My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

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Stanley
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby Stanley » Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:54 pm

Swampthing wrote:Wow our hunting party saw a total of 6 deer for 7 people.

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How many good bucks?


You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Stanley
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby Stanley » Wed Dec 04, 2013 4:59 pm

goldtip5575 wrote:
Stanley wrote:I see no problem with the herd and I would say you are doing just fine. If you try and kill does to regulate ratios like the magazines say, in my opinion, you are shooting yourself in the foot. Does regulate the buck numbers no other way around it. So you have 10 does and 4 bucks(hypothetical). You kill 2 bucks and 4 does you now have killed 4 buck producers and 2 bucks. How would this help the ratio? You want more bucks you need to have more bucks born no other way to get bucks. Areas that have low deer numbers also have less buck sightings, just the way it works.

I have no idea what the true buck to doe ratio is in the areas I hunt. I know when I hunt areas with low deer numbers the hunting is tough to find a good buck. The areas with high deer populations are the best for producing good bucks. When people ask me what I look for in an area to hold big bucks I tell them look for areas with plenty of does.

Stanley I believe in your thinking more than a QDM guru that wants a 1:1 ratio.His claim is that the doe will kick her buck fawn from the area and he will never return,therefore shooting a doe with a buck fawn early season is what you should try to achieve as the doe will be gone and the buck fawn will stay.He got me thinking a little just a little though.

My thought process is; would you rather have 2 bucks and 2 does on your property or 15 does and 7 bucks? I know where I would rather hunt.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:12 pm

Stanley wrote:
Swampthing wrote:Wow our hunting party saw a total of 6 deer for 7 people.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

How many good bucks?


Dad missed a big one opening day. Neighbor kid killed the buck a minute later and scored 143.

Uncle hit a buck he thought would be close to 150 but didn't find him.

I saw a big half rack and passed would have scored 120-130 as a 10 point.

Saw a very heavy 8 pointer opening day but no shot.

3 other big ones on drives but either no shot or kicked the wrong way.

Total: 7 good ones IMO considering good is 120+

Found out other neighbor across from uncles killed a monster and scored it at 172 inches gross as a 6 by 5. (split G2) Had 23 inch wide spread. Sorry no pics. He wants that one on the low down and I understand. One of the biggest Ive seen taken in our immediate area.

Neighbor and good friend to the North killed his target buck. 4.5 year old 10 pointer that scored 163. He passed it up last year as a 155 inch 3 year old. He has had pics of him since he was a 2 yr old.

EDIT: Completely misread the post and thought it was towards me not Swampthing. :oops:
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby Stanley » Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:43 pm

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:
Stanley wrote:
Swampthing wrote:Wow our hunting party saw a total of 6 deer for 7 people.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

How many good bucks?


Dad missed a big one opening day. Neighbor kid killed the buck a minute later and scored 143.

Uncle hit a buck he thought would be close to 150 but didn't find him.

I saw a big half rack and passed would have scored 120-130 as a 10 point.

Saw a very heavy 8 pointer opening day but no shot.

3 other big ones on drives but either no shot or kicked the wrong way.

Total: 7 good ones IMO considering good is 120+

Found out other neighbor across from uncles killed a monster and scored it at 172 inches gross as a 6 by 5. (split G2) Had 23 inch wide spread. Sorry no pics. He wants that one on the low down and I understand. One of the biggest Ive seen taken in our immediate area.

Neighbor and good friend to the North killed his target buck. 4.5 year old 10 pointer that scored 163. He passed it up last year as a 155 inch 3 year old. He has had pics of him since he was a 2 yr old.

EDIT: Completely misread the post and thought it was towards me not Swampthing. :oops:


Good info anyway.
You can fool some of the bucks, all of the time, and fool all of the bucks, some of the time, however you certainly can't fool all of the bucks, all of the time.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby matt1336 » Wed Dec 04, 2013 5:56 pm

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:
Stanley wrote:
Swampthing wrote:Wow our hunting party saw a total of 6 deer for 7 people.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

How many good bucks?


Dad missed a big one opening day. Neighbor kid killed the buck a minute later and scored 143.

Uncle hit a buck he thought would be close to 150 but didn't find him.

I saw a big half rack and passed would have scored 120-130 as a 10 point.

Saw a very heavy 8 pointer opening day but no shot.

3 other big ones on drives but either no shot or kicked the wrong way.

