Sling; in some areas I' d agree that winter mortality is a major control factor, but they follow the same rules even in the south of the province. I live in the peach belt where the snow averages about 3' total for the entire winter.

Russ; how late does your deer season go? I' ve read about your high deer populations in the south but never hunted there. We' ve got same type of problem with Canada Geese. They' re so plentiful that I' ve got a daily limit of 8 and a possession limit of 24. That' s a lot of goose meat.

Timbercruiser; I' d guess that the pregnant does fair about the same as the bucks in winter survival.

Dan O.

This is last year' s dates, haven' t seen this year' s but they will be similiar.
Archery; Oct. 1-Nov 22
Gun with dogs; Nov. 23-Dec. 1
Primitive weapon; Dec. 2- Dec. 15
Gun, without dogs; Dec. 16-Dec. 23
Gun with dogs; Dec. 24-Jan. 22
Archery and/or Primitive weapon; Jan 23-Jan 31
Bag limit: 1 buck per day, 3 per season. Anterless, 1 per day, 3 per season.
2 additional anterless may be taken with bow and arrow.

This for Mississippi. Not sure about Tenn. as I don' t hunt there. Alabama and Georgia have even larger bag limits. Maybe some of the hunters there can fill in about their bag limits.
Russ

Talk about stacking the odd' s against you. ou need to invite some tag winners to a doe hunt on your property and you need to do some serious planting. You have a bad situation to implement the QDM. Doe harvest is a big part... Don' t take the bucks under 3.5 yrs. and no racks under 7 pt and less that 16 inches wide.

lunchbucket; I had a feeling that' s what someone would recommend:

-keep large food plots
-shoot does if I get a tag
-shoot large bucks only

That' s an interesting point about inviting others with doe tags to depopulate my property. It might work. The tough part would be that when a person has a doe tag in the area it becomes " if it' s brown it' s down" . So it could be a young buck as easily as a doe.

There are 2 others factors that should also be considered:
- I' m really the only hunter for about 1,000 acres when outdoor education centers and cattle farms are taken into consideration. Any pressure and the deer know where they can go to never be shot at.
- There are a few big bucks but they use the 500 or so acres of cattail swamp on the other side of me like master magicians. Something was eating the apple leaves off my tree about 6 1/2' above ground. Strangest thing, it didn' t touch the lower branches, just the upper ones. It' s time to hang out the soap.

Dan O.

We would suggest that you get in touch with a good youth organization or an organization like our Hunters Against Hunger to come to the property and do guided hunts.
I would think that if you made your wishes known about the consequence of taking a button buck, you may well do some good. This is one case where baiting may be an answer to locating doe' s and fawns. Baiting overwhelmingly brings in doe' s and fawns. You could put minimal bait in a shooting path and sit in a blind. If you have the amount of doe' s you say, bring the animals in for culling in a controlled situation.
Once the limit has been reached under your control you stop the hunt... Just a thought... Drastic situations require drastic thought...
Also, with a population of doe' s that large it should be easy to document crop damage. I would talk with the farmers and try to start an influence in the direction of a well balanced herd. The farmers could rent their land out for $$$ if they have the large bucks. I would think that if the farmers started making a noise about crop damage and start a suit against the managing authority for reparations for crop damage minds could be changed. Farmers need to be shown how $$$ is lost and could be made passively and they' ll come around.

lunchbucket; the crop damage would work except that my area all cow calf. This is; the land is all pasture, the farmers stock the land with calves in the spring and slaughter in the fall. They' re going to be in big crap if the U.S. doesn' t open the border to beef this fall. Some stores are selling ground beef now for $.69 lb and steaks for $1.29. That' s in cheap Canadian dollars.

But; back to the point, there really isn' t any crop damage. With a couple of hundred head of cattle on their pastures the last thing they want to see is hunters shooting in the same field. We also never lease land for hunting in our area. There are hunt clubs no one would lease in that area.

On the baiting idea. Are you recommending dumping a few hundred lb. of corn in a shooting zone? I' ve really tried to stay away from that and just let the deer use my pasture lands etc. without pressure. But; if I could line up a few people with tags it would work in my immediate vicinity.

That brings up a new question: if I reduce doe numbers in my immediate area. Won' t new does reinhabit the area when they move through my property in the spring. There' s a main trail through my property that they follow when they come out of the deer wintering yards in the spring.

Dan O.

Dan O.
I don' t think that this is a big chance. If I remember an article I read that most doe groups are usually family. I don' t think they would put up with a stranger trying to join their little clique. A family unit usually stays that way. But it is possible a whole new family could move in, which would bring the herd back up to what is was before. This may or may not happen.
Russ

Dan... Yes, we would recommend the limited baiting to draw the deer to a localized management zone for culling. I think you are in a on going problem situation until the governing agencies in your area make changes, sorry to say. Just make the best of it with the extended tag/hunter invitation thing... Remember, your guest and you most likely will not get clean cull shots every single time so some of the animals will be lost. I would think the bigger picture will be brighter though.

dan, you have never stated what you are trying to achieve through this process. also, according to a state biologist from virginia that i recently spoke with, it is mathematically impossible to have a doe to buck ratio as great as you are claiming. why would you cull, lunchbasket, when dan stated that the herd is limited in his area, kinda going against what you are trying to achieve, imho. while qdm is a negative thing overall, except in the southeast where it is used as the tool that it was meant to be, if you really feel that you want( not need, in this case because of limited deer available) larger bucks, get your neighbors to also relax on the taking of smaller deer. you haven' t stated what the neighbors do doing hunting season, if they shoot what they want to as far as bucks go. do they hunt at all?remember, a buck has a home range of at least 600 acres, so i would try to tie up at least a thousand to get good results. how many deer per acre/mile do you have? there is so much more to this than just shooting does, or passing on smaller bucks than most people think there is, to maintain a healthy herd, not just what is locally on your and your neighbors property. your best bet is to lay off the bucks, plant some food plots( qdm at its best, ha!), so that " your " deer will hopefully stay in the area

you cull chickens - you manage deer