What happens when the deer herd is over populated?
 

We think were having a over population of doe's by personal sightings and by trail camera. Also the rut has been real non aggressive and lazy what happens to the deer herd and the bucks we always seem to have the little guy by us and no mature bucks on camera ! is this what happens ?

Basically yes, I would fill all your tags and ask the other hunters who share your property too as well, donate the meat if necessary if its more than you can handle. Maybe even invite some friends that don't have a place to hunt to harvest some meat doe's too. Here in Indiana our state parks had some severe overpopulation problems and opened them up to hunters to help.

Agree with Gangly 100%...especially the starvation aspect.

Bachelor buck groups stay hidden a lot more-so than doe groups do. So based purely on the habits of deer, you will generally see a lot less bucks than doe's.

If the deer population is out of control, that generally means one or more of the following will occur:

1. Meat hunters are gonna have a GREAT year
2. A lot of deer will die of starvation during the winter
3. You will have a low fawn birth rate in the spring

The biggest impact with overpopulation isn't noticed until a couple years down the road when shrubs and natural forages are decimated. Of course then deer start leaving and dying off. Once that happens it can take years and years for a habitat to recover fully even with proper land management.

I hunt near some guys that subscribe to the more deer is better philosophy. They figure more does means more bucks later. The problem is, it just doesn't work like that for a ton of reasons. But I don't think I'll be convincing them any time soon :).

If I see more than 3 does at one time bullets start a flyin. I got a real unstable trigger finger.

Another thing to consider....are You letting the Bucks mature and get older and bigger racks?You also need to let the Bucks grow to Maturity,Younger Bucks will show their selfs more while older smarter Bucks will stay hidden,move more at night and be a lot more cautious!If You have too many Bucks they will disperse and find their own area too!

Once colder weather sets in You'll see more Bucks moving,making rubs and scrapes also....if You have Does the Bucks will be looking for them eventually.Im thinking the ratio of 1 Buck to 2 Does is ideal in a good managed area?

Florida's herd has been over populated and me as a meat hunter have a blast shooting does,to me they taste better.

LOL! I here that I think thats how we got in this position the first place. some hunters I tell ya !

I live and hunt wv, we never had a doe season for 17 years, then in 1974 we had a doe season, but it was too late, by 1990 we had 80 deer per square mile, this country has a carrying capacity of 18-26 psm, they've eaten the underbrush down to nothing, they eat your gardens all summer, they eat the danged flowers in the pots on your deck. we now have 5 full weeks to kill does, we are allowed 4 per year, farmers kill them by the thousands in august, and you constantly dodge them in the roads when driving.......oh and the biggest one I ever killed weighed 126 pounds.
if there is food to fatten them in October, they will not starve. a well fed deer population is more than capable of tripleing itself every 2 years, so ya better kill a bunch of does.
RR