What are you doing for doe management

[selinoid44]

For those of you with tillable acreage that have also several acres of woods. How are you managing your population of does, if you are at all?
We try to take as many as we can, but tags are expensive. This next year I'm going to try to implement a rule on our farm. You have to take out two does before you can shoot a buck. Our doe populalation is out of whack and crop damage is getting bad. I already have 35 coon hunters and they do a pretty good job with that. Corn damage due to coon is unbelievable.

 

[Sailor]

I shoot anything that comes by my stand I hunt for meat.

 

[Leadeye]

Doe population around my place is way down last three years. Only saw two small bucks this year and years before I always saw at least one shooter. Coons rule the night. When I lived in the burbs I had to trap at least a few every month to keep them from tearing up stuff around the house. Drove the PETA minded neighbors nuts.

 

[singlestacksig]

if you own or lease, for farming, the land you don't have to pay for tags.

 

[42769vette]

i think in texas or similar areas where food is scarce doe managment is vital. around here food is plentiful and doe managment is not as important.

that said i take quite a few does for meat every year, and save my bucks for trophys. i take does from farms i dont hunt alot or farms with crop damage problems

 

[patience0830]

Eat 'em

We try and eat at least a couple every year. this year it may be a buck only year if I don't knock down a doe with the muzzle loader this w/e.

 

[kwatters]

For those of you with tillable acreage that have also several acres of woods. How are you managing your population of does, if you are at all?
We try to take as many as we can, but tags are expensive. This next year I'm going to try to implement a rule on our farm. You have to take out two does before you can shoot a buck. Our doe populalation is out of whack and crop damage is getting bad. I already have 35 coon hunters and they do a pretty good job with that. Corn damage due to coon is unbelievable.

Let me be the first to say I would be glad to come hunt and "only" shoot does. That is my preference for the freezer anyway.
Been doing my part for 20 years now.

 

[selinoid44]

42769vette, thats what I'm gettin at, sort of. Our county can take 8 bonus antlerless. Tags are exspensive. I have a quota of hunters that I will allow to hunt. Depridation permits are only good from June to September and you have to give a boat load of info to the biologist to get them. I'm looking for alternatives. Such as, hunters have to shoot a doe or maybe even two, before they shoot a buck. That being said, if a monster walks out and you have a oppertunity take him, do so with no penalty. It's merely a way to manage the herd to bring the ratio into perspective. I have heard I dont know how many times this year " I'm not seeing big bucks". Well guess what? They dont have to go meandering far to find does cause there is to many. The scanner is constently going off "car vs deer". "They" the politicians and the insurance people want to butt into our hunting and screw it all up. I want to manage it from a controlled hunt on our farms, and do it in a manner that will benefit not only us as farmers but also us that enjoy hunting big bucks.

 

[singlestacksig]

42769vette, thats what I'm gettin at, sort of. Our county can take 8 bonus antlerless. Tags are exspensive..

If you own the land you can take up to your county limits of does with out purchasing tags.. off your land..
non owners must purchase tags.. If you offer to let someone hunt your land they will be will to purchase their own tags..

"You must have and carry a valid license and applicable state stamps to hunt any wild animal, with exceptions as follows:

■Landowners, or lessees of farmland who farm that land and are residents of Indiana, their spouses and children living with them, while hunting, fishing or trapping on the land they own or lease.
"

 

[Jack Ryan]

When you kill a doe you kill about 14 deer you could have hunted over the next 4 years. About half of them would have been bucks.

To kill all the deer, kill all the does. Bucks are deer for these guys who think they are going to see more and bigger bucks by killing all the does.

It's really just that simple.

It only takes college degrees, experts, programs and clubs when you are trying to convince people of something that doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Then you need an "expert" to explain how it's not BS.

 

[blackoak]

In 2007 my hunting area was hit very hard with EHD. The herd has started to rebound enough that I will take a doe, but still I pass up 99% of them I see.

