How Many Deer to Kill on 200 Acres

[Slicefixer]

Depends TOTALLY on the surrounding properties..... habitable acreage/habitat/location/deer numbers/herd balance/pressure/food sources, etc etc etc etc

BIG difference between 200 acres in the middle of the King Ranch or in between two large and well managed ranches or 200 acres surrounded by small heavily hunted properties or 200 acres surrounded by housing developments, etc etc etc

200 acres of great habitat in some urban areas of TX could be as good as hunting anywhere in TX.

[S-3 Ranch]

Being it's mainly for the kids I'd probably lean this way. Draw straws for a buck and shoot what makes the kid happy versus stair stepping points via young deer . Excluded from buck eligibility the following year.

That’s what my grandparents did , every hunting grandkid got a trophy buck one time and were on doe patrol till the rotation

[Tex_Cattleman]

If neighbors are hunting and killing deer, kill one or two mature bucks and three or four does. If there is no hunting around you, kill 1 or 2 mature bucks and every single doe you can.

We hunted a place in Kendall Co in the 80s and 90s owned by a rancher who was "managing" the deer herd back before anyone had ever heard of deer management. He always said you have the deer numbers where you want them once you have to really hunt for a doe. We killed bucks 10-20 inches higher than anyone around us.

[RiverRat1]

They're not going to just stay on 200 acres, so I wouldn't worry too much about a quota. Shoot a mature buck if you see one and he trips your trigger. Kill a doe or two for every buck you kill. If no shooter bucks, let the young ones walk and kill a doe or two to eat.

I agree.

The only variable would be how much natural browse you have on your property. If no cedars but lots of good food for deer then you can probably hold more deer. If lots of cedar then as mentioned just kill what floats your boat.

[Sika]

You don't have to have 1000+ acres to have a QDM program.

Our biologist certainly doesn't think QDM on less than 200 acers is a waste of time but you can't make decisions about harvest without knowledge of how many bucks, does and fawns are utilizing the property.

You can still conduct a census and figure out approximately how many unique does and bucks are utilizing your property, the density, sex ratio and fawn recruitment.
If you are feeding heavy and drawing lots of deer from your neighbors your density will be high. You may be calculating densities like 5 acers per deer or less. These deer come and go but they are still utilizing the resources available on your property on a regular basis.
A good rule of thumb is to harvest 20-25 percent of your does every year. If you count 30 unique does , shoot 6. Identify those bucks 5.5 or older and focus on hunting them.

[ElfEyes]

I'm really curious because I don't know but everyone advocating to killing all these doe, won't that lower the total buck numbers in the future? I hunt east Texas and I try my best to protect my doe because I want a sustainable herd. We already have more bucks than doe.

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[critter69]

You don't have to have 1000+ acres to have a QDM program.

Our biologist certainly doesn't think QDM on less than 200 acers is a waste of time but you can't make decisions about harvest without knowledge of how many bucks, does and fawns are utilizing the property.

You can still conduct a census and figure out approximately how many unique does and bucks are utilizing your property, the density, sex ratio and fawn recruitment.
If you are feeding heavy and drawing lots of deer from your neighbors your density will be high. You may be calculating densities like 5 acers per deer or less. These deer come and go but they are still utilizing the resources available on your property on a regular basis.
A good rule of thumb is to harvest 20-25 percent of your does every year. If you count 30 unique does , shoot 6. Identify those bucks 5.5 or older and focus on hunting them.

Just curious, what do you mean by “ unique” does ? I have never heard of this.

[TB80]

This is all good info. I’m taking it all in. Thanks to all and keep it coming.


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[Sika]

Just curious, what do you mean by “ unique” does ? I have never heard of this.

Maybe I should have said “individual.”
If you’re doing a camera survey, you can use the ratio of individual bucks identified to the total number of bucks photographed as the population estimate multiplier. For example, if you get 36 pictures of bucks but you determine there were only 11 individual bucks photographed during that survey period, 11/36=.31, multiply total pictures of does (say it’s 100) by .31 and you get 31 individual does. So your estimated population consists of 11 bucks and 31 does.

[trophy8]

I’ve hunted my grandparents 537 acre place in Mason my whole life. 2 big ranches that are 4K each border us south and west. East and north are 300ish acre places. Used to have neighbors blast everything. They got off 3-4 years ago. I fed and didn’t hunt for the last few years out there. I have now seen many mature bucks this year. Not big trophy deer. But many mature deer. I killed 2 5+ year old “culls”. A big 6 and a small racked 9 point. My dad killed a 130” 10 point. That was the trophy this year. My wife ended up killing a 4 year old 8 that was hurt real bad and likely wouldn’t have survived the winter.

My cousins used to hunt out there. They’d absolutely stack up young bucks. They wanted meat but refused to shoot doe. 1-2 year old bucks and they’d kill 3-6 of them every dang year. Needless to say I rarely pulled the trigger unless it was a junk buck. They’d come in for one weekend and stack em up. They are not allowed anymore. Deer have made huge improvements.

Those 4 bucks we killed this year didn’t put a dent in them. I’d prefer 1 trophy and any mature management deer shot up to 3-4 of them. But I’m stopping where we are for the year. I basically only hunt about 200 acres of the place.

I said all this to show every property is different. Be selective. Don’t kill young bucks. Keep dies in check(I haven’t seen enough to start shooting yet and I know our neighbor does a good job of killing them). Our deer bounce from my neighbors to us. It’s a team effort now and I think everyone is finally on the same page.

[BigOh!]

4 points , 6 points , just to "Get em started" is a bad idea..
Shoot a mature buck or two, and a Doe for each kid....

[asttbe]

We have 20 acres in Kerr county and the deer are like rats. We have shot 2 bucks in 5 years (one was wounded and our 13yo shot the other) but have probably shot 20 does. We've had 31 does at the two feeders at one time. I never see any bucks I want to kill, so I don't shoot them and I put does in the freezer. I also get an axis or two every year as they pass through

[Quackerbox]

Ive deer hunted on the same 200 east tx acres all 43 years of my life. Those that say you cant keep the same deer on the property are full of it. I have 1000s of pictures to prove you can keep bucks on the same dirt for years without a fence at all. 4 of the last 5 bucks that have come off the property were known deer with good history. And 3 of those where 3 inches or less from 150". I realize the bucks will move during the rut but ours come home every year

We try and put as little pressure as possible. We drive around instead of thru the property, feeders (7 corn, 2 protein) get filled on sunday afternoons when needed and cameras are checked on foot. There are 4 of us that hunt with myself, wife and son strictly bow hunting the deer. My dad is the only one that consistently kills a buck with a rifle. We've taken 3 does and a buck so far this year and my wife and I arent interested in shooting a buck. She and I been stacking swine

[kerrbow]

I would have sanctuary areas that are not hunted or even ventured into during the year adjacent to the 2 low fence ranches your property borders if possible, They can be just a few acres in size if they have good cover. You would be surprised what might show up on the rest of your property.

[KactusKiller]

I don’t think they are saying you can’t keep a buck around your property, they are saying they don’t solely live on your property.

One big thing that may be missed is you said it is high fenced on two sides. If you your property is 400yd wide and 2000yd long but the long sides have the high fences that can def hurt you if you are putting 7 hunters worth of pressure on them.

I def wouldn’t shoot a buck under 4 yr old and I would base my doe kills off surveys or simple observations.

If your worried about any kind of management and want everyone to be able to kill a deer every yr 4 is probably max number of hunters I would put on there. And that’s if it’s in a really high deer populated area like the hill country around llano area.

If your in it just for fun and not looking long term shoot what you like but the herd probably won’t sustain it self very long.