I have a small piece of property, 25 acres. After several bow hunting trips to the same area I know that I have at least one small buck, four does, and two fawns, one a button buck, that are living on my property. Of coarse they roam but as far as I know, allways return to bed and at least start out there evening.

I have approxamately two acres sown in grass and several white and red oaks scattered throughout the property, with recently logged property on both sides.

I'm sure that bucks will be passing through to check things out as soon as the rut kicks in, and I may have a couple hanging out allready but if they are there not leaving much sign. My question is, should I harvest any of the does.

Sorry if this is on the wrong forum.

I find it hard to answer your question without knowing more about the deer populations on the surrounding properties, but if there are alot of deer in the area and since you only have 25 acres, I don't think you would adversely effect the buck to doe ratio by killing one doe.

Managing deer on 25 acres sounds like an impossible task to me. They just don't spend any significant portion of their time on such a small area. I'd shoot a doe if I wanted the meat. You can leave the smaller bucks alone, but the neighbors will probably shoot them anyway. That is the problem of a small acreage. I think you need at least 600 acres to really do any noticeable management.

Those deer are probably circulating through several hundred acres. They may be spending time on your property right now because of a particular food or because of some kind of pressure from wherever they last came from. They could just as easily be gone tomorrow, they could be replaced by totally different deer. Pressure from you or some dogs could send them away for months. If you have a tag use it.

I have 80 acres and unless you can form a deer management coop with neighbors there is little you can do to manage the deer in any significant way.

On my place I see certain deer for a few weeks and then they are gone for months, maybe several months. I typically have a few doe that are there a lot of the time, I call them homebodies, but even they disappear for times. During the hunting season they are off the property in a heartbeat if I bust them out of cover.

My ranch is 5000 acres and we have problems with neighbors shooting everything. One thing we have noticed is the increase of resident bucks since we started shooting does with fawns at side. Some bucks disappear for most of the year but some are seen all year long and can be harvested very easily. We have seen a significant increase in these resident bucks so if you do harvest a doe try to shoot one with fawns.

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Originally posted by buffalorancher:
so if you do harvest a doe try to shoot one with fawns.

why is that?

quote:

why is that?

Good Question.

The only reason I can see for that type system, would be shooting the adult doe, in hopes that the fawns would not be able to survive.

That way, instead of 1 deer being removed, either 2 or 3 would ultimately be taken out.

I can really see no advantage to that, as 1, the 2.5 to 4.5 year old does are the ones you that you want breeding, and, 2, fawns of does killed by automobiles, if old enough, will survive.

Realistically, on 25 acres your efforts at management will prove extremely futile.

There are so many aspects to managing white tails:

Make up genetically of the deer herd in the area.

Total numbers, or at least a really good guess, of the numbers of deer in the herd in the area.

Carrying capacity, of the range in the area, numbers of acres per deer/number of deer per acre.

Quality and quantity of forage available in a normal year.

Ratio of bucks to does.

Level of hunting pressure on the herd in the area.

That is just part of the list.

Do you have a creek or pond in a secluded, grown-up,brier-infested portion of the 25 acres?

If yes, you will always have Deer, especially with the logged property around you.

If no, the Deer "might" consider the area a bedding area, or they might not, regardless of what you do. If they can find a similar spot nearby with water, it will be the Hot Spot.
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If you want to Kill Bucks, then the Does make the best attractor going. If it were me, I'd consider the Balance of the overall Herd in your County and those Counties adjoining it. Talk to the Game Warden for the stats. If there is an abundance of Doe, then Killing them will simply mean another bunch will take their place(especially if you have water). If there is not an abundance of Doe, then the Bucks will have less reason to remain.
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I'd encourage you to think of yourself as Managing a much larger section of land, with the 25 acres as a small portion of the overall property. That is the reality.
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Under no circumstances allow anyone to "talk" where you believe the Deer are Bedding. Shooting will not bother the Deer nearly as much as someone saying a single word. If you or a buddy do Kill some Deer, save the Whoops, Hollers and Congratulations until you are back at the Skinning Shed.

Best of luck to you.

quote:

Originally posted by KSTEPHENS:

quote:

Originally posted by buffalorancher:
so if you do harvest a doe try to shoot one with fawns.

why is that?

There are several reasons to do this. Studies have shown that fawns that lose their mother after 3 months of age actually have a higher weaning weight. Fawns that are 3 months old are perfectly able to take care of themselves. Buck fawns tend to disperse less in their first year when weaned at an earlier age.

How many times have you heard "I'll just shoot a "barren" doe? Biologically there are a miniscule amount of does that don't get bred. Most of the "barren" does seen are actually does that have lost their fawns. So which doe will be in better shape to breed the following year? The doe without fawns will be in better body condition.

i tend to shoot the yearlings that are still trailing a doe.
she's not gonna go into heat w/ it still on her so i take out the problem.
sometimes ill shoot both.

That has not been my experience. When a doe gets ready to breed she will kick the yearling off. After she breeds the yearling may join up again.In Texas it is a sure sign that the rut is happening when you see yearling does wandering aimlessly around.

i have seen does nursing into december here.
the first doe i cleaned this season was full of milk.
we are so run over by does that we have a "rut" for over 2 months when a few doe will be in estrous.