the 1 acre corn patch COULD be mowed down by a herd of the 45 deer I saw in a matter of days. So you would think the farmers would be getting sick of it. There is no doubt in my mind that the farmers could get kill permits because of the deer ruining their crops.



The overall health of the herd isn't good at all, you know there is some serious inbreeding going on due to the lack of bucks. There is also no way the carying campicity of the land is anywhere near the amount of deer there is. I would honestly be surprised to see a MATURE deer there dress over 140lbs. Considering the 2yr old I killed last year dressed right at 135. Just my thoughts

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

WOW.... that's a TON of deer!!! [:-]

I couldn't imagine how stressful it would be to try to have any foodplots in that region ?!? The areas I hunt seem to be managed pretty well concerning overall deer populations and Buck to Doe ratios. In fact, IL is such a great QDM state because of UNLIMITED Doe tags and hunters that WILL do their best to tag several every season.

Last year I probably seen deer over the course of the entire season (Oct 1 to Jan 11) at nearly a 1:1 ratio. Of course when you have days in Nov where you may see only a Doe or two but then something like 6 pr 7 small bucks, it manipultaes the sighting ratio considerably. That being said, I don't think any property I have hunted in the past 20 years ever seemed to have much worse than a 1:3 ratio.

I know one thing, IF deer ratios and populations were like that on any tracts I hunted..... everyone I know would have all the venison they could handle! ;):DShooting Does is just such a fun way to test tackle and to prepare for that shot of a lifetime! :)

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

I kid you not 45 deer in a 1 acre field, maybe 2 at most. I saw it and it reminded me of cattle, no joke. We ended up seeing like 60 deer total in about 2miles of road. Then we saw 6 behind the house.



We really need to have some more doe tags. I know if we would put about 2 weeks in rifle season to kill does. Say, 2 to 3 for the week, I have no doubt in my mind that hunters would kill them. Tennessee's seasons and such are a little silly. We can kill 3 deer per year and in my unit we can only kill 2 bucks. Antlered bucks that is, which an antlered buck is a buck with atleast 3" on one side here. I honestly think that should be changed to atleast 3pts to a side. Other parts of Tennessee you can kill up to like 3 does per day, that is a little bit better. I just think they need to reconstruct the seasons a little. The only opportunities given to take does are all thru bow season, juvenile hunts, and a week in muzzleloader.

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

Well, if it is any indication, there are unlimited doe tags down in the south east Pa.(Unit 5C)where I hunt.Guys will be buying like 10 at a time. I usually get 4, as does my buddy. The ratio around here just sucks ( excuse my french) It has to be about 8-10:1

Shane

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

What you see isn't always what you get. May have been some bucks hangin back. I have some fields that I check out inside city limits where I've seen 40+ deer in at once. No lie........ 21 bucks and approx 19-20 does and fawns, thats just what was there at the time. Most of the time when I go I see lots of does and few bucks. Just got lucky on that one pass. Some funny lookin bucks too, I saw one buck who's mainbeam didn't curl in at all, 4x4 and his g2 and g3 couldn't have been any more than 3-4 inches but lots of mass. There's even one buck in that area that would go 180's........ I've only ever seen him 2x. I didn't see him at all last yr and thought he may have been hit by a car........ talked to the CO's (its close to their prov head office) and one of them had seen him that yr....... he's still alive. Too bad I can't hunt him, nobody can until they open an urban season

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

Cougars09,

I'm heading down there this season and I'm bringing the T/C Encore Pro Hunter with me! I'm willing to step up and help ya out brother! ;):D

RE: I realized something tonight...
 

Last year when I sat in a main funnel in the area that I hunt. I had 25 deer walk through and there were probably no more than 4 that were wearing head gear and only one had an impressive rack.