Take no more male deer than female deer.

For really biologically sound management, in most cases I believe you're better off taking more female than male deer, ideally 55% males to 45% females.

I prefer to identify the oldest doe in any group, making those my primary targets. This not only reduces the accidental taking of button bucks, but also helps break up doe groups, spreading them a little better over the habitat, as well as making those spread out deer a little more available for harvest (not just because they're more scattered, but also because you've removed the most wary one).

If you're wanting specific numbers, that's going to vary a lot, but 1 doe per 100 acres is not a bad "rule of thumb". It is somewhat self-regulating (as is simply taking fewer male than female) in that if you have too many deer, easy to achieve, while if you have significantly fewer deer than your habitat can support, may be near impossible to achieve.

Ideally, you never want to ever need to "hammer" the does.
Maintain a fairly balanced harvest ongoing, and keeping the total herd at or below the habitat's capacity is somewhat self-regulating in that if the deer herd is increasing, you'll automatically start taking more bucks, necessitating your taking more does. If the density is reducing, you'll take fewer bucks, and "need" to take fewer does. Again, "generally speaking", and just a good rule of thumb.

let's say you are hunting less than 100 acres or maybe between 100-200 acres and have no idea what others around you are doing, in regards to doe harvest.....?

is there something that I need to "look for" when deciding if I need to pop a few more does this coming season?

Such things as large doe groups...etc....?

thanks

BH

Never works for me. Hunt em with a bow and thats it. Works well on our lease.

Take no more male deer than female deer.

For really biologically sound management, in most cases I believe you're better off taking more female than male deer, ideally 55% males to 45% females.

I prefer to identify the oldest doe in any group, making those my primary targets. This not only reduces the accidental taking of button bucks, but also helps break up doe groups, spreading them a little better over the habitat, as well as making those spread out deer a little more available for harvest (not just because they're more scattered, but also because you've removed the most wary one).

If you're wanting specific numbers, that's going to vary a lot, but 1 doe per 100 acres is not a bad "rule of thumb". It is somewhat self-regulating (as is simply taking fewer male than female) in that if you have too many deer, easy to achieve, while if you have significantly fewer deer than your habitat can support, may be near impossible to achieve.

Ideally, you never want to ever need to "hammer" the does.
Maintain a fairly balanced harvest ongoing, and keeping the total herd at or below the habitat's capacity is somewhat self-regulating in that if the deer herd is increasing, you'll automatically start taking more bucks, necessitating your taking more does. If the density is reducing, you'll take fewer bucks, and "need" to take fewer does. Again, "generally speaking", and just a good rule of thumb.

I'd say one way is your immediate surrounding habitat conditions...preferred browse utilization...or maybe even more important, is how hard are the deer hitting the less desirable/palatible food sources....