Buck Manager | Buck Manager

Lease Management to Improve Whitetail Hunting

Submitted Question: “I have some deer hunting questions. I hunt in Mississippi right off the Mississippi river. We have been on a deer management program for several years. The rules are, you must shoot a doe before taking a buck. If you shoot two doe then you can take two bucks. For a buck to meet the regulations, it must have 21 inch main beams and be 4 1/2 years of age or older. Our deer manager says we have too many doe, but a lot of the members are getting concerned. We see way more bucks that doe when we sit in our stands. Our trail cameras pics have also captured way more bucks on them as well, but our lactation rate is only 50 percent. Why is this and how can we get an accurate head count of our deer herd?”

Buck Manager: The answers to the questions that you have asked are critical pieces of information for any deer management initiative. In many cases, if a property manager can identify the both the buck to doe ratio as well as the reproductive (fawning) rate, then that gives the manager a real good picture of what is happening out on the ground. That being said, I’ll be the first to tell you that it’s virtually impossible to be spot-on with exact numbers when talking about a population of wild animals. However, there are various techniques available that can help you reliably estimate those all-important numbers.

Whitetail Management for Improved Deer Hunting

Deer Leases and Whitetail Management

Most lands that are leased for deer hunting will have some ability to be managed. Not all properties are created equal though — that is for sure. Larger tracts of land offer better management potential, especially when it comes to controlled harvest. Regardless of the amount of land you lease, the activities (grazing, forest cutting, farming, etc.) of the landowner will, at least at some point, have an impact on the deer herd. Surrounding lands and the management, non-management or mis-management of them will also impact the place that you hunt.

The impact of neighboring lands increases as lease size decreases, another reason size matters. When it comes to whitetail management on lands leased for deer hunting, properties less than a few hundred acres in size must focus even more on habitat management and providing high quality food sources. Habitat quality, in terms of food availability, will impact the body condition of breeding does as well as fawn survival once they hit the ground. A low lactation rate (number of lactating does harvested divided by the total number of does harvested) is typically caused by poor food availability as a result of habitat condition. An increase in deer harvest, habitat enhancement and/or supplemental feeding can help in this situation.

High predator numbers, particularly when combined with low quality fawning habitat, can also result in the appearance of a low lactation rate within doe population if fawns are consumed earlier in the year. Predators, specifically coyotes, are not generally a problem in areas that offer good deer habitat. If the fawning rate is extremely low then targeted predator control should be implemented to reduce added mortality.

Deer Survey Methods – Using Game Cameras

Deer surveys are a must when it comes to managing whitetail. There are several ways to estimate deer population numbers. Unfortunately, a single survey method can not address all of the unknowns. Game cameras were mentioned in the initial question above and, yes, they can be one of the techniques used to survey deer. However, cameras placed on feeders provide little useful information when it comes to estimating overall population parameters. Cameras placed at feeders or at feed stations will do an outstanding job of identifying bucks.

Game cameras are probably the best deer hunting and management tool to come along in recent years. Motion-activated game cameras can gather tons of deer sightings 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and do it all remotely. Because of this, managers can get survey information on the deer herd without having to be out at the ranch or lease as much. They are real time savers. But like a lot of things, the results that one gets depends on how the work is done.

If game-camera-collected data is to be used to estimate the buck to doe ratio and/or fawning rate of a property the cameras must be placed away from feeders, either on trails or roadways or near water sources. Feeders are great places to see bucks. This is why hunters put them there. But competition (for food) at a feed station changes individual deer behavior. Many deer will avoid feeders because the larger, more dominant animals get the lion’s share of the feed. In most cases, the dominant deer will be bucks. Feeder photos can be used to assess antler quality in bucks, but should not be used solely for complete harvest management or population estimates.

In fact, hunters and managers will see even more bucks, at least on a percentage basis, during years in which habitat conditions are horrible. It’s not that there are more bucks out there, it’s just that more animals are searching for food. When the bucks move in, the does, and especially those with fawns, will shy away.

Camera surveys should be conducted starting four to six weeks before deer hunting season. Set cameras away from feeders to be triggered no less than 5 minutes apart then use these sightings to estimate the buck to doe ratio and fawn production on your land.

