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Buck/ Doe ratio???

For those that own or manage their hunting ground I have a question:
What do you feel is an optimal buck to doe ratio, and how successful would you say you have been in achieving it?
Lastly, how important do you feel it is to maintain?

Thanks
 
I have always heard that there should be 3 bucks for one doe. This is what I heard/saw on the outdoor channel so who knows. For me I usually try getting a doe in Oct with the bow. I know for a fact that several get shot around here during shotgun season and nobody does anything with them.

Hopefully with me putting in some much needed food plots these numbers can come back over the next few years.
 
buck to doe ratio

In Minnesota, my buck to doe ratios are out of whack, due to the season structure. Many bucks are shot during the gun season, and now in my area, doe tags are very limited (which is justified), except that does pile in to my property because of the food plots.

It makes for difficult management.

On my Iowa property the buck to doe ratio is better, but still plenty of does.

Ideal ratio to me would be 3 or 4 to 1...(?)
 
All depends on size of the property, age sturcture, and deer density in the area. Ideal to me would be 3:1 or 3.5:1.
 
Depends what kind of rut you want to hunt... if u want a quick/intense rut, got for a higher buck to doe ratio... if you want a less intense but longer rut to hunt, you want it probably more even... around here, I would say its pretty out of whack because everything gets shotgun hunted hard
 
Again,,guess my area should be in good shape,,after seeing 6 bucks and one doe in two wks.Who can tell though, unless you have one large chunk of land that you keep track of intensely.
 
I am not sure you can really totally control your buck-to-doe ratio(BTDR) to be honest with you without either having the cooperation of many neighbors or the luxury of controlling several thousand acres, and even then I am not sure.

My feeling is that something around 1:1 or 1.5:1 is where things would be if nature had its' way, but I think something in the 2:1 neighborhood would still be good.
 
I think it is pretty hard to know what your ratios are with monitoring and recording sighting over a period of time. I have found on our property in Southern Iowa it also depends on the season. During the bow season our ratio is 2:1 (2 does to every buck) that is a pretty good ratio, but also took several years of intense harvesting to get it that way. During the gun season, or say from Dec 1st on the ratio goes up to 5-6:1 (5-6 does to every one buck). We attribute this to several reasons.

First being bow season is during the rut, the bucks are on their feet more during hunting hours, so we see more of them. Once gun seasons roll around our data shows the bucks becoming more nocturnal. Second, during the bow season especially once the rut starts kicking in we don't see groups of does like we do during the gun season. So, I guess that in my opinion the time of the year you are hunting makes a difference in what you are seeing, therefore what you think your ratio is depends on when you are hunting. I may be biased, but I think keeping a detailed journal is the only way to really know what you have on your property.

That is my two cents, but we have been keeping track for quite a while and when we first started recording sighting our ratio was a lot higher than we thought. I think most people would find that to be true.

Dan
 
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