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Doe to Buck picture ratio??

Gladiator

Gladiator

PMA Member
Just curious...this is my first summer with trail cam out and I was wondering what percentage of your pictures are bucks compared to does or faws. I've been getting TONS of does, but only a couple of small bucks. My percentage is about 5%.

So the question on the table is:

If you get 100 pictures on your camera, how many do you expect to be bucks this time of year?
 
You need to be where the bucks are. I would not draw any fast conclusions. Mineral sites and baiting in January give pretty good statistic I think. I wanted to see bucks so bad when I first started using trail cams and it seems I never did. Good luck the rest of the summer and fall.
 
I agree it's all in where you place the camera. Last summer I managed to have my camera in an area with a big bachelor group and probably had 75 percent buck pictures throughout the end of the summer months. Don't worry, if you have a lot of does around, come fall, the bucks will be there too.
 
Yeah, I think its a little wierd...all I saw in the fall was bucks and just a few does...and now, late summer all I'm seeing is does...I think the buck to doe ratio is pretty good, but the picture ratio stinks!
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I have also found some spots are buck areas in summer and other hold mostly does. This is why you NEED many cameras!!!
 
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This is why you NEED many cameras!!!



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Amen.
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As you get better at "hunting" with your camera you'll get a much more accurate picture of the herd where you hunt and a better picture of their travel habits.

I find that some bucks after being flashed will move their trail a few feet to the back side of the cam.
Then again I've had some really nice bucks that seemed to pose for pic after pic.

if you've got what you think is a fairly representative batch of pics you can figure out a rough estimate of buck to doe ratio like this:

Say you've got 25 pics of bucks that include 5 individual bucks (wait until a part of the year when you can distinguish bucks from each other by antlers, like now through Jan)

5 bucks divided by 25 pics = .2 (individual bucks per buck pic)

you've got 100 pics of does, using the individual bucks/buck pic ratio (again assuming that you're approximately as good at getting buck pics as doe pics)

you can approximate the # of individual does.

100 doe pics x .2 (Individuals per pic ratio) = 20 does

5 bucks and 20 does or 4 does per buck.

Of course it's all an estimate, buck ranges change in the fall, your hunting territory won't cover the whole home range of all the deer you photo ect.

but it's a place to start.
 
I would have to agree w/ Ironwood that you would be able to get a much truer estimate in the winter.

Biologically in the summer for the most part the bucks and does are away from each other because of the new fawns. The does will actually run the bucks off here in the summer just to protect their young ones.

The bucks want nothing to do w/ mama.

If you want get more trail cams of bucks just watch from a distance of where they are and then set the camera in the vicinity.

Or maybe you just have the matriarch doe spot
 
I do have my camera in a well traveled area...but it is mostly does or 1.5 yr old bucks. In the winter I got a ton of pics of bucks and I feel it is a good ratio (but hopefully I'll lower that ratio some more this year).

I just need to find the bachelor groups and get it in one of those areas the way it sounds.

I know where they will be at in the fall, but this summer thing is a different story!!

thanks for the input, men!
 
Not to repeat everyone else, but the bucks are moving separately from does. We currently are running several trail cam studies on various properties. We purposely put some cameras where we feel the major bucks are traveling through and the rest in major corridors of heavy trails. Checking the cameras weekly, the camera set up for the major bucks may have 5-10 pics where the heavy trail cams have 80-100 (mostly does and fawns).

Don't be discouraged by all the doe and fawn pics because they won't being changing their pattern, the bucks will. Good luck!
 
How many of you have cameras up on river bottom areas? In other words, areas that have been recently flooded(in the last couple of months)and what kind of pictures do you have? I have noticed that our areas that flood in the spring tend to hold only does and fawns. In these areas we usually get little bucks if any.. Has anyone else seen this trend? Is that expected?
 
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How many of you have cameras up on river bottom areas? In other words, areas that have been recently flooded(in the last couple of months)and what kind of pictures do you have? I have noticed that our areas that flood in the spring tend to hold only does and fawns. In these areas we usually get little bucks if any.. Has anyone else seen this trend? Is that expected?

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Yup, I've noticed that. Our area is really grown up with vegetation. Must be a good hiding area for the fawns.
 
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