Buck Management by Age and Antler Quality

There are a lot of ideas floating around out there when it comes to managing buck harvest. Some are better than others. Many harvest buck harvest management strategies are just plain wrong. The way in which a property should address buck harvest will depend on the manager’s or hunters’ overall deer management goals. Shooting bucks that are at least 4 1/2 years old with at least 21 inch main beams is a good idea, but I would recommend simply shooting bucks that are at least 4 1/2 years old. If the goal is to get bucks to age 4 1/2 or older, then mission accomplished.

Placing the 21 inch main beam restriction on bucks 4 1/2 and older will ultimately end up protecting bucks that are lower quality (4 1/2 years old but less than 21 inch beams) than the deer you ultimately end up shooting, allowing smaller-antlered bucks to continue to sire and produce fawns in to the future. In addition, many hunters have a difficult enough time accurately aging deer on the hoof, so eliminating the beam length requirement would maintain buck age structure and eliminate the high-grading bucks that are 4 1/2 years old and older. Think about limiting hunters to one buck 4 1/2 years of age and older each year, but allowing them to use their second buck tag on another buck for management purposes (2 year old with 6 or less antler points, 3 year old with 7 or less antler points). Your camera photos will help you identify these deer, too.

Deer Hunting Heats Up as Temps Drop

The month of November has nearly come and gone and, for the most part, it looks like the whitetail deer hunting in Texas has been good to date. A good number of hunters have reported harvesting their best bucks ever, which is likely the result of above-average habitat conditions throughout much of the year combined with good deer management practices. But it’s not been all high-fives and big buck photos for every hunter. The first couple weeks of November were quite toasty (nothing new around here) and that kept deer movement at a minimum.

The warm weather left many hunters wondering where all of the bucks they captured on game cameras had gone. Morning hunts showed better deer movement over evening hunts, but even then deer sightings were slim for the most part. This was especially in areas that were still brimming with acorns. Fortunately, the weather improved. Mid-month delivered a real cold front across Texas that really got whitetail moving. As I traveled across the central part of the state one morning I observed no less than a dozen bucks walking behind, running after or frantically looking for does. Cold, crisp air tends to do that. Continue reading “Deer Hunting Heats Up as Temps Drop”

Texas Deer Hunting Forecast

White-tailed deer hunting is already underway for Texas bowhunters and those ranches participating in the Managed Lands Deer Permit (MLDP) Program, but the General Season–we call it gun season–is just around the corner for the rest of Texas’ hunters. This is when the majority of deer hunters head to the field to make memories and bag and tag their personal trophies. And for those gun hunters, November 3 can not get here fast enough. But the good news for those with sharp knives, empty coolers and elevated heart rates is that opening day is just over two weeks away and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) says things are looking good for both deer and deer hunters.

Source: “The white-tailed deer herd in Texas is doing well and stable. Despite one of the worst droughts on record last year, the deer population came through with minimal population impacts. Most areas experienced low fawn survival last year, as to be expected, but we had very few reports of any significant adult mortality related to the drought. Continue reading “Texas Deer Hunting Forecast”

Scoring Bucks on the Hoof

Many whitetail hunters are interested in scoring bucks on the hoof. Without a doubt, one of the most common questions I hear as hunting season approaches is, “What will this buck score?” I think it’s just a sign of the times. People want to measure everything now days. And most hunters are people; people interested in managing and hunter better bucks.

From a deer hunting standpoint, the score of a buck’s antlers is not the most important thing. However, it is one of many good ways to track the progress of a deer management program. Estimating the gross score of a buck’s antlers without the deer in hand can be accomplished in one of two ways, either using game camera photos or actually looking at the live deer in the field.

Most prefer to look at game camera photos because it offers a hunter all the time in the world to look a buck from many different angles. A hunter can check out the left side, the right side, the front view, basically everything you’d need to make a good guesstimate of the deer’s gross Boone and Crockett score.

Estimate Buck Score

A buck’s antler score is made up of quite a few measurements. Every set of antlers will have at least 11 measurements that relate to the beams of the deer. These include 8 beam circumference (mass) measurements, 2 beam length measurements and another measurement between the main beams (greatest inside spread). The remainder of a buck’s antler score is simply the length of each of his antler points.

