For those of you who keep a journal.....how do you document buck sightings....as it relates to fawns? To be honest.....if it has spots....I'm not checking it out real close (although I have....to see if I can discern their sex).

In last year's bow journal.....I didn't count the animal as a buck unless it had visible protrusions....or a rack. For the sake of documenting the herd dynamics for our wildlife biologist, though.....I think it's only fair that we consider 50% of all fawns as buck fawns.

I'm not trying to pad the buck numbers in my area....I'm trying to project a realistic number....so as to more accurately discuss herd dynamics with the man that's giving me management information.

I'll check with him today.....but I was just wondering what you guys do.

Thanks, in advance, for your response(s).

I document everything. I keep track of does, bucks, and fawns. To be considered a doe or a buck, it must be 1.5 years old regardless of headgear..........otherwise it falls into the fawn category. When counting fawns, I don't bother to record if they are button bucks or does.

Unless it hasa visible rack I consider it a female deer. I count button bucks as bucks, but the majority of younger deer that I see are does anyways, especially because the buck to do ratio is so outta whack in my area.

Matt:

How would you ever keep tabs on your buck:doe ratio, then?

Do you just discount all fawns and use the data you have on the 1.5 yr olds+? I can see this working "kind of". BUT.....you have to admit that the bucks are going to take a beating by hunters moreso than the does. If you're only counting yearling bucks/does.....YOUR ratio is going to reflect a much greater differential than what is the "true" ratio. Does that make sense?

That is exactly what we do. When we discussed everything with a biologist 3 years ago before the logging project, etc......these are the numbers our biologist was interested in. 1.5+ year old does as compared to 1.5 year old bucks. We have done the habitat improvements exactly as he recommended in terms of sanctuary, bedding, and food sources.........now we just have to get that ratio in check.

I have a unique situation Jeff. We have 130 acres, the neighbor has 250 acres and won't shoot a deer unless it is a a buck that is over 3.5 years old (he won't even shoot does), and the other neighbor who has roughly 100 acres gave me exclusive hunting rights. 99% of the bedding and food for this herd is in the middle (my property) of this large roughly 500 acre tract........so these deer see very little pressure by anyone that would ever shoot a buck less than 3.5 unless they wander a long ways away. We have averaged 2.5 does killed per year over the last 3 years, and only killed one buck in 3 years off the property. The one trophy hunter neighbor has killed 1 buck in that 3 years as well........but we are still killing a LOT more does than bucks. Hopefully this year we will kill enough does to get things balanced a bit more............I know of roughly 14x 1.5+ y/o does on the property, and about 8x 1.5+ y/o bucks on the property.

I'd like to kill maybe one buck off the place (if we are lucky) this year and 4-5 does.

Matt:

Thanks. That makes perfect sense. I'm going to amend my journal to show a separate column for fawns.

Most biologists discount all fawns from the equation..... You can assume 50/50 on fawns so there is no effect on the ratio.

Matt, sounds like you need some help shooting does!! My number is 573....

I don't know why you would ever leave MO/IL to come huntour dinks in PA...........lol..........but you have a permanent invitation if you ever end up in this neck of the woods.