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

buck to doe ratio

Where I hunt, I honestly see two or even three bucks to each doe. I know, what a problem to have, and NO I'm not complaining!!! But I am curious myself as to what a healthy ratio is, and if there would be any potenital problems in my area. I've read two does to one buck, but I don't know? I only hunt 80 acres, and I see a lot more does in fields while driving to go hunting than while I'm there, so I'm probably in more of a buck hangout area.
 
I mainly hunt 50 acres of timber in the river bottoms. I see many bucks cruising for does. Don't see all that many does. I think the does I see are regular to the area, but the bucks especially the big ones are just moving through to find the does.
 
I DONT KNOW WHEN YOU WOULD HIT A WALL, BUT I WOULD THINK THAT THE MORE BUCKS YOU HAVE FIGHTING OVER DOES THE BETTER YOUR HUNTING WOULD BE, ESPECIALLY RATTLING. OF COURSE, MOST PLACES NEVER REACH 1:1 OR OR EVEN 1:5 BUT IN MY TRAVELS THE BETTER THAT RATIO HAS BEEN TEH BETTER THE HUNTING HAS BEEN. I WOULD VENTURE TO GUESS 1:1 OR EVEN 2:1 WOULD BE IDEAL.

HAD TO GIVE MY TAKE SINCE I HAVEN'T GOTTEN MANY TAKERS ON MY QUESTION
grin.gif
 
i always heard 1:1 is the best, i think i prefer more like 2:1 or 3:1 so that way there are more does, seems like when there are hardly any does, all the bucks are with that one doe in heat, and it seems like its hard to find that doe. seems like on places with more does i see more bucks, except when it gets extremely high like this place i have in town, you see 40 deer a night but almost all does and a bunch of scrub bucks, once in awhile a shooter will be around, but not as often as when there are alot less does.
smile.gif
 
In the QDM magazine they did a study with harvesting the adult does that have yearling bucks with them. If you harvest the adult doe 67% of the yearling bucks stay in that area. If the adult doe was not harvested then only 17% of the yearling bucks stayed around. The reasoning for this is the adult doe runs the yearling buck away. Too many does in an area will also push the big buck away . Most of the time the biggest bucks are not the dominate bucks therefore they don't want to compete with young tough bucks. The ideal situation is 1 :1 or 2:1 . Where the buck run out of does to breed, then they will roam more.
 
i heard three to one is ideal, plenty of breeding to get the piss and vinegar out of them. just what i have always shot for though was 3to1

mike
 
Top Bottom