Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Buck to Doe ratios

I have had out a camera and what I have seen/ counted looks to be a decent ratio. I would have guessed that there would be more does. perhaps im just not seeing them yet.
On top of the 8 bucks pictured I killed 3 last season ( a big 8, a solid 6 and a dink) I didnt kill any does here.
if this is what you were seeing what would be your plan?
Right now I am feeding Corn, sweetfeed, alfalfa pellets and penut butter. As soon as I can find a decent price on rice bran i plan on dropping the corn.
The game camera is set up less than 50 yards from my bedroom window.
Should i move the feeding site to a more secluded area?






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Bucks tend to dominate feeding sites in most camera studies

True. You would do better by setting up a route and doing spotlight counts a couple of times each week over a period of several weeks. Be sure and let the local game warden or conservation officer know what you're doing.

should i take out the cowhorn and the little gnarley 6 point early on?

thats up to you, it won't make much of a difference.

its hard to come up with a plan based on your pictures, first they are done close to your home using feed, it won't give you an accurate breakdown of the population. in addition to that you selected the pictures to be posted, this creates a bias in the data. couple of things you can do, either set up cameras where you feel you can accurately get a picture of every deer on the place, or randomly select places on the property on a map, point all the cameras in the same direction and put the cameras out at different days for a 24 or 48 hour period. then make an average of what you see. wouldn't stand for a scientific study really, but should get you close to getting an idea of the health of your herd. then you take that, and depending on acreage and laws, then you can try to manage your property. its often extremely hard to do unless you're managing a very large area, or its high fenced.

I have seen several articles in GON magazine challenging the idea of a one-to-one ratio, or any ratio at that.

No one has answered the challenge with any varifiable scientific evidence that they have an accurate ratio on their property.

I was talking to a wildlife biologist at a local plantation, and he stated that if a buck has places to roam, that they will range as high as 12 miles. Unless you have a high fence area, it is unlikely that you can control the deer harvest. That buck you pass up on your 1500 acres will probably be shot on the next acreage.

Ringworm the small spike could have been a late born fawn.The 6pt should get a pass for at least one more year.Ratio is something people have been squabbling about for many years.I do know the large s.Texas ranches that tried so hard to get a 1 to 1 ratio finally gave up due to the fact that the mature bucks were busting one another up pretty bad fighting over the fewer does.The big money guys were not willing to give big bucks for a buck that had his rack busted all to hell and holes in his side. Most people now are satisfied w/a 1 to 1.5 or 1.75 ratio. A good rule of thumb Ringworm is if you see a 3 year old deer and it is a deer that you don't want breeding...cull him.Up until that age it's all pretty much guess work.Saw a film once of a spindly spike yearling that at 6 1/2 was a book buck.Ratio on the ranch was a smidggen over 1 to 1.5.It wouldn't hurt to move the bait site to a little more secluded area to capture some deer on film you've never seen before. My 2cents worth! powdr

From our experience on our club (it is not high fenced and 1300 acres) that we have managed for 16 years. We have made changes along the way, but by-and-large, what we have found is that when the bucks to doe ratio is closer; we harvest better bucks. There are fewer does to compete for and the bucks are up and about more. But the more interesting thing we found is that when we let off the does for a season or two, their population bounces back and we notice a marketable difference in the antler size of the bucks we kill. It could go back to the competition thing to me; but we conclude its due more than likely to population and competition for food.

What Southern said plus the fact that the more breedable does you have, the harder\longer the bucks chase leading to a less healthy-more stressed buck population coming out of breeding season.