Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Too many bucks: a problem

I need some opinions please. I leased a 300 acre tract last year, but did not get to hunt it much due to work obligations. It is not a club. The price was right for me to get it for me and the kids. I put out a trail cam two weeks ago and pulled the card yesterday. The cam was positioned over corn and rice bran in the woods. In two weeks, the cam took over tons of pics: I can count 12 distinct bucks, including three heavy deer (big bodies and racks) in the 3.5+ year age class, several younger but racked bucks and several last year bucks. Here is the problem, while I cannot tell one doe from another, there were only 4 doe pics out of the total number and only one fawn.

I am rethinking my original plan to take a couple doe (assuming I could see one). What do you guys think I should do as far as how many bucks to harvest, etc.? State law gives each person 3 bucks and 3 does. It is me and two daughters.

I saw 6 or 8 does last year and did not shoot one, so I am thinking the above was a statical "fluke". Your opinions and suggestions are appreciated.

Thanks

is the 300 acres high fenced?

if not:
can/have you talked to neighbors to see what they have for doe populations?

what is the population density for the area you are in?

do you have the ability to put out more cameras in different areas to gather a larger sample?

hard to tell another man what to do specifically. if it were me, I would hold off shooting does for a few days if I was concerned about the doe population, if I was seeing them frequently, then go ahead. as for the bucks, thats your call. I wouldn't take all the mature bucks right off the bat, of course if there is hunting pressure in the surrounding area, they might just get killed elsewhere

Neighbors are seeing few deer at all from the stand, they do not have cams. No fences, just free ranging deer on mixed farmland (corn) overcut timber thickets, crp and mature oaks along bayou. I have water that neighbors lack. Could explain concentration of bucks pre-rut.

doesn't explain the lack of does on camera though. I wouldn't be too concerned about it myself, you could shoot every deer you see and still not wipe them out or come close. if you're trying to keep it for nice deer year after year, try to keep the age classes of bucks about equal in number and pass on the smaller bucks, maybe try to get the neighbors to do the same, or at least bring it up. its really up to your end goal, what are you looking to get out of the herd? if you want to fill tags every year, you can do that, if you're wanting to take nice bucks year after year, maybe a doe or two, you're on the right track too. as long as carrying capacity (K) of the land isn't met as far as deer numbers, I wouldn't worry about too many bucks.

Sounds like you have a good buck/doe ratio on you place and I would recommend that you hunt it that way. Don't over hunt your mature deer or your does and you and the girls will likely have a nice deal going for quite some time.

Also keep quiet about your situation or someone with more money will come in a pay more than its worth to access all those buck. Funny how it works but success often attracts those kinds of people.

"Too many bucks" does not compute. It simply makes no sense.

It's like saying "I had too much sex last weekend." Simply impossible.......

we don't have many does on our property but its only 100 acres. Surrounding has some but it takes almost a mile away to listen to folks say they see lots of does.

I put out a game cam this fall.... It took 1800 pictures before I had my first doe picture. And does are still in the minority.

I don't and wont' shoot does here. I shoot does in a heartbeat in other places.

The downfall is my bunches of bucks scatter during the rut trying to find the does. I've done every thing I can, trust me, to attract more deer, IE does... I get more and more bucks.

I'm not complaining. I went right at 14 months here once... never seeing anything but bucks on our property.....

BTW I shoot only mature bucks IE 5.5 and prefer 6.5 plus... and any cull that shows up... IE 3.5 and trash.

Contrary to old school thinking, it is almost impossible to have too few does. The land is like a pound, it will support some many fish (deer). It sounds like you have a place where bucks like to live, and that's a good thing. If the property is not a pen, and there is no overhunting of does happening...consider yourself lucky.

I agree. Consider yourself Lucky...

Thanks guys...four sits this weekend and not a deer in site...was in mid 80s though yesterday...hunted in shorts and tee shirt.

This may sound strange, but I used rice bran for a cam on one of our properties and found that bucks go to the bran more so than does. I put two cams about 75yds apart, one had corn in front of it and the other had rice bran and a little corn. I had 21 bucks on cam and the cam on corn alone only had about 5 of those bucks on it. I had only tinkered a bit with RB in front of my cams prior to last year. Had a relative tell me if I wanted more buck pics to put RB in front of them. I thought it was BS, but after running the cam on it for several months a mere 75yds from a cam on corn....

Maybe just a fluke. If it is indeed true, it'd be interesting to know why one sex would prefer it. Maybe like beer to men

Havent tinkered with RB this year, but may pour some out in front of a cam or two to see if it repeats.

loder

Was 99 for a high on Oct 1 this fall when I killed my best buck to date, at 621 pm, almost had a shot at him at 510PM.....

Don't give up. Sweat sucks when bowhunting though...

IMHO, one of the reasons I have bucks and few does is the bucks know where the food plots and such are, not that they like it better, just that for most of the year they keep the does run off. I"ve seen them keep them off the soybean patch in the summer one evening.

Then I don't have to wonder anymore why when we do see a doe around, its often middle of the day... thats the only time they can get there to eat....

Of course I haven't tried rice bran yet either....

They love the stuff Jeff. If you get some, wait til your going to have about a week or so with no prediction of rainfall and pour it out in a big pile. Put that new cam on it and see what happens. Lots of folks around here swear by it and after getting a good season on it last year, I'm impressed as well. Wasn't uncommon to get pics of old bucks with it all over their face.

I hunt a 2 acre tract and have seen this happen from time to time. Been hunting the same place for 30 years and I've found one thing is constant. Whether you shoot them, or let them walk, they won't be there next year. Just seems to be the case for me. I shoot a couple of mature bucks and don't worry about it. 200 acres is too little to manage in my opinion.

Thanks guys...four sits this weekend and not a deer in site...was in mid 80s though yesterday...hunted in shorts and tee shirt.

IMHO 2 acre tracts should be limited to ONE deer period. My real opinion is zero deer on 2 acres actually but thats not fair really.

And if it doesn't work on 200 acres then i should just quit here and start shooting anything that walks? Nah, would be no fun then not seeing from 6 to 15 or so bucks at many sittings.

I don't remember the source but I've read studies that prove bucks tend to live isolated from does. If you find an area that has a high doe density the buck density will be low, and vice versa. I live on approximately 200 acres in south Alabama. We are overrun by does with very few bucks.

Sorry............that should read 200 acre tract... stupid me

nah, not stupid, just a typo.... I do chit like that all the time since I"m usually in a hurry when I sit down for a bit to read or reply!

But we have tracts of say 10 acres that have knowingly shot 8 bucks in one year.... they don't care.

Me.. 100 acres and some luck about surrounding lands and who does or doesn't hunt and what they do harvest wise and we are good to go.

I'm sure when surrounding land sells off I"ll be cussing, and loose lots of my deer, young and old, till then I enjoy it.