It's bow season and I was in the country just fixing to leave the house with the XBOW and head toward a feeder and chair under a cedar tree. I have a corn feeder about 100 yards from my kitchen window. BTW, I don't live there. I looked out the window and there were 2 bucks feeding. So, not wanting to disturb that, I sat and watched. They fed for about 15 minutes and walked off. Then a couple more showed up. None of them met the "antlers outside the ears" measurement so were illegal. While they were feeding 2 more bucks walked by but didn't mess with the corn. Both were big bodied and legal. Several more showed up. Then, 2 little yearlings walked by about 40 ft from the kitchen. The bottom line is that 11 of them showed up in about a 30 to 40 minute time span. I went on my first deer hunt about 50 years ago and have never seen anything like this.
Oh yeah, hunted there this morning and saw nothing. One buck, legal and big bodied but had spindly antlers showed up this afternoon. Again, I was working on a chain saw and not hunting. Had I been there, I would have gotten busted. It walked right by the chair I sat in this morning. I wouldn't have gotten a shot had I wanted it.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP
I went on my first deer hunt about 50 years ago and have never seen anything like this.
That would make you 97 years of age! I always thought you were a little older than me.
I don't take any antlered deer. But, I've missed the last two weekends that were antlerless in our county. I'm not even sure how many I could have taken. I just didn't have time to butcher them.
We have been having herds of deer in our side yard, back yard, and by both ponds for the last few weeks. All antlerless. Two big does were looking at me through the kitchen window yesterday morning as I was making my coffee. Now and then I see a buck or two, but they don't count.
I was supposed to be headed to our snowbird home yesterday, but because of weather, I still haven't gone. Had I known I'd be stuck here, I'd have taken a deer or two in the last couple of days.
I'm going fishing. The boat and trailer are hooked up and ready to go. I expect to pull out by dawn tomorrow. The Spanish mackerel, flounder, blues, and drum are on their way south and grabbing anything that gets in their way.
My grandson-in-law will be hunting our WV place this month.
Our buck to doe ratio right now seems close to 1:1. I don't ever remember it being like that. We have also seen 4 big bucks this month. Those 4 are in the top 5 biggest ones since we have had game cameras out.
He is a big 12. I won't have him scored or anything like that. I am just a meat hunter who gets lucky and shoots the occasional nice buck. Thanks for all the compliments.
He is a big 12. I won't have him scored or anything like that. I am just a meat hunter who gets lucky and shoots the occasional nice buck. Thanks for all the compliments.
Very nice on all counts!
"Forget pounds and ounces, I'm figuring displacement!"
If we accept that: MBG(+)FGSF(=)HBG(F1) And we surmise that: BG(>)HBG(F1) while GSF(<)HBG(F1) Would it hold true that: HBG(F1)(+)AM500(x)q.d.(=)1.5lbGRWT? PB answer: It depends.
Got me a 12pt mainframe a few years back with 3 additional barely scorable stickers. I have a friend that scores them for me. Just part of the fun. Still hoping to break 170 some day. Indiana sure has an improving deer herd. Was not happy with the 1-buck rule when it first came out, but it may be partly responsible for more bucks reaching trophy size.
7-8 years ago I took some friends out to the ranch during a drought. We were working on an old jeep making all kinds of racket and mule deer bucks were walking through or at the edge of camp going to the water hole 50 yards away. Six bucks in total. Even when we were driving through the pastures the mule deer does ignored us.
Did I mention mule deer season had closed 4 days earlier.
This forum may not be the place to ask but with lots of land owners here then maybe someone can help me out. And this thread is talking of deer so here is the question. How do you count your Buck Doe ratio? For me, I'm not sure how to figure the correct way. Let say I have 25 doe in 175 acres for most if not all of the year. Of course some will slip over to the neighbors place but they will move back and forth most everyday because I have around 12 to 15 acres of year round wildlife food plots and water (pond and bayou) and cover. The bucks count will be somewhere in the 10 to 12 range with some mature and some yoy. So I am thinking two does to one buck, but what about the non resident bucks that travel through the place during the rut? I will see an additional 10 bucks that will show up (based on cameras) and sighting , and maybe more. Do I count those bucks in the ratio? I think they have to be counted as they will stay for weeks at a time and late season they will stay for a month or two. And maybe this will help answer. TP&W has set the harvest at two does and two bucks( at 13" or better spread, outside the ears) does can only be hunted during archery season and the first two weeks of gun season. And with that I don't think we have excess numbers of doe here.
