Buck to Doe ratio

[Legacy]

Just wondering what you guys are witnessing for buck to doe ratio for the hunting season. My numbers have been almost exactly 1 to 1 and if you include fawns it has been 1 to 1 to 1.

[FX]

Down in Eastern Wyoming County it's been more like 4 or 5 to one which is better than the 6+ in years past.

Shawn

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[Gator]

I've seen lots more doe than bucks, but like this morning I think that the doe are starting to group together. I had two groups of 4 or 5 doe come through; no bucks. Earlier in the season the ratio was probably 3:1 for doe:bucks, including little guys with the does.

[skipper19]

orleans cty unit 8a ....5 days bowhunting= 3 bucks 9 does....1 day gun season = 3 does and 2 tails

not as good as last year for buck count but I also spent more time out there last year. I think I will get 5 days muzzy in yet and see how that goes.

Mark

[chowder]

As I've said b4; when you have lots of does, lots of feed (active ag land), and lots of cover, bucks 2.5 and better can seem almost invisible but they are usually there in higher numbers than most folks think.

I bow hunted by myself on 7 afternoons (2 till dark) saw 2 bucks >6 pts & killed 1.Saw 4 bucks from spike-6 pts. Saw 14 does in the same period & killed only 1 (getting soft in my old age)

Ive hunted fire arms season 7 afternoons so far & seen 1 buck >6 pts & had to kill him due to extenuating circumstances (see my post 'another deer story'). During gun season I've also seen 3 bucks from spike-6pts. Seen 6 does & killed 3.

Most years I start to see more 1.5 yr old bucks than does towards the end of firearms season b/c the does start to group and the groups are led by hunter educated mature does who do not expose their charges to the masses.

I'm no expert on deer herd/buck management but under our conditions I would say that hunters should be aiming to kill 2 or 3 doe for every buck but I'm quite sure this is a long way from what's going on. What we have instead in probably .5 does killed /buck and probably 75% of the bucks are 1.5.

[Silver Fox]

The last 2 times out I've seen groups of 5, 3, 3, and seven. All does. Usually for me I've taken about 1/3 of my bucks in my lifetime the last week or weekend of fire arms season. My best 2 bucks came the last weekend in the last 2 out of 3 years.

[bluewater]

Chowder I think you are right on with what you said. I have a lot of friends that flat out refuse to shoot a doe on there property but will shoot any legal buck they see (and have probably about a 8 doe- 1 buck ratio) on there property with all there family members hunting them as well. That to me makes no sense at all! Their excuse is the does make the babys and they want more deer on there property!!! This year with about 10-12 of them hunting their land they have only killed one buck, 2 years a go they shot 10 in the same area and these were mostly small deer. Here is what I think and believe, 1st If you shoot every buck on your property you will not have any bucks to breed those 100's of does that you have to look at all the time and 2nd if you have any mature bucks left on your property after killing every buck you see and do not shoot does to bring that doe-buck ratio down any mature breeding bucks will have MANY deer to breed and no competition, and will not need to go far to find a doe and will usually just die of old age due to that. If you take some does and drop the ratio down it will make any mature buck want to wander the woods looking for a doe to breed which makes it easier to find/harvest them due to more activity/movement. You MUST take does to properly manage your land, not all of them but just enough to even out that ratio and let the little bucks walk. It may take a few years to see results but it is way worth the wait when you start shooting 8, 10, and 12 pointers instead of spikes and 4 pointers. Thats my 2 cents.

p.s. This will only work on your own land or land that has light hunting pressure. Most areas of state land are hunted very heavy and people shoot everything that moves so if you hunt only on state land and all you see is doe's you still need to take some in order to balance the herd. Regardless of where you hunt do not hesitate to shoot a doe unless there are not many in that area or the buck ratio is higher than doe. Another problem with too many doe's is inferior bucks get to breed as well because there are just so many (girls) too choose from and the quality of your bucks will go way down.

[dukhnter8]

In western Wyoming co many does and yet to see a buck, se orleans 3 bucks to 4 does/anterless, 2 of those bucks were really nice one had to be a 10 pt just too far to shot at.

[ray koziatek]

hmm lots of does and no bucks.........maybe their are so many does the bucks are all locked down naaa ... now 7 to one is my target numbers.

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7 bucks to 1 doe

weve seen 6 smashers this last weekend and every one was with doe...saw 2- 6 pt 1 -3pt and 1- 7 pt and 2 spikes all feeding with doe or buttons ,groups with little intrest in them they were all about the feeding....................look for white oaks and you got deer..the 2 nd rut is bout over chemung,odessa area.. so in a couple days the big boys will drop their guard and put the feed bag on......the one my brother got had "O" fat notta nuttin on the meat with the cold snap thell wake out of their happy mode and start feeding like starving rats....trust me.

[flybuster]

A couple years ago i attended a extremely intresting seminar at a SCI meeting,, This study was doe management for buck hunting. The first part was about ratios, the line i like the most was if the buck has 15 doe locked down in the swamp there is no reason to go looking for more. thats why you see 1.5 year olds running all over town but not daddy, he's home in bed.. when there are that many doe avaliable there is no reason to fight about it , witch is why ratteling ny dosent work like texas. if you had a true 1-1 or even 3-1 in your area the mature bucks would do alot more cruzing and fighting.

But if you ask me this is the reason you should shoot more doe, and im sure enough searching online you could find the whole study, he stated that 10 doe with 2 button bucks a piece were trapped all deer were implanted with tracking chips. 5 of the doe were removed from the property releasing the buttons back in the same spot, the other 5 were released with there yearlings. the next year at 1.5 yrs old the ten bucks that were released with there mother had left the property, they all had traveled 3 to 7 miles away from there release points. The 10 bucks who had mommy taken from the property stayed from 0-2 miles from there release point, His thought was this is a natural defense against inbreeding, regardless of why they do it they did and if you want to see more and more mature bucks you should reduce the number of doe and if you can help it take the one with buttons in tow.....

and ratios are def. not true or accurate this time of year due to nocternal movement, if you really have a gang and can efficiantly push all the deer out of a area would give you better numbers or wait untill they herd up after season and spotlight or wait untill a full moon but that still dose not account for the deer that are still in the woods

[flybuster]

o ya sorry , i am a pusher and my group dose pretty good and i would say that the 8g 9h 9m areas that i hunt ratios are more like 20-1 and as far as a buck to mature buck ratio 140 or better maybe 12-1. so we go through a uncountable number of acres to see 240 doe 12 "scrubs" and one shooter