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Doe/Herd Managment

Mr. Deeds

Mr. Deeds

Member
This year I recently gained rights to an excellent piece of property near where I live and have been wondering how many deer I can take off it while still managing a good buck ratio. While going through my trail cam pics in one section of the timber that I have been hunting. I have an enormous amount pictures of does, young, old, and yearlings, with approximately 7 different bucks on camera, both young 4-6 pts, and several mature ones like the one I harvested earlier on my first hunt.

I know that I do not want to over hunt one stand, but it is a struggle because the stand has been effective all three times I have been in it, but I do know, that deer do get smart, and that I want this stand to be productive in the future.

Basically what I'm getting at, is the property that I'm hunting is 105 acres, and the timber that has been producing my deer kills is only about 20 acres of it. Logically, the property would hold many more deer then just what I have pictures of. So far I have taken 3 deer off the property (I will note that 1 of the does had twins following, and the other had one single fawn following) , in 3 hunts, over 4 days, and I couldn't help but get the feeling that I'm declaring a war on them and going to destroy my population lol.

In conclusion, I'm just looking for advice on what would be a good number of deer to harvest to establish a goal. -- Sidenote, I will be muzzleloader hunting this ground also, won't all be done with a bow!

Thanks!
 
Your results will start to decline rapidly from here on out. 4 hunts and 3 kills on 20 acres means it's almost guaranteed you made your presence known to the deer being a new bowhunter. My other question would be how many more deer do you really need for the freezer? Now isn't the time to kill deer just to donate them to hush or somebody else unless you have a real overpopulation issue.

As for over hunting your stand question, the most hunted one stand last year was 7 times and that's because getting in and out was as lock tight as a stand gets with a N or NE wind. To me that's a pretty high number of hunts from the same stand.
 
I know that I won't be hunting that stand for quite some time now. Because of that reason. There is 1 other small timber on the property, as well as one adjacent to the property that alot of deer travel to and from.

Not that I have an overpopulation issue, but then again I do know that the property and surrounding properties are very well populated, I did have a goal of getting meat for myself, property owners, and family members.

Furthermore, I do have rights to several other properties that I also hope to fill anterless tags with this year. Was just hoping for advice on whether or not to severely tone it down with my hunts, and move to a new side of the property closer to other travel routes, or just let the whole property get calm in general and focus on other properties??
 
A good friend of mine and his family live off deer year round- only red meat they will eat. He needs roughly 7 deer for the year for the meat to last all year and I know he doesn't take more than 2 off one property and once he has taken those 2 he leaves it alone- He also has the luxury of hunting many properties so over sitting an area never is an issue.

After that many successful trips- I would leave it alone until early November at least-
 
Likewise with your friend. I eat as much of what I kill as possible, whether it be game birds or deer, rather then going to the grocery store for meat. I prefer it alot over what you can buy in the store.

I think what I will plan on doing is setting up a new stand on the opposite corner of this particular property and later in the year try to catch them being pushed by hunters from nearby public lands during the gun seasons, have always seen a lot of deer migrating/running towards the property I hunt.

My other property was a nice place to hunt for quite awhile and produced efficiently, then the family that owns it went through a divorce, she most recently moved away and now the house sits empty. The past two years I have seen numerous truck and atv tracks going all over the land, and just last night could see a trucks headlights moving across it, as well as rifle brass and some newfound salt blocks that weren't there previously. So I don't think this will be a spot that I will return back to for awhile.
 
Mr. Deeds said:
My other property was a nice place to hunt for quite awhile and produced efficiently, then the family that owns it went through a divorce, she most recently moved away and now the house sits empty. The past two years I have seen numerous truck and atv tracks going all over the land, and just last night could see a trucks headlights moving across it, as well as rifle brass and some newfound salt blocks that weren't there previously. So I don't think this will be a spot that I will return back to for awhile.
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If this is the case why haven't you reported it?
 
If you're after a mature buck, pressure & hunting them "wrong" in a lot of ways is usually how that gets screwed up (hunting too much, winds wrong, entrances/exits, busting deer, leaving scent all over, killing other deer, etc, etc). 105 acres, a few does sounds about as much as I'd do unless it's absolutely over-run with deer + the fact that it will screw things up big time if you do consistently crush em out of the same area. Good luck
& ya, I'd "clean up" that other spot with the law - it's a little effort that is extremely well worth it and a no brainer to me.
 
What I do is never shoot does in the prime areas where I'll be hunting bucks come November. Does are taken on the perimeter of my place all season long. Easy entry/exit points that don't spook deer.

Also you have to see what the neighbors are killing to know if you are taking too many does. 105 acres means the deer you killed are also using other properties.
 
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