For starters... I am from Louisiana and have hunted my entire life. Like many of you I do not rifle hunt any longer. Not knocking it, but i thoroughly enjoy bowhunting more. Besides I am a good shot with a bow and mediocre at best with a rifle. Not saying one is better than the other, but to let you know more about me, I am a bowtech fanatic. I currently shoot an '07 Tribute and an '08 Nitrous. Now to my question. I have access to two great parcels of land. Luckily it is exclusive access. On one piece of property I shot does only for three years to control the buck to doe ratio. Last year the ratio was great. This year I am only seeing BUCKS. I have killed a mature seven and a mature eight point so far. I have actually seen Six bucks in bow range that have six points or more (big six point) out of the same stand. Only three does total have been seen out of this stand. There are active scrapes everywhere in fact they have been active for four weeks. i mean worked daily. i know this because I live on the property I hunt and ride four wheelers on the property daily. The deer our used to it and don't mind it. all i see is does at night driving up the drive way, but all my daytime movement is buck movement. I don't like shooting more than two mature bucks in a season and would like to take out some nanny's. Should I move to thicker security cover to find them or keep sitting food sources? The first rut is winding down so maybe the does will relax and come back? Should I only shoot one or two this year? i usually like to shoot double the amount of does than bucks, but don't want to mess up the buck-to-doe ratio. Sorry for the long post.
Hard to say without knowing more about your herd. But there are few areas in the country anymore that don't have too many does. So unless you had a big dieoff from a disease, I wouldn't worry about taking too many does from your spot.
Thanks for the response. It is just a little odd. A few years ago I could see 10 to fifteen does in a morning. All my bucks were seen on camera after dark. This year the bucks are moving during daylight hours and the does are on camera after dark. Usually in groups of two instead of the herds of them I saw in the past. I know it seems odd to complain about seeing too many bucks, but I am always thinking of the hunting seasons to come not just tomorrow morning.
