Now I’d like to take a moment to explain the 3-part series of "QDM" blogs I’m going to post. These are designed for the hunter wanting to better the deer herd on their property and up their odds of both seeing and harvesting deer year in and year out. I will discuss how to establish a minimum level for bucks, how to properly harvest does, stand positioning and how to manipulate the land in your favor. The information will be of use for any level of hunter, whether you’re a pure meat hunter who could care less about antlers or those of you looking to possibly get a set of antlers in your hands that you consider a good buck.
Part I: Harvest Decision and Establishing a Minimum
You look in the paper or on the wall of your local deer check in spot and all you see are guys taking bigger bucks than you…shoot you haven’t even seen bucks that big in the stand ever! You go home dejected and simply frustrated…the next time you climb your stand an awesome thing happens a basket 6-pointer walks by and you make the perfect shot. While you celebrate and calm yourself down in your treestand you hear something…you look to where you heard the sound and meet a set of eyes connected to a huge 8-point buck. He takes off and you set there shocked at what just happened.
Now, some may say this is highly unlikely…you haven’t hunted enough. The biggest buck I have taken was following a yearling 4-pointer by no more than 5-10 minutes. Big bucks aren’t big because they’re dumb, I’ve witnessed numerous times older bucks allowing the younger ones to lead the way. Let’s be honest for a moment, things will happen, every single hunter has taken a deer they now wish they wouldn’t have. Mine is a tiny 8-pointer I took one season when I couldn’t take going another season 0’fer. I have since regretted that decision and wondered if I’d have another nice set of antlers in my man cave just asking for someone to ask the story behind that bad boy if I would have let that 8 walk.
Now some of you may be thinking you have only 5, 10, 20 acres of land to hunt, you don’t have the area or the resources to not shoot the first buck you see. Granted some places are more likely to have big bucks traveling them, however there are good solid bucks everywhere you go in most of the Continental United States; with the key being if you’re willing to wait for one?
So the first step in becoming a quality hunter is two parts in my opinion. The first is the most crucial; take does when needed. You will know your deer herd better than I do, and know when your doe population is getting far too high. Now you may be saying, but Ty I only have 17 acres of ground with hunters surrounding it. Okay, fear not I’m in the exact same position see this map:
I circled the places my father and I have permission to hunt, he owns only 11ish acres of it all. You’ll see we deal with quite a few other hunters and I didn’t even mention to the North and South there’s more on different properties. So as you can see I relate to those of you saying there is no way we can manage a herd’s doe population without a large chunk of ground. Not true, it just takes a little more work is all. You need to at the very least become acquaintances with these other hunters and if nothing else request they tell you when they harvest buck or doe (don’t worry about how big the buck is) and document this. You’ll begin to get a bigger picture of just how your local deer herd is affected each and every season. We learned that 9 does were harvested on the property to the Southwest…which led us to only harvesting 1 doe as they took over 70% of the does harvested within the properties pictured on that map. Without actually seeking out the other hunters and knowing their affect on the deer herd size, it would be quite easy for over harvesting to occur.
The whole goal to harvesting does and tracking it is to try to obtain a buck to doe ratio of somewhere between 1:2 and 1:3. Meaning there’s 1 buck for every 2-3 does in your local deer population. It's estimated that the normal US herds are around 6:1...not ideal. This will increase the activity level of bucks during the rut as there isn’t as many does to go around, thus increasing the chances of harvesting more and better bucks over a span of years.
The second part is the hard part for some hunters, picking the caliber of buck you’re going to consider a shooter. This is a personal choice you and/or your local hunters need to make. It’s great if you can get other hunters on board, but to be honest isn’t always going to be the case. We’re lucky enough to know that nearly every bow hunter during early bow season are not going to harvest any real young or small antlered bucks. However, come gun season we are less fortunate and realize every single year nearly half of our adolescent bucks will be harvested…we still however persevere with our set minimum my father and I established. We have a minimum of “Must have either 8 points or be as wide as their ears.” Now that minimum obviously is thrown out the window if come late season we get an injured buck coming onto our property or a buck we know is 3 or 4 and still under producing in the antler category. The key though is that we’ve established a minimum, and stuck to it. For some of you that might be a point minimum, say 4 points. Others may say only 120+ inch deer can be harvested; whichever it is set it and do it.
Now sticking to it at times will be hard. There will be times when you haven’t seen anything, not even a doe, for weeks and a little 5 pointer walks up and begs to be shot. If it falls below your minimum will you have the resolve to not shoot it? Allow me to offer some encouragement to keeping that deer alive. Think about the bucks you see during a hunting season, how often do you see the exact same buck? Usually not too terribly much, maybe every other time to the field if we’re lucky right? An example of this is that of all the bucks I’ve shot, none of them did I see twice in the same season. That means I saw them once and harvested them that same time. If that’s the case then you passing up that 5, could be the difference between him living that year and dying; he just may slip all other hunters for the rest of the season if you let him walk. Yes, you may never know or he may get harvested by another hunter; but you letting him walk put one more buck back into the buck pool other hunters have to shoot from (meaning one more that will live).
This is just the first part to establishing a level of QDM on your hunting property. The next will be Food & Water: Which Do I Need More Of?
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