Hey guys/gals, Recently, my hunting buddy and I have noticed the few amount of does that have been present on our land this year. In the past years, we have had plenty (and I mean plenty) of does on our land that we would regularly see. It would NOT be uncommon to see 25-30 does in one 2 hour sit. We realized this was a problem for proper deer management and decided to start filling our doe tags each year. This allowed the mature, healthy dear, breed the top does. This would overall let the 'best' jeans carry on and the poor jeans die off. Now we have very few does and my buddy was worried that this would hurt our chances during the rut dew to low activity of does being in heat, but, in fact, it did quite the opposite. Depending on your intentions, does may have a different effect on how you harvest your deer. If you are an avid hunter and are able to put time commitment in by hunting (almost) every day, I find the number of does on your hunting location should be almost equal to the amount of bucks on your land. This might be hard to configure but with scouting using trail cameras and plenty of sits, this is quite easy. This will allow action to be plentiful an your chance of shooting a decent buck is greatly increased. Because bucks travel for miles during the rut, plenty of does will bring these big guys from far distances and bucks you have never seen before will most likely show up. Now if you are hunters that may be limited to time or have a big guy you would like to keep on your property like my buddy and I, I have a solution for you. As i mentioned before, the number of does on our property is very limited this year. This overall made the competition for them very high. The big bucks on the property couldn't take their time to find does or the younger ones might seal the deal too early. They were forced to come out of their hiding and search day and night for that 'hot' doe. Giving (you) the hunter a better opportunity to seal the deal with a monster. One thing I would advise against if you are planning to take does is to it during the early season, around the 3rd-5th week of the season. The bucks will be out of their bachelor groups by this time and they will most likely not be following does at all. If you harvest a doe later in the season during the rut, you might ruin your chance at a decent buck following her. Here has been my luck this year on film, let me know what you guys think and good luck this season!
