Hello, My name is Adam Fuller of Haysi VA and I was just wondering if I could get everyone opinion. I live in Dickenson CO not to many of the land owner practice conservation around here and most of us own 100 acres of steep mountainous terrain of hardwood timber. And well here on our property we have about 50 acres and about 10 resident does that hang around year round but no bucks stay on our property year round; and I have been trying to get my brothers to harvest more does to help stabilize the buck to doe ratio. And they feel as many other people in our area believe, is that if we shoot the does that live on our property then there will be nothing to bring in the bucks to our property during the rut. And my question is, if we harvest some of our resident does here on our property will it actually hurt us from having any bucks come onto our property or will it help the population and promote more deer to move onto our property and not really hurt us at all.

I'm sure that you have bucks close by as well. Biologists say that fewer does makes for better buck movement during the rut which increases your chances of seeing them.
Some bucks, especially those 3 1/2 and older are mostly nocturnal and the more does available the less likely they are to move in daylight hours IMO.
Just my 2 cents worth.
Good luck.
Barry

That was my thinking on it as well; I figure the less does there are the more the bucks are going to have to move around to find one to breed with. If a buck can breed 9 does w/in a mile or two radius he doesn't really need to move far.

I was actively involved for about 15 yrs in the QDM of around 800 acres. Interestingly enough, we followed "standard operating procedure" for QDM and really hammered does for several years around years 3-5. Unfortunately, what we saw was a significant decline in the total number of deer seen, including bucks, after that. We then decided to back off of the does, and our buck sightings went back up significantly within a couple of years, including many quality bucks.

I dunno. It goes against supposedly sound biology, but my thoughts relate more to the days of my youth. I was more apt to go to the bars that I knew would have the most ladies at them, versus the hole in the wall that might have a couple. Always figured my odds were better with more does, uh, er, women.

Botetourtsteve...man, I can relate to your reply...been there and done that...

QDM works, but it depends on the area and setup. 100 acres isn't a whole lot of land. Even 800 isn't a ton of land. For QDM to work you must have your neighbors and their neighbors practicing QDM. If you are the only one doing it, you won't have much success. As mentioned above, the bucks will move to the land where the does are more abundant and that will work against you. Before trying to knock off does I'd work on improving the land to attract more deer. There is a lot of data on food plots, landscape, no man's land, and even baiting. If the food is good that will attract more doe and bucks to your location. If they are on the property sooner or later they will mess up and get in your sights. I'm not saying don't shoot does, but don't try to reduce their numbers excessively. I'd focus on food, water, and cover.
V