Your thoughts on this
Last edited by TGW1; 11/05/1710:19 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
You ask a great question. I must say that I guestamate based on sightings since I spent a lot of time hunting. Part of that estimate is based on if I see small bucks trailing does unmolested by mature bucks during the rut. Not very quantitative, but my goal is to have mature trophy bucks siring next years fawns. If I see immature bucks getting a pass on open does, then I need to remove more does. Indiana has a liberal doe quota but only one antlered buck. This helps with managing for trophy bucks.
I think sighting while hunting or trail cams can both work. I have only a single trail cam, see more deer than I capture on that cam, and have always seen the bucks that I get pictures of, but have shot several nice bucks that I never caught on the cam. The difficulty is that bias creeps in when you can recognize a buck that you have already seen, but not the does. This may subconsciously make you think there are more does than there really are. I also look at the size of the herd once the rut is over and they form large groups. Sometimes, I have seen 4 or 5 immature antlered bucks in a herd of 20 animals. As I have taken more does over the last few years, I see smaller herds with the same number of bucks. This is just a relative measure of herd management rather than an absolute measure. Keeping the herd smaller also means the animals do not need to leave my place in search of food, and the lower density helps prevent disease (so far so good in my area). I do think that the lighter hunting pressure and quantity of good habitat draws in deer from neighboring properties. Of course, during the rut, they run everywhere.
Dave, we also use game cams and have run as many as 12 but we have 6 out now. I don't think game cams picture all the deer because we will see bucks show up that are not in the pics. We study our pics pretty closely and since we bow hunt mostly we see bucks up close or they will show up and we will say, Where did that Buck come from? lol And RAH we are like u when it come to holding as many deer as we can using cover water and food with little hunting pressure. Just not sure of the ratio. Everyone seems to talk of one to one but how do I count? Our Rut looks to run from Mid Nov through early Feb. First chase is on the older mature does and the second rut is when the yearlings reach 50 lbs or so and that is in Jan and Feb. With the rut running this long we will see quite a few bucks with some showing up for the last rut in Jan and stay into March before they disappear. And the resident bucks will show back up. Ha! some I don't think leave at all.
Last edited by TGW1; 11/06/1708:56 AM.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
I am shooting for 2:1. I think the coyotes and bobcats help keep the overall population down. I also think they take mostly fawns and weak adults. We have plenty of small game that is probably easier than taking healthy adults deer.
Yotes and bobcats? did I mention I found Mt lion tracks in a food plot year before last? I started carrying a pistol along with my bow after that when going to the blind in the dark. Or have you ever walked back from the blind after dark and herd a pac of yotes near by, I mean close by? That will make my hair stand up.
Do not judge me by the politicians in my City, State or Federal Government.
Coyotes don't bother me, nor do bobcats. If we had bears or cougars, I be packing too. Most dangerous animal in the woods for me are skunks. I've never been sprayed, but I walked through a stream one night coming back from the stand after being chased away from a foot bridge by one.
The only thing that bothers me is my poacher. He's been coming for years and has eluded no flash game cams and me. My biggest problem could happen if I catch him.
I guess I might step on a rattle snake but I don't worry about them.
On several occasions I have walked into a big mess of hogs at night. It's about like walking into a flock of quail. So far, no problems. They have missed me but it can get loud and scary.
The scariest thing happened about 20+ years ago when I and 3 others walked into a bedded herd of elk before dawn. They scattered, running into trees, and it was pretty loud but over in 5 or 6 seconds. Nobody got hurt but one of us had to return to camp due to peeing on himself. That was me.
It's not about the fish. It's about the pond. Take care of the pond and the fish will be fine. PB subscriber since before it was in color.
Without a sense of urgency, Nothing ever gets done.
Boy, if I say "sic em", you'd better look for something to bite. Sam Shelley Rancher and Farmer Muleshoe Texas 1892-1985 RIP