How many deer per square mile do you feel is the maximum for your property? and if your property' s deer density is too high or low, what are you doing to try to reach your goal' s? Also what state is your property located. Thank' s Pike

Good topic -

In my area - the average is 30-40 deer/square mile by the last estimates I saw. I' m sure we are more than that, at least during certain times of the year. We plant enough food plots to handle at least 2x the average (we have a wintering herd). And are currently trying to take at least 2 adult does for adult buck.

I' m sure there re some areas with a low deer density, but in most areas, the does need thinning to stablize, or reduce the population.

What about your area?

Farm hunter, we just got our property last summer, we have a very good buck to doe ratio but the problem is we also had a preseason herd of about 50 deer per square mile, we harvested 3 bucks and 9 doe' s last season. Last year we had 6 hunter' s and we increased that amount this year to 11 hunter' s but we are only permitted one doe tag per hunter this season instead of 2 per hunter last season, We wanted to get down to between 35 and 40 Deer per square mile (Pre season) but I dont see how we can without more doe tag' s. Our area has very little crops, and we are letting a farmer plant 25 acres of corn and soybeans and we are in the process of planting 12 acres of clover, but we dont have much open space, time, or money, to do any more than that. The habitat seems to be in great shape and it doesnt appear to be over browsed (yet) but we want to keep it that way. The thing Im worried about is with the addition of crops and food plots, additonal deer are going to move into the area and put even more preasure on the natural browse. The only thing I can think of is maybe the farmer can get some crop damage tags. We also have a ton of coyotes but im starting to think they dont deserve their reputation (but I never hnted in an area that had yotes before) that' s why im curios to know what everyone else here consider' s to be an exceptable deer density. and what methods they used or are in the process of trying to acheive it. Pike

I' ve got about 25 deer per square mile (640 acres), but they aren' t equally distributed. With my plantings I could handle 50 -75 per square mile. They don' t winter on the property so there is minimal browsing of trees. I' m in the process of providing more shelter areas but it' s a slow process. The deer have access to about 20 tons of alfalfa/colover hay, 10 acres of wild apples and 20 more of wild forbs. There is no shortage of food. When I' m giving the deer figures I' m basing it on the 2 does with fawns on the property. The bucks are transient.

Dan O.

The last figures I saw in our area just said 45+ per sq mile and that is probably low. In our area though I have never seen a browse line, lots of briars, honeysuckle, acorns, foodplots and other stuff for them to eat on.

At our place in WV, I' d say that we are over 50 per sq mile. The deer don' t winter on our place (much) so we don' t have much problem handling that many. The buck doe ratio is still our of whack, even with intense doe harvesting over the last 5 years. We will continue to whack as many does as we can handle. I' d say we take about 8 for every buck. We' ve shot alot of deer over the last 5 seasons, and things have gotten better all around, but it doesn' t ever seem like there is a shortage of does around. The bucks have gotten better though.

It' s time I move to the states.....
[:' (]

I don`t know how many deer there are per square mile in my area. What I look at is a buck-doe ratio of 1:7 and a brouse line in the woody, winter brouse of 5` and there are way too many does.

Around my house we have about 20-25 deer per square mile and climbing, due to a light winter, and good fawning period.

Around 30 to 35 would be getting too high, due to the limiting factors of winter food/yarding cover. I haven' t had to shoot does in the past 4 years on the property, but if all of my does have 1 to 2 fawns, I may be looking at harvesting a couple of doe fawns and maybe a yearling doe.

Jeff...U.P. of Michigan " Baiting capitol of the world"

qdma has some maps u can look at

http://www.i-maps.com/Qdma/frame/def...10100&MF=11000

here i have under 15/sq. mile, not too many