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re: Old time deer management ideas...why do people love em

Posted on 8/25/14 at 4:41 pm to
Posted by TheBowhunter
SWLA
Member since Jul 2014
230 posts
Posted on 8/25/14 at 4:41 pm to
There are two common misconceptions people have about doe harvest.

1. If I shoot alot of does, it will decrease my deer herd.

2. If I shoot alot of does, my bucks will leave.

Neither of these are true (or entirely true). First, in terms of population decrease, there is a tiny bit of truth. If you remove does, you remove chances at reproduction. What most people do not realize however, is that any given area has a specific "carry capacity" determined by environment, pressure, food availability, etc. By removing mouths (does) from your area, you are increasing the amount of available food for each surviving deer. Think of it like a piece of pie. You can have twelve small slices, or 6 big slices. The size of the pie is fixed. The amount of food is your pie, and it will stay the same unless you do alot of habitat management with forage production in mind.

In terms of the second misconception, taking does away from your area will not make your bucks leave. I spoke to a good friend who is a wildlife biologist on this topic recently. He said that "with the exception of the rut, bucks want nothing to do with does. Bucks keep to themselves, bed in different areas, often travel in other areas and feed in other areas than areas where large does congregate. By removing does from your herd, you are creating a "healthier" rut for your population. Your bucks will be competing for the remaining number of does."

Here's another factor about doe harvest that I never thought about until my friend enlightened me. In my part of Mississippi where my property is, we have very very fertile soils and an EXTREMELY high deer density (60-70 deer per sq. mile). We always have two big ruts (first and biggest rut is the first week of January) and the second is the end of January/early Feb. According to my trail cam data, over the past few years, we've had a THIRD rut in the end of Feb./first week of March. Bucks are scraping into March. All of this happens because our buck/doe ratio is so skewed that some of the does aren't bred in the first or second rut, so they come into heat again. This causes a problem in the fawning season, because we have does having fawns over a two month period. By spreading out the fawning season, there are less fawns at a given time and fawns are more susceptible to predators. If there was a single major rut and all the fawns were born at one time, there would be a big flush of fawns at one time. It would spread the predators out and be harder for predators to pick the fawns off. So a skewed buck/doe ratio has a major effect on herd health, rut health, and fawn survival.

In other words, SHOOT DOES.
This post was edited on 8/25/14 at 4:45 pm
Posted by tigerfoot
Alexandria
Member since Sep 2006
56681 posts
Posted on 8/25/14 at 5:51 pm to
quote:

All of this happens because our buck/doe ratio is so skewed that some of the does aren't bred in the first or second rut, so they come into heat again.
At some point the bucks are like, come on you chicks, I gotta get a sandwich.
Posted by weagle99
Member since Nov 2011
35893 posts
Posted on 8/25/14 at 6:27 pm to
GA and SC DNR departments have both reduced the number of doe days this year during the season for the express purpose of increasing the herd.

quote:

Why Reduce Either-Sex Days? Fawn recruitment rates — the number of fawns that survive into fall — have declined in all five of Georgia’s physiographic regions and about 26 percent statewide. Also, doe harvest rates have increased 13 percent over several years, while the percentage of does in the harvest has remained near 65 percent. Echoing these trends, comments during recent public meetings indicated strong support for reducing the doe harvest.

Combined, these factors warranted regulatory changes to reduce the doe harvest. While no regulation will satisfy everyone, the Wildlife Resources Division (WRD) developed a regulation that strikes a balance between addressing biological concerns with the deer population and the desires of deer hunters.
This post was edited on 8/25/14 at 6:31 pm
Posted by Huntinguy
Member since Mar 2011
1755 posts
Posted on 8/26/14 at 9:15 am to
The bucks that are born to those "third rut" does, will also get a much later start in life, and be "behind" the first rut yearlings all their life.

Manage does so you only have one primary rut, and generally speaking you'll have better bucks.

IMO....a third rut indicates you have too many does.
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