Proof Game Managment is a GOOD THING

[jared264mag]

I can sit right here and tell you that I have seen it in action. Me my Mad and my Grandpa are the overseers of a hunting club in Brazoria County. We have been feeding protein year round, building food plots and culling the small stuff and killin plenty of Doe. Its something that takes full commitment to of it will not work I can tell you that right now. I have seen it work and let me tell you if we can kill 110-120 inch deer regularly in Damon Texas then imagin what you can get with better genetics than South East Texas. Heck move down the road here in Texas about 50 Miles I know some guys killin 150in Cull deer so if anyone doubtes it or thinks its not worth it and is doing it be patiant it is'nt a fast thing but it 3-5 Years you will see a noticable difference. Would love to hear from yall in other states and even in Texas just to see what you think about it and if you have seen it work.

[wtnhunt]

Welcome to the forums.

No doubt management works, problem is in many places you just don't get the cooperation you need from neighboring landowners or farms and unless you have a large tract you just don't get deer getting any age on them. These bottoms here have the potential to grow some really nice deer, the deer have everything they could possibly need, but there are just too many people hunting this area now for deer to get any age on them. We have three different landowners bordering our back side along the river, and those folks have the "brown its down mentality", makes it kind of tough. I do still pass a lot of deer though.

[Dakota]

Management is almost impossible here in SD unless you own hundreds of thousands of acres. My hunting buddy and his dad own a little less than 80 acres and they try to manage their small herd. They have food plotts and shoot as many does as they can. They still don't see many deer on their land and the only P&Y class deer shot on their land was shot with a rifle. They mostly bow hunt but they do have a "gunnin' crew" for opening weekend of rifle season and they harvest a few does each year and one or two bucks of any range. Public land gets swamped every year by every body and his brother and it gets pretty dangerous. Any more if you want to have a chance at a decent deer you need to have private land lined up or find public land that is fairly secluded and out of the way. I know of several such spots where giant mule deer abound, but anymore if I'm out in terrain like that I'd rather be chasing pronghorn than muleys. Deer hunting in SD is almost becoming a waste of time these days.

Dakota

[Rhino]

There's no doubt it works but it takes cooperation to meet the goals set in a managment plan. This will be our 4th season that we've been on a cooperative managment plan with our neighbors. Our buck harvest criteria protects all 1.5, 2.5, and about half of the 3.5 year old bucks. Along with that are annual goals for doe harvest for each of us. We've easily killed more older class bucks since starting the plan compared to prior years. It's worked so well our neighbors have even mentioned increasing the buck harvest criteria. Before the plan nobody ever killed bucks over the 150 mark. In the past 2 years 3 150 class and 2 160 class bucks have been killed. Looking forward to what this year's bucks will grow. According to the state biologist that helped us set up our management plan this is the year we should see the full benefit from it.

Obviously it works best with large areas under the same plan. All total we have close to 10,000 acres under management between us and our neighbors. I don't think it's necessary to have that much acreage to see the results of a good managment plan but it still has to be large enough to protect the majority of the deer within an area. I regularily catch the same bucks on trail cam sets a mile to a mile and a half between sets. I've caught a few that traveled as far as 3 miles as the crow flies. With that said, if you can't get your neighbors to cooperate within an area of at least 1,000 acres it will be very difficult to reap much of benefit from a plan and much harder to keep the hunters on the land being managed to believe in it. JMHO for the area I hunt in southwest MS. :yes:

Edited June 17, 2009 by Rhino

[Orion_70]

Welcome to the forums.

No doubt management works, problem is in many places you just don't get the cooperation you need from neighboring landowners or farms and unless you have a large tract you just don't get deer getting any age on them. These bottoms here have the potential to grow some really nice deer, the deer have everything they could possibly need, but there are just too many people hunting this area now for deer to get any age on them. We have three different landowners bordering our back side along the river, and those folks have the "brown its down mentality", makes it kind of tough. I do still pass a lot of deer though.

Same problems I see.... It's even harder when you're hunting small blocks bordered by 3 other landowners and their families that hunt....

[jared264mag]

Same problems I see.... It's even harder when you're hunting small blocks bordered by 3 other landowners and their families that hunt....

I can see that being a problem, Here in Texas the state has helped out a lot and basicly they made a law in some counties that you can only kill deer that are at least 13 inches inside or have one slick antler. It may not sound like much but it is really helping out in these counties.

[Darron]

I try and manage my 115 acres in SE Ohio. I have 3 foodplots on the place that total just under 3 acres. I try and pull as many deer off my neighbors onto my property. 1 out of the 3 neighbors that border me practice management. The other two shoot whatever moves. It makes it tough, but I have trail cam pics of several bucks well over 140".

I do what makes me feel good and don't worry about everyone else.

[jared264mag]

.

I do what makes me feel good and don't worry about everyone else.

Thats the best way to do it buddy. Your doing it the right way!