More points and longer point lengths equates to a higher total score. An 8 point buck with very heavy antlers and long points can score the same or more as a 12 point buck with thin antlers and short points. And in my opinion, although there are many factors involved, the tine lengths of buck are usually the most important factor when it comes to racking up really large scores.

But what is the best way to score a buck from a photo or in the field? Fortunately, as explained above, antler score can be grouped into a handful of measurements: mass, beams, spread and point length.

Quick Scoring of Deer in the Field

Like most things, getting good at scoring deer takes experience, practice, and more experience. For me, the best way to relate antler score to what was observed was for me to see the deer, either from a photo or in the field, and then be able to physically measure the antlers in my hands.

After repeating this a few times, I was able to calibrate my mind, so to speak, and put the image that I was seeing into inches. It was then that I could see a 4 inch base (H1), a 5 1/2 inch brow tine (G1) and a 10 inch G2 on a live deer.

This happened because there was a relationship between past observations that I had seen and the physical measurements that I had made. Those proportions could then be applied and adjusted to fit other bucks in the future.

Estimating Buck Antler Score Takes Practice

It will not happen overnight. Even with some experience and a lot of practice it takes time to get proficient at scoring bucks on the hoof. The best tip I can give to help score deer is to combine the 8 mass measurements, 2 beam measurements and inside spread measurement into a single number I refer to as the “base score.”

To estimate the base score for bucks found in your area, simply use the base score for bucks that you have previously harvested. For example, mature bucks (5 1/2+ years old) on a property I used to hunt typically had mass measurements that totaled about 30 inches, main beams that were about 20 inches (remember there are two beams), and an inside spread around 17 inches.

To estimate the gross Boone and Crockett score of a mature whitetail buck on that ranch from a photo or in the field all I had to do was start with 87 inches and perform some mental math to add up the length of each of the antler points. This would allow me or any other hunter the place to score a mature buck in the field in well under a minute.

The base score could be adjusted rapidly and on-the-fly, allowing one to deduct a few inches for a deer with thinner-than-average mass (base score 85) or add several inches (base score 90) for a wider-than-normal buck. Measure or estimate the base score for middle-aged and mature bucks in your area and that will give you a great starting point for scoring deer this hunting season.

Buck Score + Aging Deer of the Hoof

Scoring bucks on the hoof and in the field is important, but not nearly as important as aging deer on the hoof. For hunters and landowners that want to improve the quality of the white-tailed deer found and harvested on their property it’s important to let bucks reach their full genetic potential.

Bucks can not do that if they get shot at 3 1/2 years of age, even if they do have 130 inches of antler. That said, each property has it’s own challenges when it comes to deer management and buck age structure. A “shooter buck” on one property may be a 6 1/2 year old but a 4 1/2 year old deer on another. There are a number of factors that contribute to an individual property’s deer management program.

The scores of the bucks taken from a property in a given year can be a good physical indicator of herd health, but so can body weights. If the goal is to produce mature bucks for harvest—a great goal in itself—then correctly aging deer in the field will be much more important than a buck’s antler score, but hopefully the tips provided here will help you do so.

Deer Hunting Season Shaping Up Well

The upcoming white-tailed deer hunting season is looking good for Texas hunters. Despite the horrendous drought of 2011, habitat conditions quickly rebounded last fall after some much-needed rain. It was not nearly enough, but it helped big time. In addition, acorn crops ranged from decent to good in many areas across the state, which was pretty amazing. This was good for deer populations because it gave them abundant food sources when they needed it most, right before winter. Not only did the buffet of natural foods allow deer to recover physically, but the mild winter meant whitetail did not have to move around in search of food, which is typically when deer make themselves available for harvest.

As a result, many hunters did not see nearly the number of deer that they thought they would. The corn under the feeders did not get immediately inundated by hungry deer. Now this was not the case everywhere. Some areas did not fair so well with regards to fall precipitation. Some areas lack oak trees, acorns and the fat-rich calories they pack for winter whitetail. But much of Texas’ whitetail population pulled through well and entered the year is good shape. Did some deer die off last year? Yes, of course, but then again some always do. Continue reading “Deer Hunting Season Shaping Up Well”