GMMAT

NOw why in the world would the mortality rate be skewed so high towards buck fawns? If you want to arrive at an outcome that shows you have an extremely outrageous buck:doe ratio.....you can cook the books any way you want to get there. Whether your method holds any water is another thing.

NY/Al

Yes.

WICON42

IMAO - All game departments and biologists feel that killing does is a requirement to sound management to the point that you could say it's a consensus. Once you reach a consensus , it's no longer science but what if "they" were wrong about thier management tactics? whenever I see a consences on ANYTHING (global warming for example)I start to get skeptical of why "they" are trying to convince hunters of what "they want". Most everyone has drank thier kool aid without questions but if you think "they" have the answers to perfect wildlife management...well.... have another sip of the kool aid. Hunters naturally want to do the right thing regarding the deer herds but I don't think they are getting the correct advice.

WICON42

NO , and that's my final answer.

MichaelP

Jeff, my scenario was totally hypothetical and had no bearing on reality. I was only curious as to whether you believed it could actually go higher with something like that and for how long. Granted, by your numbers (the ones I agreed with) it would only take nature a year or 2 to get the numbers back in check. I used number of buck fawns for the sake of argument.

BowtechHunting

For sure, we gotta take out some does if you really want to control the population. Besides they make great dinner entrees.

muzzyman88

GMMAT, I'm trying to learn something here. Please explain what affects happen for having an out of whack buck/doe ratio. I realize every area different. We have an abundance of deer and always have. But, we also have quite a few good bucks that call our property home as well. This hasn't changed in 20 years. Though, through better food plots and such, our bucks are getting bigger.

Please, explain.

kevin1

The county I live in has a bonus antlerless limit of 8, so do at least 8 other counties around me stretching all the way to the Ohio state line. The one and only deer I've shot so far this season was a large mature doe, and I passed on some very nice bucks. If you aren't helping your state manage it's herd you're part of the problem.

SteveBNy

Have to agree with GMMT - I have seen others do the same math but few will believe.

I started believing it 3 years ago when I got a new property to hunt.
Glassing it during June and July when bachlor groups are common and strong, the ratio was never higher then 3 to 1.
Actual buck sitings after mid Sept and on into season (mid Oct to mid Dec) are 10 to 1 or higher.
Bucks are there - they just don't parade like the doe groups other then for a brief time maybe in the summer.

Steve

rybohunter

On a large scale yes, individually…who cares?

It is my belief that the Dept of wildlife for the particular state should structure the seasons and bag limits such that a balance is maintained that accounts for deer herd health, habitat health, hunter desires, and human/deer conflict. (I won’t discuss what defines each of those as that is meant for another debate) Now, once the Dept of Wildlife structures that system, it falls ultimately to the hunters to execute it. In some circles, I believe the hunters traditional mindset is counterproductive to reaching these goals stated above. Some places are worse than others, and honestly sometimes the dept of wildlife should share in the “blame” for those beliefs for allowing that traditional mindset to perpetuate for too long. Through results over time and education these ways of thinking are slowly changing for the better (IMO), but there is still a long ways to go in some areas.

Now back to my original statement, the large scale practice of shooting bucks only (and even worse of shooting EVERY buck) and allowing populations to explode is irresponsible on both parties account. BUT when it comes down to an individual’s choice of what to pull the trigger on, I’m all for letting it be solely up to them. BUT, I would hope they make that choice with the grand scheme of deer management taken into consideration and not just their own narrow minded selfish views.