Deer Season-Does?

[indynotch50]

I've found everyone has their own preference, as you can tell from this thread.

Myself, October through November is all antler hunting. No small bucks or young bucks. Straight antler hunting. After November, I will shoot a doe for the meat. It's a high risk / high reward strategy but I'm good with it. There are years I don't even shoot a deer. I do other hunting so sometimes after the rut, I just never make it back to deer.

I have friends that shoot a doe early to get it out of the way and meat in the freezer. I have some friends that will shoot a doe at any time of the season just to make sure they don't walk away empty handed but mostly, the guys I know and hunt with only shoot does after the rut.

 

[natdscott]

A nice chubby headshot doe makes a great present to the local food pantry.

-Nate

 

[bloodtrail]

I hunt my own land so I take what gender is in excess. By looking at my trail cameras weekly throughout the year I can learn what sex is a little more plentiful. Example 2 years ago only had one buck and lots of does through the course of the year. So that year, I hunted does only so that the buck could populate the herd for following seasons. This year I have lots of average sized bucks and very few does. That's why we passed on a doe this morning. Right now I am hunting bucks. If you are hunting public land then shoot what comes your way regardless of sex especially if you are hunting for meat. You can't eat antlers as they say. If you are hunting your own property then be more selective for the long term good of the herd.

Unless you own several thousand acres, this type of population evaluation isn't close to being accurate. Deer will travel miles.

 

[Restroyer]

Unless you own several thousand acres, this type of population evaluation isn't close to being accurate. Deer will travel miles.

The landowners around me own more than I do but we don't own a thousand acres. Together in our area we share data on the deer - does do not travel as much as bucks obviously. I check several trail cameras weekly and keep stats so yes it is accurate for my situation since I see each week what is on my property and know what is on my neighbors property I also don't appreciate your criticism. I guess being a jerk is a quick way to get your 50 posts in?

 

[patience0830]

Holiday season in full swing, gentlemen. Kindness is the watchword for the day.

 

[Michigan Slim]

Not taking any does off the property we hunt in Huntington County. The state sanctioned slaughter of liberal doe tags took it's toll on the population and we are doing our part to let the herd come back. Remember folks, does are next years deer too. Don't overdo things.

 

[CHCRandy]

It has always been my experience that deer don't travel if given what is needed locally. If you have undisturbed bedding/thicket area, good food mix such as hay, grain, nuts....and a water supply, you can hold deer. I think the most important is undisturbed land where deer can rest without fear. You ever noticed how deer on high pressure areas just disappear on opening weekend of gun season? We never killed does early in the season, they were the bait for later in the year.

 

[Restroyer]

It has always been my experience that deer don't travel if given what is needed locally. If you have undisturbed bedding/thicket area, good food mix such as hay, grain, nuts....and a water supply, you can hold deer. I think the most important is undisturbed land where deer can rest without fear. You ever noticed how deer on high pressure areas just disappear on opening weekend of gun season? We never killed does early in the season, they were the bait for later in the year.

Exactly! Totally correct.

 

[minuteman32]

I am a farm boy living in the city, now. I used to hunt our own land, until my parents passed. I would love to find some land to hunt close to SE Indy! If anyone has, or knows of someone who has land in this area that would be open to hunting, please PM me. Even if not this year, maybe next. Looking for not just deer, but squirrel, rabbit, whatever. Thanks!

 

[two70]

The landowners around me own more than I do but we don't own a thousand acres. Together in our area we share data on the deer - does do not travel as much as bucks obviously. I check several trail cameras weekly and keep stats so yes it is accurate for my situation since I see each week what is on my property and know what is on my neighbors property I also don't appreciate your criticism. I guess being a jerk is a quick way to get your 50 posts in?

I think you are overreacting by a wide margin to what was essentially a more or less correct statement. A typical recommended rate of trail camera placement for a semi-accurate trail cam population study is one high quality camera per every 20 acres (depending on habitat) in a grid pattern OVER BAIT with a 8o acres being the minimum acres most often recommended.

