CountryBoy19
Grandmaster
I've been pondering this over the last few weeks. Hopefully somebody more wise than me can help educate me, and anybody else wondering.
Does (as opposed to bucks) tend to stay closer to their central territory/range. They don't venture as far as bucks, correct?
In a county with high bag limits (8 in my county) could a localized over-harvest of does result in a long-term (2-5 yrs) population decline? Or would other does move in from surrounding areas?
The reason I ask: after years of not having good hunting grounds and not enough time to devote to hunting public property or the few private grounds I had access to, I now have my own place with plentiful deer. I'm hungry for some venison (the whole family is) and I hope to fill the freezers. However, I don't want to cause long-term population declines. I would ideally harvest 3-8 deer this fall for meat. Typical deer sightings are ~2-6 does per night (very few bucks) within the ~200 acres I can see from my house, but I've seen as many as 12 at once (including this years fawns which would be spared). Will harvesting 8 does from this local area affect the long-term population drastically? I have no problem focusing on bucks, but I don't care for an old salty buck (at least not for the meat, it would be great to have a wall-hanger). The problem is, I just don't see many bucks that would yield good meat. I've seen a 6-point and 8-point once in a while (a total of 3 times this year), and a spike buck once.
Thoughts? FWIW, I'm a meat-hunter only, don't care much for antlers but something really exceptional (antlers) would be a neat bonus... If I'm going to shoot a buck I would be inclined to do so in muzzleloader season, after the rut.
Does (as opposed to bucks) tend to stay closer to their central territory/range. They don't venture as far as bucks, correct?
In a county with high bag limits (8 in my county) could a localized over-harvest of does result in a long-term (2-5 yrs) population decline? Or would other does move in from surrounding areas?
The reason I ask: after years of not having good hunting grounds and not enough time to devote to hunting public property or the few private grounds I had access to, I now have my own place with plentiful deer. I'm hungry for some venison (the whole family is) and I hope to fill the freezers. However, I don't want to cause long-term population declines. I would ideally harvest 3-8 deer this fall for meat. Typical deer sightings are ~2-6 does per night (very few bucks) within the ~200 acres I can see from my house, but I've seen as many as 12 at once (including this years fawns which would be spared). Will harvesting 8 does from this local area affect the long-term population drastically? I have no problem focusing on bucks, but I don't care for an old salty buck (at least not for the meat, it would be great to have a wall-hanger). The problem is, I just don't see many bucks that would yield good meat. I've seen a 6-point and 8-point once in a while (a total of 3 times this year), and a spike buck once.
Thoughts? FWIW, I'm a meat-hunter only, don't care much for antlers but something really exceptional (antlers) would be a neat bonus... If I'm going to shoot a buck I would be inclined to do so in muzzleloader season, after the rut.