Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

buck:doe ratios

MadisonB&C

Active Member
I sat out glassing a couple of fields the other night, and saw 22 deer: 7 bucks, 10 does, and 5 fawns. That means the buck:doe ratio is approx. 1.5:2 (if you don't count fawns). The reason I bring this up is because I was wondering how to get a really accurate idea of what the ratio is on a given piece of land. Do you think that one night watching two fields will do the trick?
 
BC ,
I'm sure the DNR wishes along with every hunter that it could be done that easy & quickly...
To really get close you would have to do a large area ,unless your fenced .
Because the buck to doe most likely changes every few day on a given farm as deer come and go. And remember you most likely never will see all the deer that go on the farm. Again unless it's in all high fenced.
I have hunted in IL on the same 400ac. farm for 5 years now and I'm a data crucher. I track buck/doe/time of sigthings and how many bucks look to be 125 class or larger. After 4 years of having the owner tell we needed to start taking more doe because there were just to many. I showed him our hunting data .. It indicated about 1.5 to 2 doe to each buck. He asked me to take a ride around after I had harvested my buck. Guess what even with 5 years of data I soon found out that the doe out number the bucks more like 4 to one. You see I locate my stands to harvest big bucks and not really to see large numbers of deer. Well in the thick cover going by my stand and hitting the one feild that I could see
the buck to doe was 1.5 to 1 but really out by the roads the doe numbers increased much more than the buck..You need to have a lot more information and much more than one or two afternoons of information to really know!
I was forced to agree that doe were an issue and needed some heavy harvesting...meat to eat.
Thanks and good luck BC , just my opinion and personal feelings... I really don't think you can get a wild free ranging deer herd to 1 to 1 and with out a lot of focus you will be hard pressed to get it two to one. Hunters on average just don't harvest as many doe's as it would take in most area's. That I have ever had a chance to hunt anyway.
Again Good luck My huntN friend may this huntN season bring you that one you have always wanted... a friend from Vermont MXZ.
beerchug.gif
893USA1-thumb[1].gif
 
Top Bottom