Is your management plan really working?

[cashcropper]

On our club we try to practice management but have some members more concerned with managing the levels in their freezers. We have issues but stunted deer from over population aint one of them.

[Mike Murphey]

With all being said about Management plans, the best plan is one that you stick to and give it time that is needed. As with many management plans it sometimes gets thrown out the door in a short time frame by shooting the wrong deer. You need a written plan, everyone to agree to it, and make it last.

[Krivoman]

If you could do only one thing, I would let them get old. If I could do two I would let them get old and feed them during the off season. Without age you are shorting yourself if you are looking for big deer.

Age- #1
Food- #2
Gentics #3

With Age and good food the genetics will show themselves to you.

[bowsticker]

Yes....We cull, kill, whack, zip, stick, smoke, manage 'em out and/or let the air out of does but we absolutely do not "harvest" them....

This made me laugh.....

[Colton]

Yes....We cull, kill, whack, zip, stick, smoke, manage 'em out and/or let the air out of does but we absolutely do not "harvest" them....

Thank you

[lovemylegacy]

Yes....We cull, kill, whack, zip, stick, smoke, manage 'em out and/or let the air out of does but we absolutely do not "harvest" them....

Us too, Im assuming most on here have a predesignated quota of doe and bucks.

What about a "stop date" when you no longer will take a doe, or do yall take them all the way to the end of the season?

[Smart]

Us too, Im assuming most on here have a predesignated quota of doe and bucks.

What about a "stop date" when you no longer will take a doe, or do yall take them all the way to the end of the season?

We've talked about it several times, but we have a high deer population and we like bow/deer hunting to be fun so we haven't implemented any stop date. Many of the does are taken by kids with a bow and kids and their parents have fall sports, so I'm not going to rush or put any pressure on anybody to get their does killed before rut if it means a kid misses an opportunity to kill a deer with their bow. Likewise, if they can't make it out until later in the year or don't get a shot on one early, we aren't participating in a strict enough mgmt plan to justify telling a kid or even a parent/guest no on a doe when we need mouths removed. Will it bite us in the arse occasionally?... Sure, but we are good with that considering the mouth removal and kid opportunities.

[lovemylegacy]

Do you? Based on what criteria?

We have a rule that if you shoot a buck you must shoot a doe.

We have a predesignated number of doe to take each season

[lovemylegacy]

We've talked about it several times, but we have a high deer population and we like bow/deer hunting to be fun so we haven't implemented any stop date. Many of the does are taken by kids with a bow and kids and their parents have fall sports, so I'm not going to rush or put any pressure on anybody to get their does killed before rut if it means a kid misses an opportunity to kill a deer with their bow. Likewise, if they can't make it out until later in the year or don't get a shot on one early, we aren't participating in a strict enough mgmt plan to justify telling a kid or even a parent/guest no on a doe when we need mouths removed. Will it bite us in the arse occasionally?... Sure, but we are good with that considering the mouth removal and kid opportunities.

The reason I ask this, I got a pic of a doe in late Dec early Jan...she looked like she was about to drop. When I saw her, I decided to end my season, that and bucks were dropping antlers very early this year. The last thing I wanted to do was shoot a buck that shed his antlers and or a near term doe.

I like how yall consider the kids first...pretty cool. Not a lot of leases do that.

[Smart]

I forgot to add because you mentioned it. . Our rules say two does per member.....but we reserve the right for that to change. Every year we and the landowner (who hunts on his adjacent property) talk about what we see in person and on camera and change that number if we needed. This year based on larger doe populations in 2016, the landowner suggested for us to add a doe per member to our allotment so we did. Right after the drought of 2011, we laid off does the following years to help bump some numbers up, and took an opportunity to whack some older mgmt /cull bucks that we needed gone. So it has worked both ways.

[lovemylegacy]

Sounds like yall got a great lease, Smart

[KactusKiller]

Sounds like yall got a great lease, Smart

Been a great lease for 10yrs, they are doing it right with consistency!

[lovemylegacy]

Been a great lease for 10yrs

They are hard to find these days, better hang on to it