Iam watchingfor that possibility too.IMO it would take many many years to see any significant difference. So I am not immediately concerned, but then again I wouldn't want to find out 10-years down the road thathighgrading has impacted the genetics.

ChuckS

It's a much harder thing to quantify than it appears. Just counting points, weighing, and aging the deer won't give you the information you need. Too much variation within the state, even within the WMU (like food quality / avaiability) to get a good evaluation in just a year or two with limited sampling (reporting).

ChuckS

Actually it does. Besides their AR were different than ours. Their AR was essentially our old spike rules.

ChuckS

Ithink there's a distinct possibility that high grading could occur and it does concern me.However,just the fact that guys can't unload the clips on their 7600's as soon as they see bone is reason enough to keep AR's.

I was out spotting last friday night and saw a total of 37 bucks.Out of those 37 bucks,only 2 were not legal and several of them were nothing short of spectacular.None of these deer were on public land but allexcept 7 were on unposted land that sees heavy hunting pressure.I saw a bachelor herd of 16 bucks and all of them were legal and at least 4 were in the 18-20 inch range.Thisspot is open to anyone and it's even dmap'd.This is the first year I've seen anything like that.

I still think it's about herd reduction.I know plenty of private land open to hunting which also has very low numbers.Most of this land is farm country yet very few deer.these areas and public land in the NC have one thing in common.Unlimited numbers of hunters.As for the Q-wild area that was heavily hunted in the past when herd reduction started.
I remember 78 Doug.The thing is in those days the herd fluctuated but never like we have now.

I am in 3B and am fortunate to have about 120 acres of private property that is also landlocked by another 300+ acres of property that sees very little pressure, and no doe hunting. The guys that do hunt around our patch will shoot 8 point or larger bucks and don't shoot does. They don't mind that we do. We have an overabundance of does on the property, there are 7-8 different family groups of them and probably roughly 15-20 does on the property that I am familiar with this year. Last year I passed a lot of deer including does hoping for a nice buck to come in, and only one doe was taken last year by my father. This year we hope to take 3-4 does between my dad, myself, and my one good buddy that I allow on the property.

Wow...that's about 26dpsm of just does. What is the habitat like? Is it able to support that high of population?

ChuckS

Not my quote. I noticed you mixed and matched a few in your last 3 posts. Must have been a long day. Like I said I have [not] seen that data.

Average age of bucks harvested:
My calculations show an increase of 1.8 months from 2000 to 2004.
Either way: 6%(1month) or 11%(1.8mo) is significant for a deer. I wish I could increase my life expectancy that much!

ChuckS

Lots of agriculture but our patch is in the middle of a 1000 acre or sobig piece of woods that is landlocked by crop fields. No I don't think this many deer is healthy........that is why we want to start killing some off. I wish we could get the neighbors to buy into taking some does too....

Deerfly,I'm sure several of those bucks were 1.5 years old.Last years mild winter and excellent mast crop assured that the deer came out of winter very healthy and sporting larger racks.Yes,I was able to see the brow tines on every buck.It's not hard when you have good glass and the deer are less than 50 yards away.I'm not telling you how many bucks hunters are harvesting in 2G.I'm simply telling you what I witnessed.Those bucks were all feeding in agriculture fields and they'll most most likely disperse more in the fall.I would also go as far as saying that we have more adult bucks around here than we do adult doe.I have no way to prove that other than by observation but I've been getting about 3 bucks on film for every doe and I'm seeing way more bucks at nightime thanI am does.I have no idea what the actual b/d ratio is but it isn't 1/2.i've had far more opportunities to kill bucks in archery season over the past three years than I've had opportunities at does.

The harvest rates will vary all accross every management unit.There are areas they get alot of pressure and areas that get very little pressure,even on public land.It's obvious by the low deer numbers in these remote areas that hunters are not controlling the herd there.I'm not claiming no deer were harvested in these remote areas butthey recieve very little pressure.

I'm also not saying that hunters didn't drastically reduce the herd.They did but the habitat has also been playing a role.