Question about deer herd managment practices

[tjones96761]

Here is the best analogy of "1 to 1" buck to doe management practices that I can come up with to describe what I am trying to say. Hopefully someone here can clarify for me.

Say every bar owner in Oklahoma got together and decided that year round, day after day, that the occupancy of their establishments would be 50% male and 50% female because it increases social networking (or whatever reason). So when the boys go out partying and looking for some ladies, there is no reason to go anywhere different, because the odds are the same at the local bar as they are in OKC or Tulsa. In fact in this situation, it would be better for the boys to go out alone because there is a good chance they wouldn't be able to all go to the same bar anyway.
Then one day the owner of Tumbleweed in Stillwater decides to go against the group and have ladies night, no 1 to 1 restriction, no cover and free drinks for the ladies. He doesn't have to advertise, simply spread the word person to person. when the doors open on ladies night there are 20,000 testosterone driven men from across the state headed to Stillwater for a shot at this opportunity.
Apply the same idea to someone who decides not to manage the herd on his land and let the ratio grow to 1 buck for every 10 or 12 does. all the bucks on the neighboring land will be flocking to the area where the odds are better and there is less competition, right? what reason is there to try and control the population on your land if your neighbor isn't going to?

 

[oneshotonekill]

I am no expert, but the first flaw I see in your theory is that deer do not obey property lines. With that being said you will never get your land 1:1 if all your neighbors are 13:1. Does go to food. So if your land is appealing to deer then you will have deer. The goal of the 1:1 is for herd health but it also makes the big guys get out and have to actively search for a receptive doe. I have read that mature bucks may travel 2 to 4 miles during the rut. I believe this is why some guys shoot this monster and then say we never ever saw this deer on our 400 trail cams. Harvesting does is good management.

 

[Tyson C.]

this could relate to our problem on the area my buddy and i have on his place. in the earlier years all he and his dad and two brothers would do is shoot buck, some nice and some could have been great if let be. but the doe population in the mean time had exploided, they would not harvest the doe. well over time it has been just him and the exception of a friend or two that hunt it (mostly once again bucks being taken if spotted, younger bucks 3-4yrs old). but what has happened from overtime within the last 3-4 seasons (first two years i video taped him) is that we do not see bucks as often. also maybe getting him to stop shooting at anything with antlers might help to..LOL...THIS is no lie; that around the beginning of bow season i counted from a stand 27 doe/fawn on the rye field that we watch and on the other field 18 doe/fawn both spots well outta range for the bow (they seem to be smart like that). so as the rut and over season time starts to take place and the deer feel the pressure/pressence from us and thier herds start to lessen in number, but they start moving at different times in #'s. so back to the point is that all his buck have to do is basically roll over and land on a doe, they do not have to venture to far to "get some", so they stay in the thick wooded areas where the doe come back to bed. now just like stated above, we did have a big one come in that we had never seen this year (and outta range) but the overall spotting of the bucks have became less and less....

so since we have became more educated/aware of population control we tried our best at thinning out the doe population this year. he and i tagged out with all our doe tags in no time, we even had a few people young or old that were having no luck come out and they walked away happy. we would tell them as a bribe to help our problem; you shoot it, we will clean it and section it up. i think overall we had roughly taken off about 15 doe total, not much but better than zero. SO now we are now in the process of making some new food plots to see if our theory will work. THEORY: thin them out in certain spots (not having so many on one field) by putting plots/watering holes in their way. thus maybe slowing down #'s to the area they may be used to going to. then being able to lesson the doe numbers for that particular area???maybe bringing the bucks out to an area we can control, then in a yr or two MAYBE actully be able to put the bucks in the area within view......

now you know the rest of the story.....goood day.

 

[crawdad]

Here is the best analogy of "1 to 1" buck to doe management practices that I can come up with to describe what I am trying to say. Hopefully someone here can clarify for me.