 

[selinoid44]

Jack I know what your sayin and your entitled to your opinion, I respect that. We have some quality deer. We have a lot of old does. Some are droppin 3 youngins in the spring. I know for a fact in one of our particularly large farms we have seen major growth in antlers. There are 10 people hunting this woods. Other then the kids and a couple of fairly new at hunting guys, we haven't taken anything under 125 inch deer. we are seeing great increases in antler size and age. I know Jack you dont care. Over the period that the one buck rule has been in effect I think we have also let the doe herd climb to a pretty high population. So, that being said, if all ten of us take at least 1 to two does next year I think it can only help. It will definetly help out with crop damage. The good thing is the neighbors are all in the boat with the rest of us. Other then the kids and the chickies. As far as the regs guys I know the regs and the landowner rules too. I was hoping to here from other farmers, instead I opened a can of worms. lol

 

[grunt soldier]

a lot of people believe thats what the new rule changes they proposes that didn't go into effect were aimed at selinoid44. basically if your only a trophy hunter you pass on does left and right, smaller bucks ect. and that has caused the deer population to grow out of control or so they say. i am not positive but this is what a lot of people who i have discussed it with believe it was aimed at.

 

[Gamez235]

I've got 6 of them bedded down in the yard right this second..

 

[mike4sigs]

?? Difference

I think we have two different discussions going here??

and some very good points on both sides ! yes killing does will cut down on size of heard and of course we all agree that a smaller heard,= food will be more plentiful but i dont seem to grasp the part about less deer making the size of buck different ( never have)

 

[Willie]

2007 EHD in my area tooks care of a lot of does...and fawns....and bucks.

The 2007 season reminded me of the early 1970s as to the amount of deer seen. We have started to recover pretty nicely now. Still not back to pre-2007 numbers though.

The farmer that farms the 80 acres south of me kills quite a few does AND BUCKS. The hunters on the 80 acres east of me kill quite a few deer. Not sure what all as they are pretty secretive, but my suspicion is they dont pass much. That was confirmed when I saw a couple of their buck heads at my taxidermist that were a yearling and smallish 2 1/2 year old.

West and north of me is spoil banks that are tough to hunt.

I really don't see a whole lot of need for me to "manage does" on my little 40 acre honey hole.

 

[Stainer]

I shoot anything that comes by my stand I hunt for meat.

^^^I'm with this guy. ^^^

Greatest gift my father gave me was my lifetime hunting and fishing permit which allows me to take the county limits every year. The year before that he gave me my 870 to do the work with!!! I try not to buy beef throughout the year if I don't have to.

 

[Goosepond Monster]

^^^I'm with this guy. ^^^

Greatest gift my father gave me was my lifetime hunting and fishing permit which allows me to take the county limits every year. The year before that he gave me my 870 to do the work with!!! I try not to buy beef throughout the year if I don't have to.

I wish the IDNR had not stopped offering the lifetime hunting and fishing permit.

 

[Jack Ryan]

Jack I know what your sayin and your entitled to your opinion, I respect that. We have some quality deer. We have a lot of old does. Some are droppin 3 youngins in the spring. I know for a fact in one of our particularly large farms we have seen major growth in antlers. There are 10 people hunting this woods. Other then the kids and a couple of fairly new at hunting guys, we haven't taken anything under 125 inch deer. we are seeing great increases in antler size and age. I know Jack you dont care. Over the period that the one buck rule has been in effect I think we have also let the doe herd climb to a pretty high population. So, that being said, if all ten of us take at least 1 to two does next year I think it can only help. It will definetly help out with crop damage. The good thing is the neighbors are all in the boat with the rest of us. Other then the kids and the chickies. As far as the regs guys I know the regs and the landowner rules too. I was hoping to here from other farmers, instead I opened a can of worms. lol

If you want less deer then what do you need to do to achieve less deer?

 

[TiminMishawaka]

I'm missing shots on bucks. There's my selfless contribution.