How many doe?

[Lincoln Hawk]

If you have a very distinct browse line on your live oaks, the deer population is too high. Live oak leaves/branch tips are the equivalent of a bologna sandwich and shouldn't be getting completely hammered. Especially non-winter.

[Greenheadless]

Awesome stuff right here. I don't know much about the browse plants on our place but have decent knowledge of the population size for WT, exotics plus cattle. I journal every hunt and have been doing it for years but I am the only hunter doing it. I have suggested that maybe other should but no traction yet. This place is awesome and I see the potential. I am going to have a conversation with the LO this weekend about some of the things mentioned. I would like to talk to a local biologist but need to speak with the LO prior to doing so. Maybe I can convince him to make that call.

Thanks!

The LO can assign someone to lead as the go to person.

Be careful though, some LO’s can be touchy on questioning their logic.

MLD is a good program, but like anything, you will get out of it what you put into it.

For example, we do browse surveys every 2-3 years to see what our utilization rates are on 2nd and 3rd choice plants. This helps us understand our population dynamics and range conditions.

[Chance Love]

Do you have 7 hunters?

Awesome stuff right here. I don't know much about the browse plants on our place but have decent knowledge of the population size for WT, exotics plus cattle. I journal every hunt and have been doing it for years but I am the only hunter doing it. I have suggested that maybe other should but no traction yet. This place is awesome and I see the potential. I am going to have a conversation with the LO this weekend about some of the things mentioned. I would like to talk to a local biologist but need to speak with the LO prior to doing so. Maybe I can convince him to make that call.

Thanks!

The reason I asked if you have 7 hunters is that you mentioned he allows 14 does. So, 2 per hunter. If this is the case, you could be facing an uphill battle with the LO if he is old school and thinks each hunter should just shoot 2 does and one buck. Like others have mentioned, tread lightly here.

Top of Texas made some pretty good points. Just don't pay any attention to what the teeth show.

[stxhunter]

The calculator is interesting. It says 1 doe for our 400 acres.

For years my family had/ has had the old school mentality of not shooting does. Our population was really low and the mindset was they wanted more deer and die being the bucks. I started feeding protein about 4yrs ago and the population has skyrocketed since. I’ll shoot 1-2 doe most years, but no one else really does. It’s not uncommon for me to see 15-20/sit.

At this point I’m starting to consider increasing how many I typically take. If 10 of these doe have fawns each year, 2 of those have twins, that’s 12 additional deer next year plus the 15 I commonly see now. Feeding 30+ deer on a regular basis is going to get expensive!

[Greenheadless]

The calculator is interesting. It says 1 doe for our 400 acres.

For years my family had/ has had the old school mentality of not shooting does. Our population was really low and the mindset was they wanted more deer and die being the bucks. I started feeding protein about 4yrs ago and the population has skyrocketed since. I’ll shoot 1-2 doe most years, but no one else really does. It’s not uncommon for me to see 15-20/sit.

At this point I’m starting to consider increasing how many I typically take. If 10 of these doe have fawns each year, 2 of those have twins, that’s 12 additional deer next year plus the 15 I commonly see now. Feeding 30+ deer on a regular basis is going to get expensive!

Protein tends to do that to a population. It tends to be more of a population booster vs. horn enhancer as most folks think.

[Top Of Texas]

Top of Texas made some pretty good points. Just don't pay any attention to what the teeth show.

BAHAHAHA!

Come to mention it, Love, I didn't see your response on a previous tooth age post following a clarification on the methodology. So as not to hikack Rex's post, I'll see if I can find it and bump it up if you still haven't responded.

[M16]

I asked Larry Weishuhn(well known and respected WT Biologist)this question once and his exact words were:

"kill every doe that you see and when you have scared yourself into thinking that you have killed them all you might have kill 1/2 of what you actually need to kill"

They get smart. Very smart..

Larry is quite the character. He's also known for making some ridiculous statements. This is one of them.

[Huntingfool]

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