Say every bar owner in Oklahoma got together and decided that year round, day after day, that the occupancy of their establishments would be 50% male and 50% female because it increases social networking (or whatever reason). So when the boys go out partying and looking for some ladies, there is no reason to go anywhere different, because the odds are the same at the local bar as they are in OKC or Tulsa. In fact in this situation, it would be better for the boys to go out alone because there is a good chance they wouldn't be able to all go to the same bar anyway.
Then one day the owner of Tumbleweed in Stillwater decides to go against the group and have ladies night, no 1 to 1 restriction, no cover and free drinks for the ladies. He doesn't have to advertise, simply spread the word person to person. when the doors open on ladies night there are 20,000 testosterone driven men from across the state headed to Stillwater for a shot at this opportunity.
Apply the same idea to someone who decides not to manage the herd on his land and let the ratio grow to 1 buck for every 10 or 12 does. all the bucks on the neighboring land will be flocking to the area where the odds are better and there is less competition, right? what reason is there to try and control the population on your land if your neighbor isn't going to?

Wow! Should have read your post first cause I just got through saying the very same thing on the "What would you change" post. I've got that very problem here. After the first few days of hunting all the deer on our land runs over to our neighbors land and they don't hunt and they don't let anyone hunt on their property. So after season closes, we've got a over population of does back on our property.

I've also got dirty neighbors who own land on the backside of our property. They do a real good job deer control. Anything that resembles a deer, gets shot and taken home. Doesn't matter if it's a buck or doe, big buck or small buck, spike, spotted, fetus, if it moves its going in their freezer. I can't stand them and seems the game wardens cant do nothing about it so long as its their own property they're doing it on. And they start big gun hunting early, Oct. 1st. I don't think they even know what a bow & arrow looks like!

But you are right, if your neighbors arent going to practice deer management, then your wasting your time on your own property.

 

[dennishoddy]

I've also got dirty neighbors who own land on the backside of our property. Lots of us have that problem They do a real good job deer control. Anything that resembles a deer, gets shot and taken home. Doesn't matter if it's a buck or doe, big buck or small buck, spike, spotted, fetus, if it moves its going in their freezer. I can't stand them and seems the game wardens cant do nothing about it so long as its their own property they're doing it on. That sux for sure.We have a neighbor that is the same way evern though he gas gotten a ticket for it before. And they start big gun hunting early, Oct. 1st. I don't think they even know what a bow & arrow looks like!

But you are right, if your neighbors arent going to practice deer management, then your wasting your time on your own property.

Now it the time to try and educate those people. If you know them, just engage them in conversation, start discussing conservation and other reasons to get them to start shooting does. Just don't be confrontational, be one that is trying to be their friend, and slowly educate them.

 

[tjones96761]

Now it the time to try and educate those people. If you know them, just engage them in conversation, start discussing conservation and other reasons to get them to start shooting does. Just don't be confrontational, be one that is trying to be their friend, and slowly educate them.

This is the same bunch who has a full section of land that's nothing but brush, and don't do anything except shoot everything with horns during rifle season only, the rest of the year it just sits. I've heard the same basic comments from them about shooting does. "why should we shoot the does, the bucks are gonna go where the does are". But even if I could convince this neighbor, and his neighbor, somewhere in that 2-3 mile radius there is gonna be the one guy that doesn't want to, or won't let anyone else do it on his place, effectively ruining the efforts of everyone else around him. This is the "hole in the theory" in my opinion.

 

[dennishoddy]

But even if I could convince this neighbor, and his neighbor, somewhere in that 2-3 mile radius there is gonna be the one guy that doesn't want to, or won't let anyone else do it on his place, effectively ruining the efforts of everyone else around him. This is the "hole in the theory" in my opinion.

There is a little truth to this, but one guy with 160 in the middle of 1K is not going to hurt a managment practice that much.
The reason for a 1-1 ratio is that the bucks from other areas will move a lot more with a 1-1 ratio looking for unbred does. In my area with an exploding doe population, the bucks have such a choice of does, that they rarely move from their home zones, as they just pick out another doe. With a 1-1, you can draw bucks from other areas to your managment areas.