FIREMANJIM
Well-Known Member
Went out yesterday to put out 18 cameras on our lease. Seen fresh acorns everywhere. The deer are eating them too......anyone else seeing this?? Our lease is 16,000 acres on the Tn Alabama line.
Acorns are already falling...
- Thread starter FIREMANJIM
- Start date
ROUGH COUNTRY HUNTER
Well-Known Member
maybe the storms have knocked them down
redhunterZ71
Well-Known Member
Yes I have a lot of chestnut oaks trees behind my house and I have found several trees that have already covered the ground in acorns. And I know the storms didn't knock them off because when I saw them that's what I thought and I went back a couple days later to look and they was twice as many on the ground and we hadn't had any wind or rain in those two days! They already look full grown too. I live in se Bradley co.
Chaneylake
Well-Known Member
#1 reason, maybe early spring, thus early fall
#2 reason, drought, trees will shed fruit to survive
#2 reason, drought, trees will shed fruit to survive
Mr.Bro
Well-Known Member
Chaneylake said:
My guess is #2.
They started falling several weeks ago in west Ky.They are all real small also.
While I have not witnessed it firsthand, I have heard this from at least three different hunters here in west TN.Mr.Bro said:
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
I would give anything to have 18 cameras. Then again, I'd give anything to be able to hunt on 16,000 acres 
FIREMANJIM
Well-Known Member
We have a few spots open jcdeerman. I can get you on if you want. $650 per year.
easy45
Well-Known Member
wish i had half that many cameras
Mr.Bro
Well-Known Member
I just hope the three cameras i have out are still there.
Find out saturday.Time for a road trip.
Find out saturday.Time for a road trip.
JCDEERMAN
Well-Known Member
FIREMANJIM said:
Thanks for the offer firemanjim. Honestly, its hard for me to hunt all the places I have access to. My time is limited. I remember being on a 4000 acre lease and it seemed you could drive on that place for days. I couldnt imagine 16,000 acres lol. And I do believe that a man can NOT have too many cameras. I might be contacting you at some point about a homebrew. I have about 5 or 6 old cameras that I'd like to turn into "something" that no longer work. I appreciate it though!
ghosthunter
Well-Known Member
They started falling early like that last year up there.
18 cameras, dang you should have a pic of every buck up there by the time season gets here. You got any pics of me? LOL.........
FIREMANJIM
Well-Known Member
We got alot of nice bucks this year Greg. Just finished up the deer survey. We need to kill some does. Buck to doe ratio is 7 to 1. It was 6 to 1 last year. If we do not kill alot of does this year it is gonna get out of whack. Last spring I had pics of Good deer that were not killed so I knew it would be great this year. Acorns are already falling.
How do you come up with buck-doe ratio to be 7 to 1. Just curious? Were all the cameras on top around food plots? Just by the pics I get from running cameras after season during Jan, Feb, and first 2 weeks of March. I don't get the ratio to be no where near 7 to 1. More like 3 to 1. I have been hunting up there every year for thirty years and I think there are less deer up there than ever. Although I feel the numbers are coming up since EHD hit hard up there several years ago. I'd like to look at some of the pics you are getting if you don't mind.
redhunterZ71
Well-Known Member
A
are y'all talking about DSO? If so I'm with you rack seeker I have been hunting sinking cove since 1986 and they was a lot more deer there then than now but the bucks do seem to have a lot better horns now!Rackseeker said:
rolltide22
Well-Known Member
18 cameras = stock in batteries. lol
FIREMANJIM
Well-Known Member
I use a computer formula designed by the QDMA and the University of Mississippi. Here is the link if you want to read about it or do one of your own.
http://fwrc.msstate.edu/pubs/deer.pdf
Essentially I take the property and divide it up into 18 equal parts if I am gonna use 18 cameras. 18 was the number I chose 2 years ago because it was the easiest way to divide our 16,000 acres at DSO. In the most central location of the individual area a mineral site was established using the co-ops red trace mineral salt. A blackflash camera was placed on each of the 18 sites and that is where the data was derived. Last year's data after plugging it all into the program was a buck to doe ratio of 1 buck to every 5.965 bucks. This year's data was 1 buck to every 6.398 does. That tells me our fawn yield was more on the female side and our buck to doe ratio is getting worse. I would love to get our buck to doe ratio at 1 buck to every 3 does and it can be done easily. Last year I identified over 103 "Shooter" bucks on DSO. I am classifying a Shooter buck as having 8 points or more to meet our shoot criteria. This year I have Identified over 118 Shooter bucks on the place. So that tells us we have a "shooter" buck on every 136 acres of our property. So our buck quality is improving GREATLY. After seeing the harvest pics from last year I knew simply from the photos from the study that this year at DSO should be AWESOME!! There is over 35 bucks on the place that will easily score over 140". Now we just got to find them and kill them when season opens. With the acorns falling early this year a hunter keying on food should be good to go. Last year there was acorns every where so the deer had to move very little to eat so therefore our harvest ratio was down some what. Of the 18 cameras, 12 are on top on the flat and 6 are located on the benches Greg. Hope this explains it all.
http://fwrc.msstate.edu/pubs/deer.pdf
Essentially I take the property and divide it up into 18 equal parts if I am gonna use 18 cameras. 18 was the number I chose 2 years ago because it was the easiest way to divide our 16,000 acres at DSO. In the most central location of the individual area a mineral site was established using the co-ops red trace mineral salt. A blackflash camera was placed on each of the 18 sites and that is where the data was derived. Last year's data after plugging it all into the program was a buck to doe ratio of 1 buck to every 5.965 bucks. This year's data was 1 buck to every 6.398 does. That tells me our fawn yield was more on the female side and our buck to doe ratio is getting worse. I would love to get our buck to doe ratio at 1 buck to every 3 does and it can be done easily. Last year I identified over 103 "Shooter" bucks on DSO. I am classifying a Shooter buck as having 8 points or more to meet our shoot criteria. This year I have Identified over 118 Shooter bucks on the place. So that tells us we have a "shooter" buck on every 136 acres of our property. So our buck quality is improving GREATLY. After seeing the harvest pics from last year I knew simply from the photos from the study that this year at DSO should be AWESOME!! There is over 35 bucks on the place that will easily score over 140". Now we just got to find them and kill them when season opens. With the acorns falling early this year a hunter keying on food should be good to go. Last year there was acorns every where so the deer had to move very little to eat so therefore our harvest ratio was down some what. Of the 18 cameras, 12 are on top on the flat and 6 are located on the benches Greg. Hope this explains it all.
BSK
Well-Known Member
I wish I only had 18 cameras to worry about...
BSK
Well-Known Member
Take summer baited census sex ratio numbers with a HUGE grain of salt.