It has always been my experience that deer don't travel if given what is needed locally. If you have undisturbed bedding/thicket area, good food mix such as hay, grain, nuts....and a water supply, you can hold deer. I think the most important is undisturbed land where deer can rest without fear. You ever noticed how deer on high pressure areas juost disappear on opening weekend of gun season? We never killed does early in the season, they were the bait for later in the year.

Even on a large, well managed property, deer will gravitate to the highest quality food source, at any given time, within their roughly square mile typical home range. Few properties are large enough to fully contain the entire home range of even a few deer. In any case one is not likely to see such "population" swings as described above on such properties.

 

[BStarkey 46947]

Shoot what you need for you. I am in the fifth stage of hunting, so I go to enjoy the outdoors and teach my son. If a nice buck presents itself, I'll take it and share the meat with those who want it. My son is in the first stage of hunting and if it is brown, it is going down. Good luck.

 

[Lwright]

Hunt what you want. Have fun and be safe. Most of all enjoy the beauty of nature.

 

[Restroyer]

I think you are overreacting by a wide margin to what was essentially a more or less correct statement. A typical recommended rate of trail camera placement for a semi-accurate trail cam population study is one high quality camera per every 20 acres (depending on habitat) in a grid pattern OVER BAIT with a 8o acres being the minimum acres most often recommended.

I am not over-reacting. I can specifically list the amount of deer that have been on my property in the past year. I hunt on the property where I live. I check the trail cameraS weekly at a minimum. There are some bucks that only show up once every couple months. Other bucks show once every couple weeks. There are a few does that show up every week and some almost daily. I do have a good food source (food plot - winter & summer) & salt blocks & corn when necessary. There are several corn & soy bean fields that butt up to my property and my neighbors property. There is a large pond on each side of my property on my neighbors lands. Heavy honeysuckle, etc. The habitat is set up to keep them on the several hundred acres that are owned by my neighbors and myself (I own the least of the group). There are several subdivisions to the west of us that help keep them on our lands. I love how all the "experts" say you cannot get a good deer count by using trail cameras. You can and we do because we work hard at it. May not work for all properties but it works for us and I have the videos to prove it.

 

[two70]

I think you are overreacting by a wide margin to what was essentially a more or less correct statement. A typical recommended rate of trail camera placement for a semi-accurate trail cam population study is one high quality camera per every 20 acres (depending on habitat) in a grid pattern OVER BAIT with a 8o acres being the minimum acres most often recommended.

I am not over-reacting. I can specifically list the amount of deer that have been on my property in the past year. I hunt on the property where I live. I check the trail cameraS weekly at a minimum. There are some bucks that only show up once every couple months. Other bucks show once every couple weeks. There are a few does that show up every week and some almost daily. I do have a good food source (food plot - winter & summer) & salt blocks & corn when necessary. There are several corn & soy bean fields that butt up to my property and my neighbors property. There is a large pond on each side of my property on my neighbors lands. Heavy honeysuckle, etc. The habitat is set up to keep them on the several hundred acres that are owned by my neighbors and myself (I own the least of the group). There are several subdivisions to the west of us that help keep them on our lands. I love how all the "experts" say you cannot get a good deer count by using trail cameras. You can and we do because we work hard at it. May not work for all properties but it works for us and I have the videos to prove it.

No one said you can't get a reasonable estimate of deer population in your area with trail cameras. What you can't do is run too few cameras, run them on too small of a property or both and expect to get any kind of accurate result. Which is what you portrayed in your first post and subsequent follow up post. You are assuming that you are getting photos of every deer on your property every year and that is extremely doubtful even with a well designed camera monitoring strategy. Your basically making the exact same faulty assumption that many hunters are guilty of doing when they are not seeing deer, ie. "I'm not seeing any deer so there must not be any deer here". Deer population sex ratios simply don't change as drastically from year to year as you described in your first post.