Total: 7 good ones IMO considering good is 120+

Found out other neighbor across from uncles killed a monster and scored it at 172 inches gross as a 6 by 5. (split G2) Had 23 inch wide spread. Sorry no pics. He wants that one on the low down and I understand. One of the biggest Ive seen taken in our immediate area.

Neighbor and good friend to the North killed his target buck. 4.5 year old 10 pointer that scored 163. He passed it up last year as a 155 inch 3 year old. He has had pics of him since he was a 2 yr old.

EDIT: Completely misread the post and thought it was towards me not Swampthing. :oops:




This info coupled with your doe sightings would tell me that you guys are sitting on a pretty healthy deer heard. IMO

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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby rochester coops » Wed Dec 04, 2013 8:42 pm

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:
2013: 180 total seen 31 bucks 149 doe
Killed 9 doe 3 bucks.

Is this buck to doe ratio unhealthy for the population? It seems we have a very healthy herd though. NOTE: All fawns were included in the doe category so some of the does are actually bucks, its just hard to tell if its a buck or doe fawn you have seen while in the woods.



Just take those fawns out of the equation. If you just consider just 1/2 of the "does" to be fawns (which is probably too conservative with the growing herd you seem to be documenting and cause fawns run all over the place during season) you only have 75 doe sightings. This works out to 2.4 does per buck which is much more believable.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby dan » Wed Dec 04, 2013 9:19 pm

Your ratio seems fine to me... This year my group saw 3 deer. 2 bucks and one doe. I personally saw 2 of them. 1 buck shot.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby Autumn Ninja » Thu Dec 05, 2013 12:56 am

The group I keep up with (350 hunters) seen 28 antlered deer and 76 antlerless deer. It would be safe to say that 15 of those antlerless deer where button bucks. That would put the numbers at 43 bucks/61 does.

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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:43 am

BigHills BuckHunter wrote:
Stanley wrote:
Swampthing wrote:Wow our hunting party saw a total of 6 deer for 7 people.

[ Post made via Android ] Image

How many good bucks?


Dad missed a big one opening day. Neighbor kid killed the buck a minute later and scored 143.

Uncle hit a buck he thought would be close to 150 but didn't find him.

I saw a big half rack and passed would have scored 120-130 as a 10 point.

Saw a very heavy 8 pointer opening day but no shot.

3 other big ones on drives but either no shot or kicked the wrong way.

Total: 7 good ones IMO considering good is 120+

Found out other neighbor across from uncles killed a monster and scored it at 172 inches gross as a 6 by 5. (split G2) Had 23 inch wide spread. Sorry no pics. He wants that one on the low down and I understand. One of the biggest Ive seen taken in our immediate area.

Neighbor and good friend to the North killed his target buck. 4.5 year old 10 pointer that scored 163. He passed it up last year as a 155 inch 3 year old. He has had pics of him since he was a 2 yr old.

EDIT: Completely misread the post and thought it was towards me not Swampthing. :oops:


8-)

As a side note, I strongly believe a buck:doe ratio closer to one produces a "stronger" rut, but it needs to be large area, not local. A local area stacked with does will destroy all the benefit of aggressive doe management. I had my best rut hunts in WI during the CWD/EAB years when guys had to shoot a doe, especially in areas loaded with small parcels (e.g. everyone has there 40) rather than large blocks of private.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby BigHills BuckHunter » Thu Dec 05, 2013 3:51 am

rochester coops wrote:
BigHills BuckHunter wrote:
2013: 180 total seen 31 bucks 149 doe
Killed 9 doe 3 bucks.

Is this buck to doe ratio unhealthy for the population? It seems we have a very healthy herd though. NOTE: All fawns were included in the doe category so some of the does are actually bucks, its just hard to tell if its a buck or doe fawn you have seen while in the woods.



Just take those fawns out of the equation. If you just consider just 1/2 of the "does" to be fawns (which is probably too conservative with the growing herd you seem to be documenting and cause fawns run all over the place during season) you only have 75 doe sightings. This works out to 2.4 does per buck which is much more believable.


Thanks that makes sense. 8-)
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby adrenalin » Thu Dec 05, 2013 1:40 pm

Dewey wrote:180 deer seen this year between 7 guys!! :shock:

Our group up north hasn't seen that many deer in the last 10 years combined during the gun season. Not kidding and being completely serious!!!!


