I want to put a disclaimer here saying that something is messed up with these numbers. I'm not sure what, but it has to be. This weekend during our shotgun season my uncle was asking me about my trail cameras that I have hung up around. I have been running 4 cameras since the middle of August, and added a 5th in October. Since that time I have downloaded nearly 1300 pictures onto my computer. They wanted to know if I could get them some kind of ratio for our farm, so I went to work Friday night on it. I went through all the pictures, and took all the bucks and put them in a folder. I then went through and found the duplicates and deleted them, so only 1 picture of each buck was there. I then did the same for the does, but only took a few out (I had 1 camera that had a doe walk by every day for a week at 11:00, and another doe that would show up at 3:00 A.M. with 3 fawns). I then went ahead and figured up the ratio, and knew something was terribly wrong. 1:4. That's right. 1 doe for every 4 bucks? I had 1 buck at 4.5 (he's dead), 2 at 3.5, 5 2.5 yr. olds, and a BUNCH of 1.5 yr. olds. I'm pretty sure I got all the duplicate buck pictures out to get an accurate reading. I came up with a few things that would screw with these numbers a bit. 1) Cameras set up on scrapes---obviously these are geared towards getting more pics of bucks 2) My "Funnel" stand---The camera here is in a spot that seems to just be a buck spot. I have never seen a doe within range here, only bucks. They cruise along this tight pinch point looking for does. 3) Nuisance Tags---For 4 years now my uncle (the farmer), has had nuisance tags, and I believe (not positive), has taken 12 antlerless deer out during each summer. 4) Logging---Some good timber was recently logged last winter/spring, leaving some ridges VERY open. There is ZERO sign in these areas. I looked back at my sightings for this farm, and was kind of amazed. Numbers are WAY down here. 11 bucks (which is a lot), but only 5 does. So far all together on our farm, there has been 8 deer taken between bow and gun season. 4 does and 4 bucks. Is this just an odd coincidence with the trail cameras? Or actually something to be concerned about? I saw very little rutting activity this year, although I rattled in some good bucks. Scrapes and rubs were very tough to come by too.
Interesting. I gotta think that you you took out some duplicates of does. Not sure how we'll ever know though. Notice many bucks with broken tines/antlers? Copious amounts of buck sign?
To have any kind of accuracy you need to find all the area's deer are moving and set camera's up to see what you really have. Putting camera's on scrapes and a "buck only" spot will be far from accurate.
Yes, sometimes, but not nearly as much as bucks since they usually don't need any help finding a mate when they are coming in heat. The bucks will most likely find her quick when she gets close. Even when they do use a scrape they often will use just one scrape instead of working them all like a buck dose, so unless your on that exact scrape you could easily miss her.
The pictures I got at the scrape were nearly all bucks. I did get some of a few does, but they were just passing through along the field edge it looked like. I didn't really notice it until I started putting it all together. Then I looked at my log I kept, and saw that this farm produced 2x as many buck sightings as does. Also the lack of chasing this year also popped up to me. Haven't seen one buck dogging a doe on this farm this year. I firmly believe that the 36 does taken out during nuisance season over the last 3 years, (not counting the ones taken by hunting) has played a MAJOR role. I set my cameras up to keep a record of bucks, and to see what is walking by my stands. It's just that these numbers were very surprising to me.
Its hard to say if most of your cameras are set up for buck spots. I'll add this though........almost the same as you in my situation in sightings this bow season. I'd venture to say I am seeing just a few does to bucks the whole season. Its as if the doe population has really gone down. Perhaps the taking of as many does as you want here in Illinois has taken a toll.
Late season antlerless only too. It's just one big deer drive around here from property to property. Hardly any stand hunting and the numbers of does they take are pretty high.
If they have been really hammering the does down there then maybe there are more bucks than does. Or maybe you guy's are just so good that you only know how to set up in buck spots.:D
Haha your second suggestion sounds like a good one, however it is far from the thruth. I am giving a rough estimate to this, but since he started his nuicanse tags in 2007, there have been roughly 50-55 does taken by those tags, and shotgun and bowhunting. During that time I would say that maybe 10 or 12 bucks were taken.
You aren't getting accurate numbers due to pressure, size of acreage of your farm, how the deer use your farm or camera placement to my thinking. 1:4 ratio running that heavy on bucks would make for a very aggressive rut since competition for does would be very high. You are seeing the opposite which you shouldn't be unless warm temps are having the bucks rut more at night when it is cooler. What are your neighbors doing?? Does their land see much hunting pressure?? Are they hammering the does like you guys?? Such a thing that you are pressuring the does off you land trying to fill that many doe tags. Better bedding areas for the does on the neighbor's land ?? Are the bucks bedding on your land or using it as a travel corridor?? If they are using it more for a traveling corridor to you neighbor's... it would explain the higher number of sightings for bucks verses doe sighting. Your cameras are biased for bucks to. Interesting !! Tim
