Either-sex hunting is good deer herd management | Batesville Daily Guard

If you’re a 50-or-older deer hunter, the chances are good you didn’t have many deer around your neighborhood when you were a kid.

Back then, the Arkansas and Missouri deer herd was spotty at best, and throughout vast portions of both states deer were rare or non-existent.

Good wildlife management and conservative hunting seasons turned that around, and today deer are well-established and are legal game in every county in both states.

In almost all cases, bucks-only hunting was the rule during those rebuilding years. Obviously, it worked.

Maybe it worked too well. Bucks-only hunting brought the whitetail herd back, and now many older hunters who remember the lean years are finding it hard to start thinking in terms of either-sex deer hunting. It’s hard to abandon a winner.

But different conditions call for different management strategies, and it’s understating the case to say that deer herd densities are different today than a half-century ago.

The fact is, bucks-only hunting was what got us here, but if we want to stay here, we need to shoot antlerless deer. A well-regulated either-sex deer harvest is one of the most important components of a deer management plan.

Most hunters and clubs realize the importance of managing bucks on their property, but many fail to realize the importance of managing antlerless deer as well. Many things can be accomplished with an adequate antlerless harvest, all of which ultimately affect the buck population.

A balanced sex ratio, shorter and earlier breeding season, increased reproduction and recruitment, and improved herd health are some of the desirable objectives that can be met with proper antlerless harvest.

The most common reason for hunter resistance to shooting antlerless deer is that they’re afraid they don’t have enough deer, and that shooting does will reduce the herd’s reproductive ability.

It’s just not so.

Bucks-only harvest, over time, produces an out-of-whack sex ratio in the herd, and this means many does don’t breed during their first, second or even third estrous cycle. Some does go through the year without breeding at all.

The does that breed late, of course, also give birth later in the year than does that conceived during their first estrous cycle, and these late summer, early fall born fawns typically encounter vegetation that is generally poorer in quality and quantity as it “hardens off” for winter  Full Story

Either-sex hunting is good deer herd management | Batesville Daily Guard.