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Ha! We havent seen that many deer in our group in the last 20 years!!! Northern Wisconsin is a whole different ball game. Ive gone 4 gun season in a row without seeing a single deer myself. I honestly cant imagine what it is like, I would feel like i was at the zoo! Heck, I wouldnt leave the tree for 3 days!

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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:04 pm

First, its good you keep track of activity like that, you are right it is fun to look back at that stuff years later and you absolutely will not regret it. I have kept a detailed hunting log since 2006 and wish I had started earlier.

Second, you can probably count around half the antlerless deer as fawns, as of those approximately half are button bucks I think.

As far as overpopulation goes, you can tell pretty easily if an area is overpopulated if there are severe browse lines in the timber, meaning very little browsable underbrush 0-4' off the ground. Even though we hunters don't particularly like it, in the northern latitudes hard winters are natures way of correcting overpopulation.

Also, a note on buck to doe ratios...people are right in suggesting a small area with a ratio of 1:1 does not make hunting better, all the bucks will be next door if there are a bunch of does over there. Going even further, I think there is some literature out there that suggests an artificially high ratio is actually not good for the deer herd health (no offense to "QDM" proponents who feel otherwise), resulting in a lot of beat up and run down bucks (higher winter mortality) after such a highly competitive rut. My hunch is that a 1:2 or so buck to doe ratio in farm country is a pretty darn good happy medium. Way up north with only a few deer per square mile, a 1:1 ratio isn't a big deal because there are so few deer to begin with.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby JoeRE » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:09 pm

adrenalin wrote:
Dewey wrote:180 deer seen this year between 7 guys!! :shock:

Our group up north hasn't seen that many deer in the last 10 years combined during the gun season. Not kidding and being completely serious!!!!


[ Post made via iPhone ] Image

Ha! We havent seen that many deer in our group in the last 20 years!!! Northern Wisconsin is a whole different ball game. Ive gone 4 gun season in a row without seeing a single deer myself. I honestly cant imagine what it is like, I would feel like i was at the zoo! Heck, I wouldnt leave the tree for 3 days!

[ Post made via Android ] Image



True that, this year I saw 4 deer opening day (two bucks and two does for what its worth) hunting in the northwoods and that was more deer than anyone else in my deer camp or the two camps nearby saw! Compare that to what I expect to see hunting opening day of shotgun back here in Iowa...I will be sitting all day and expect to see 30+...at least 2:1 does.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby BassBoysLLP » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:20 pm

JoeRE wrote:First, its good you keep track of activity like that, you are right it is fun to look back at that stuff years later and you absolutely will not regret it. I have kept a detailed hunting log since 2006 and wish I had started earlier.

Second, you can probably count around half the antlerless deer as fawns, as of those approximately half are button bucks I think.

As far as overpopulation goes, you can tell pretty easily if an area is overpopulated if there are severe browse lines in the timber, meaning very little browsable underbrush 0-4' off the ground. Even though we hunters don't particularly like it, in the northern latitudes hard winters are natures way of correcting overpopulation.

Also, a note on buck to doe ratios...people are right in suggesting a small area with a ratio of 1:1 does not make hunting better, all the bucks will be next door if there are a bunch of does over there. Going even further, I think there is some literature out there that suggests an artificially high ratio is actually not good for the deer herd health (no offense to "QDM" proponents who feel otherwise), resulting in a lot of beat up and run down bucks (higher winter mortality) after such a highly competitive rut. My hunch is that a[glow=red]1:2[/glow] or so buck to doe ratio in farm country is a pretty darn good happy medium. Way up north with only a few deer per square mile, a 1:1 ratio isn't a big deal because there are so few deer to begin with.



I agree. That is about perfect.
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Re: My own deer harvest numbers/seen/killed last 6 years

Unread postby Dewey » Thu Dec 05, 2013 2:32 pm

adrenalin wrote:
Dewey wrote:180 deer seen this year between 7 guys!! :shock:

Our group up north hasn't seen that many deer in the last 10 years combined during the gun season. Not kidding and being completely serious!!!!


[ Post made via iPhone ] Image

Ha! We havent seen that many deer in our group in the last 20 years!!! Northern Wisconsin is a whole different ball game. Ive gone 4 gun season in a row without seeing a single deer myself. I honestly cant imagine what it is like, I would feel like i was at the zoo! Heck, I wouldnt leave the tree for 3 days!

[ Post made via Android ] Image

Funny thing is every year I head right back up there!! :doh: :lol:

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