Deer hunting BS thread

Friday afternoon I saw 8 doe and one unknown last day of archery .

 

The property we hunt is 44 acres, there is some bedding areas on it but not a whole lot. Most of our deer come from the neighboring properties and everyone around us hunts too. That's the reason if a decent buck comes out we usually shoot it because if we don't, they will. I used to see does and small ones almost every sit. Now, not so much.

 

In Mississippi all the study at the research lab indicates that does stay within the same home range as they are born in while bucks may travel ~2-3 miles somewhere between year .5 and 1.5.

If you do take does I would recommend taking mature ones because you know they arnt button bucks and old old does with start to only have one fawn instead of two. Unless you are in a prime area it is not realistic for yearlings to breed with any consistency although it is possible. 1.5 year old does however should typically have two fawns a year.

In your situation as long as you aren't hurting for more meat I would hold off on killing does. The more you have the quicker they can help to balance out the population hopefully

 

It is possible you sent seeing them due to the lack of bedding on the property you hunt as well. Bucks have larger home ranges than does usually so they are more likely to travel through your property. Maybe it is worth talking to nearby landowners to see if they are seeing the same thing, and if so try to all take fewer does for a bit.

 

This is one reason we haven't shot any does the past few years, we just don't see that many. We try to put 4 deer in the freezer a year because we eat a lot of it. We give some away to friends who need it as well.

 

In this case what you do or don't shoot will have little real impact on the herd. Likely your neighbors have no restrictions on what deer they take. Likely also they bait in efforts to keep the deer on the property they hunt. In this case I would say take what you feel you need for your freezer and if financially possible, look for a larger property so you can actually manage your herd.

 

They do bait as well and I know of a food plot on both sides of us. I planted a food plot this year but so far it hasn't paid off like I hoped it would, I'm hoping late season it'll work for us. Our season goes out January 1st.

I'm not complaining about them killing deer, I could care less. I just want us to have a chance and hoping our son who is 8 can get him one or two. My wife and I have already shot one 8 pt each with a muzzle loader a couple weeks ago so we're good on meat if nothing else hits the ground. It would be nice to have a couple more for jerky.

 

I talked to a friend yesterday who's son is a game warden. 2 guys I know got caught a couple years ago for baiting turkeys (they're rumored to be involved in some other stuff they shouldn't be doing too but I'm not going to spread rumors).

They caught them baiting with synthetic corn. I said what is synthetic corn as I've never heard of it. He said they dye it green so they can throw it out in fields and in water and they think the airplanes can't see it like they can yellow corn. He said what they don't know is they can see it because the sun reflects off of it. I said that's awesome, catch them all

 

Can you use salt blocks there?

 

Yes. I've been putting out rock salt for a while. There's a hole about 8" deep from a place I haven't put any in a year

 

I used the trace selinium block, its kinda pea soup colored. That works good and helps them.

 

you cant beat good luck.ive got a ground blind in a blowdown,sat in it yesterday morning. saw two bambis. my son sit in it this morning(he never hunts on the ground)and killed this 8pt. only pic i have. cell service out there is sketchy.

 

I would shoot whatever I wanted to shoot because, like @USMC - Retired said, you're not having much of an impact due to the surrounding properties and the choices they are making. If at all possible (and it's probably not) I would make an attempt to contact them and see if they would be interested in establishing some guidelines. Maybe something like 'kids get a free pass but adults have such and such rules'. Doubt they'll agree to it but maybe worth a try? If they don't.....blast away.

 

Nice! Congrats to him!

 

That’s nice buck! Congratulations to him

 

congrats.

 

pretty deer ! congrats to him

 

Yes ! momma putting meat on the table. congrats

 

if you want more deer Id leave the mature breeding does alone and shoot a smaller one that may not breed.just my thoughts. good luck. after reading further you dont seem to have enough acreage to do much.depends on what the ajoing people are doin also.

 

Those inner loins are about big enough for 2 biscuits each lol. I wasnt even gonna get em out but when we went to saw the carcass off the hams we had to make a couple cuts to expose the back bone and they were just there staring at me. I think I found my new fav way to clean a deer though. She hit just behind the last rib so I figured the guts were busted so we just skinned it down to the shoulders buy pulling down from the back legs (deer was hanging upside down of course) and turned the whole skin inside out. We normally would have split the hide down the belly then opened the cavity to remove the guts. This way got way less hair everywhere and we didn't have to open it up except for right at the hip. Just a ton cleaner of a process and unless you just want the ribs you arent missing anything