Doe to Buck ratio

In your opinion what is a good Doe to Buck ratio, we have been on MLD 1 for four years and my FIL believes we are taking too many Does. I have seen a big improvement in fawn survival this year and believe we are on the right track. My best guess after hunting all of bow season we are at around 7:1 ratio of Doe to Buck and am afraid if we don't continue when we have a dry year there will be a die off and the fawns will suffer the most. What do you want you ratio to be?

Hogs, cars, trucks, and coyotes keep east Texas doe ratios down. I see 50/50 in some areas andI dont even kill does there. I have killed maybe 3 does in 30 years of hunting. Mid to south Tx. Have more slicks. Good luck.

When we started hunting on that place I believe it was closer to 15:1 ratio.

Alotta does. Understadlbly time to thin them out. They say the mom runs her son or sons off to prevent inbreeding. So thick herds of does may be mass confusion for young bucks. I hear those front hoofs hurt. May be a more comfortable environment overall for bucks to not have so many naggs around and there may be more grubb to eat.

If you are MLD1 (now the harvest option) and are still at 7 to 1, what was it four years ago when you started in the MLD program? How big is the property? Where is it located? Have you done population surveys this fall? Have you been filling the MLD tag quota each year? Do all the neighbors shoot only deer with horns and/or anything with horns? Sorry for all the questions, would just need some more info to understand your situation better.

With just the info you have given, 7 to 1 is way out of balance. I am not understanding why your FIL believes you are taking too many does if it is 7 to 1. Sounds like you guys need to quadruple down on the does.

A good doe to buck ratio is 2 to 1. We shoot for 1 to 1 on our low fenced ranch. We have big neighbors and little to moderate hunting pressure around us, and gotten close (1.5 to 1).

We hunt Yegua creek bottom in Lee county and we do deer survey each year, we are blessed with better than average deer population for the area partly to do with several neighbors that don't allow deer hunting. We only have 500 acres but high numbers of deer. My FIL just doesn't have the experience that I do. I hunted as a teenager in Sutton county and witnessed a big die off because of a LO and their restrictions.

Just saw your response that you started at 15 to 1. You are making good progress. Realkiller kind of alluded to something to keep in mind. The buck fawns your does are having will not make their home range on your property (unless it is a huge piece of property). Bucks are run off by their mothers and the young bucks seek their own home range away from their mother's home range. The bucks on your property came from neighboring properties. I am making the assumption that your FIL believes shooting does will hurt the buck population. It won't. The young bucks will move in from the neighboring properties every year and fill the buck segment. If my assumption is wrong, just ignore this point.

You are correct, where the doe are the bucks will be is what he says. I think we have more than enough Doe for our property. If every mature Doe raises a fawn or twins we need to cull some Doe in my opinion.

If the neighbors are not hunting, all the more reason to keep hammering your does. On the positive side, the neighbors not hunting allows their buck fawns to have a better than average chance of surviving and continue to fill out your buck segment when they move on from their mamas.

Another thing to consider - If you know how many deer you have per acre and how many your property will support, you want your overall number of mouths to feed to be at about 80% of carrying capacity. That is also another equation you want to try and achieve. There are lots and lots of other variables that can come into play, but the two most important things you can do are to focus on carrying capacity and doe to buck ratio in my opinion. You are on the right track and know from first hand experience what can happen with droughts and over-population. Keep up the good work.

You only need enough momma cows to replenish the herd. If you have age classes, sex ratios and deer/ac right, you'll be shooting most of your doe fawns (or their mommas) every year. We prefer a doe to every 1.5 bucks.

Agreed, we only take (3) mature Bucks every year. Just trying to keep the does in check.

7:1 makes it hard to manage for quality bucks. Remove those female mouths until you get close to equilibrium on sex ratios. If nothing else, noise levels in the area will be significantly reduced.

Then start culling bucks, while maintaining your annual doe harvest. Won't hurt a thing to kill a few mature bucks each year. Good luck

Ask your FIL if he would rather hunt doe or bucks. With a 7:1 ratio all your hunting is doe. The land will only carry so many deer, the tighter the ratio the more bucks you can have. The hardest part of deer management is managing your hunters IMO. And one last thought, your bucks are killing themselves tying to breed that many doe. The ones left are spending their time regaining body weight instead of antler growth. I would also think fawn survival rate would be down to. Late born fawns have a hard time during the heat of the summer...JAT

We have too many deer and the boys do not want to go to MLD

If anyone can talk them into going to MLD you can Ramsey! Hope all is well bud!

With a 7:1 ratio, it is hard to imagine that the age class is in order

3 bucks per doe on our place. Been that way for the past 18 years. We don't shoot doe.

How many of you fellas with a higher number of bucks than does are HF?

We are a similar sized property to the OP and if we attempted to shoot down to a 1:1 ratio the pressure on the deer would be so intense we wouldn't see any deer to shoot. Don't get me wrong we shoot a good number of does every year, but it is just not practical. Not to mention if he shot the doe numbers down to that come the rut they wouldn't have any bucks left on their property.

HF?

Not saying that is the case with the ones posting, but many people determine the ratio from camera and stand counts. If I did that on my place, we would have a 15:1 buck to doe ratio. Doe get pushed off the feeders and eventually quit trying to come in. This is especially true on years that there is better natural groceries.

We have 1,800 acres high-fenced and 900 low, redchevy. I used to lease the 8,500 acre low-fenced ranch next door. It took two solid years of culling, but we got the ratio down to 1:1 and had a ton of good bucks. We base our numbers off of helicopter surveys.

I just think on 500 acres if you pressure enough to get down to a 1:1 or close ratio the hunting pressure is going to adversely affect what your seeing. We for sure noticed it on our place.

2 to 1 if not 1 to 1

I don't want to get to 1:1 ratio, maybe around 1:3 ratio, I enjoy seeing the higher numbers but I also know the consequences of not shooting enough Does could come at a high cost. I just try to as a responsible hunter as possible. Deer population varies so much even in the same county, hope everyone has a good experience this weekend!

Free range. Weird.

Good info. Ahh it's a love have relationship with the ol does. I figure what invasive pest and predators dont kill them, the vehicles and brown its down folks will. I see just as many bucks as does in alot of east Texas areas. It's like civil war days for deer these days, but the are all just trying to walk the gauntlet of too many hunters and junk pigs, cars, and predators.