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How many bucks?

Mr. Deeds

Mr. Deeds

Member
Last night I was organizing my trail cam pics by bucks that I see on a regular basis, putting them in files for future reference of potential shooters and to watch growth for the years to come. I began to wonder how many bucks one property can hold.

Now, I know what must be brought into discussion is buck:doe ratio, and when you get into the rut, new bucks might show up, old bucks can just as easily go away. As I was organizing my pictures last night, I begin to realize I had about 9 bucks that show up on a daily or every other day basis, 3 shooters that are like clockwork! I know that this can change once the rut gets into full swing.

Recently, I moved one of my cameras to the other side of the property where I will be hunting for late muzzy, and left the other in the same spot that it was originally. Once again, I have a consistent group of bucks on the adjacent side of the property that show up every other or on the daily basis, as well as my timber bucks staying consistent. So back to the original question... About how many bucks can one property hold, given the land is 40, 80, 100 acres, in respect to bucks becoming territorial, food and water supply, doe population and enough "cover" for them to bed in?
 
A big Q is how much food you have in say the 40, 80, 100 acres. But for the avg Iowa ground I'll guess 4-6 bucks per 40???? Nothing to back this up, just a guess. I'll be interested to see what the "experts" say.

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You're asking a question that has a TON of variables. But I have a short story for you.
Last year during late muzz we had lots of cold and snow. The deer were grouped up big time where I hunt. I was hunting a 3 acre standing bean field and it was the absolute best food source in the entire section (a square mile). I consistently saw the same 14 bucks every evening. The only variable was which big buck would show. I saw 3 different giants throughout the week. Unfortunately I had the worst luck of any late muzz hunt and could not connect. But that's a long, sad miserable nightmare I would rather not discuss... Anyway, I knew of 17 bucks in one section. One night i saw 38 deer. Given the extreme conditions and very low pressure on them I would guess I saw at least 95% of the bucks in that section. But hey, that's just a guess.
 
Yeah my guess was with the assumption of fall/early winter weather. We've all seen the huge groups when the snow really falls on a good food source. But like said.....tons of variables to this.

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Sorry let me rephrase my question. During a normal period, not the rut and not during the dead of winter with low pressure searching for a food source. Lets say spring or early summer. Not asking the question for a specific reason, was just curious how many mature bucks I could expect to actually be living on the 110 acre property I hunt. I'm doing 3 - 1.5 acre food plots next spring, so hopefully this will provide me with some more insight.
 
Prior to late season, I would say the absolute best top notch property with ridiculous cover would hold approximately 4-6 mature(4.5+) deer consistently. Attitudes are also a huge variable as well as does. If you have an overpopulation of does and the bucks do not have to come in contact with each other the more it can hold. When I say hold I mean the buck spends 75% of his time on your place. That means you are his core area. Some deer will have extremely small core areas and others will roam multiple sections.
 
Mr. Deeds said:
Sorry let me rephrase my question. During a normal period, not the rut and not during the dead of winter with low pressure searching for a food source. Lets say spring or early summer. Not asking the question for a specific reason, was just curious how many mature bucks I could expect to actually be living on the 110 acre property I hunt. I'm doing 3 - 1.5 acre food plots next spring, so hopefully this will provide me with some more insight.
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On a 110 acre property I would expect one mature deer with potentially as many as 3 having overlapping portions of your property combined with the neighbors.

You cannot take summer ranges into account because the attitudes are more tolerable at that time. I wouldn't be surprised if you see 6 mature deer or more during the summer. Once the velvet drops is when you really know what you have calling your place home.
 
Well, I know I do have an abundant doe population, and it looks to be increasing while I was doing some scouting this evening, due to the neighboring corn fields being out and public ground not far away being hunted hard by pheasant hunters. Was just curious on this topic! Gonna be doing alot more scouting in the next couple weeks and hopefully doing some sits in the tree to try to land another buck for my buddy!
 
Interesting thread, it does fluctuate a ton on what your property is made of...but for example i manage 450 acres, 400 is nothing but timber with 50 acres tillable, food sources everywhere. And since july, i have 7 mature bucks (4.5) plus i have had consistent pictures of up until now. At least 10 2 and 3 yr olds and numerous spikes. I am lucky that this ground couldnt be more efficient to hold lots of big deer.
 
For me the biggest question is travel corridors. I'm on a large creek and easily have 20 different bucks already that have showed up and the best parts are yet to come. There are bucks that come for a fall/winter and r never seen again.

We have identified 10 mature bucks on 700 acres thus far (after velvet dropped) and I'm sure more will be showing up as the rut intensifies. Have had mature bucks show up from November thru December and never see then again after that point.

Gotta love travel corridors like a river.....
 
I do have a good size creek that flows through the timber which my main stands are on and overlooking, with heavy food sources to the south. Another decent sized creek on the adjacent side of the property that seperates a heavy timber, with food sources to the north, south and east. What isn't timber on the property is crp with native grasses. Fyi its 110 acres if I hadn't stated that before.

I believe that I have plenty of cover for plenty of deer and more then enough food and water sources. Having two seperate timbers seperated by a large open CRP pasture I think is helping me a lot in seeing mature deer in the two seperate timbers.

But only time will tell as the rut begins to kick in on what deer will stick around and what new ones will show there faces
 
letemgrow said:
For me the biggest question is travel corridors. I'm on a large creek and easily have 20 different bucks already that have showed up and the best parts are yet to come. There are bucks that come for a fall/winter and r never seen again.

We have identified 10 mature bucks on 700 acres thus far (after velvet dropped) and I'm sure more will be showing up as the rut intensifies. Have had mature bucks show up from November thru December and never see then again after that point.

Gotta love travel corridors like a river.....
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As far as the travel corridors go, I think I have identified 3 major funnels into the property. One of which is where the pond ends/creek begins, and the other located on a creek coming from the local lake. Third happens to be located where the west timber ends and goes into a draw into the east/central timber.
 
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