The buck to doe ratio is not nearly as important as the doe to fawn ratio. If you are around 0.8-1.2 fawns per doe you are pretty healthy. With the significant yote predation of fawns in some areas of the state, one can’t assume that a large number of antlerless deer means a whole lot, in and of itself. The neighbors might be shooting only bucks and plenty of them...regardless of what they claim they are shooting. I have seen some clubs claim they are only shooting quality bucks in hopes that you will reciprocate and leave more bucks for them to shoot. It is hard to imagine an 11 to 1 doe to buck ratio without a whole lot of buck killing.
The fawn/doe ratio needs to be established before doing much doe whackage. The numbers that you are seeing is encouraging though from a quantity standpoint.
The problem with taking a lot of does before knowing the fawn recruitment is that you can quickly get into trouble before you realize it and it is hard and slow to recover. Odds are that your fawn recruitment is OK but I know how our herd plummeted in just a few years due to the (unknown at the time) increased yote influence, all while the hunters continued doing what they had always done. Guess I am sensitive to the issue.
Last edited by CWPINST; 11-28-2017 at 05:05 PM.
If it ain\'t accurate at long distance, then the fact that it is flat shooting is meaningless.
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