Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I swear the buck to doe ratio in my area is about 10 does to every antlered buck. Possibly even worse.

What should it be, what is it in your area and how do you get in down?

We do not shoot any little bucks, or even buck fawns, but we can' t stop the neighbors.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

It is all messed up there are alot more does than bucks. Have seen 2 bucks and about 20 or so does. What causes this anyone one know?

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I hunt in central Wisconsin just north (thank god) of the cwd-herd reduction
zone. I agree with what the dnr is doing with that but, I think that their overdoing it a bit. What they should be doing is getting rid of game farms but thats a whole
different subject.

Our situation sounds the same as yours. I can see ten does in a night before finally
seing one antlered buck and most nights I see only does! I along with my hunting
partners absolutely refuse to shoot anything under 110 inches. Problem is that the neighbors don' t do it that way. What do you do? Shooting does is part of the management process and each of us try to take at least one each year. The thing
of it is this year the dnr didn' t issue any antlerless tags for our area, so we can' t even try to shoot more does to bring the ratio into check. Our area is 230 total acres and we have three guys hunting it and we are spread way out. On average
almost every night we see between 7 and 13 does and " bald" deer. To me this means the ratio is way wacked out! If we see one buck every other night we hunt
thats it. I' ve heard that 2 does to every 1 buck is what you want. I think the Wisconsin DNR needs to get rid of its board members and get a panel of people
on it who are interested in Wisconsins deer herd and not interested in flexing their own muscles every time something comes up. The deer herd in most (not all)
parts of the state is screwed up bad and the DNR is to blame. I think they need to
include the input of Wisconsin sportsman and from people who actually spend time
in the woods more than what they do now.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

No you cant control your neighbors but you might try and explain to them that they would have more trophies if they would shoot only mature bucks and more does. I have heard 2-1 is a good ratio but that sounds almost impossible we strive for 5 or 6 to 1 but even that is hard and we are allowed to take up to 4 does each year which we almost always do. Just keep doing what you are doing and maybe try to attract some of those small bucks to your area and let them grow.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I agree with you treedweller. In MN the DNR has their eyes on money not management. I pay $78 for one resident liscence (it does allow me to hunt across the state) and they have a multi sone buck tag only too. I love shooting mature bucks, but would be willing to only do it every other year if it meant more good bucks around.
It is just so frustrating seeing so many deer and no bucks, yet you watch these hunting shows and 4-6 mature bucks walk bye, it is sickening!

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I agree Kegei. But at least the DNR got of their kesters and did something about it this year, the zone I hunt is classified as an intensive harvest zone, which is a first. So this year I can take 4 antlerless & one buck. I too have the all season license, I think that was a great idea by the DNR to implement that.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

MN_Deerman...

I totally agree with you with what the DNR has done this year. I love the fact that more doe will be taken out of the heard with your main tag being either sex and the fact that you can just buy anterless permits over the counter is a great idea. Hopefully over time, it will get the meat hunters what they want(meat) but also get them to see what happens over a couple of years when more doe are being shot and hopefully half of the 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 bucks will see 3 1/2. The old system was so out of date.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

We have had intensive harvest tags for 5-6 years. Have been able to shoot 5 for a few years now. It doesn' t help around here (New York Mills, Perham, Wadena area). Maybe you guys will experience more success with it. I guess WI makes you shoot a doe first then you may go after a buck. Not a bad idea.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I would really like to see MN put an earn-a-buck system in place(depending on how they run it). You would really see things(deer herd) turn around in this state. It wouldn' t take more than 3-4 maybe 5 years.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

i hunt in northern Wisconsin and i dont think they have an earn a buck in too many units. although, if we dont harvest a high enough number of deer this year, they might expand the range of it. as for the buck to doe ratio, on my trail cam that has been set up near Antigo WI and Sobieski WI it looks like the buck to doe ratio is about 9 or 10 does to one buck. but that doesnt mean anything from the pics because not every deer walks in front of the cam.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

I actually hunt just north of you Kegei, in zone 284 around Itasca State Park. Last year you couldn' t buy intensive harvest there, just management tags. It funny how it goes from that to 4 over the counter tags in one year. I also hunt the Detroit Lakes area for the muzzleloader on some farm land there. I agree with you though about the earn a buck program. Seems like ratio is out of wack here and I think that would help some. Of course maybe the DNR should take a look at expanding the firearms season for more than 9 days...that would definitely help people fill their tags. I never did understand that.

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

Here in Maryland the doe to buck ratio is about 450 to one. :D
All kidding aside, I wouldn' t doubt if it was at least 15 or 20 to one...

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

my state is pretty bad...took me 4 years to get my first buck....seen about 50 deer or so while hunting them and none that i know were bucks...i did see 1 but he was running and me or dad couldnt shoot becuase we would killed some guy in a treestand in the line of fire...safe thinkin on our part...but i finally got my first buck last year.....now our state has antler restrictions and we are doing alot of doe reduction trying to fix it....this is the second year for ARs..about 5th for herd reductions...it started slow but now we are taking alot more does...i hope it works...shooting does is fun and we pack the freezer but a nice set of antlers is nice...PAs buck to doe is probally around 15-20 doe to 1 buck id guess....who knows for sure....it would be nice to see a study done and give all the cry babys a few facts on why we need these changes they cry about....maybe it was done and i missed it....who knows perfect..i think 2 does to a buck would be good....5 doe to a buck would be more realistic and still be pretty good....

RE: Proper buck to doe ratio?
 

It' s important when talking about antlerless/antlered ratios to realize that within the antlerless segment you are grouping antlerless bucks (button bucks). If your herd birthrate and fawn survival are close to the average 1.6 per mature doe and .5 per fawn doe (now a yearling doe), when you see 10 antlerless deer, there are, on average, 3 button bucks in the group. Combining these with the one antlered buck you see, gives a doe/buck (female/male) ratio of 7/4 or 1.75/1. The ratio is 2.6/1 if just 2 of the 10 antlerless are button bucks. Those are not bad ratios. There are not many true sex ratio problems, rather a very common lack of age in the male segment of the herd.

One drawback to concentrating the effort on does is the inevitable killing of antlerless bucks. In your 10 antlerless example, every third (definitely 4th) deer killed will be a button buck if randomly taken. As individuals, we can avoid this by looking at the nose length of the animal, clearly longer relative to other head measurments on 2 1/2 and older does, pretty obvious on yearling (1 1/2) does also. Just don' t expect great results if the general public is steered in that direction. It would help, simply by reducing overall deer numbers, providing better nutrition to the survivors and more importantly, satiating the average joe' s desire to shoot a deer, before a yearling antlered buck walks by. Most joe' s would wind up shooting the doe as required and hang it up for the season, cause 1 deer is all they can use. DNR wouldn' t like the requirement cause some number of hunters would stop hunting if a doe were required before a buck. In Maryland, we can take either antlered or antlerless as a first deer, but you have to take 2 antlereless before taking a second antlered deer. A good compromise. Good luck with your herd dynamics.