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Crazymonkey

Doe hunts????

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Am I the only one that thinks we need a few doe hunts in some units to balance the heard.not every year but every few depending on population and ratio.move the hunts from unit to unit as needed .I'm not a biologist just a hunter .it works in the mid west .better balance could lead to a healthy heard.there are several units that the doe to buck population seems outa wack .

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40 minutes ago, Crazymonkey said:

Am I the only one that thinks we need a few doe hunts in some units to balance the heard.

Hopefully lol - the other states you refer to need less deer in the population, not more. Several units just need less tags.

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I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure baby deer come from female deer.  More female deer = more deer some of which (maybe 50%?) will be male deer. It feels like that lesson was lost on elk by the pure insanity of the number of cow elk tags/slaughter on some hunt and in some units.  I hope that call is never given on our deer population.    

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So do you feel like there are too many deer where you hunt or just not enough bucks? These are two completely different topics. 

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1 hour ago, Crazymonkey said:

Am I the only one that thinks we need a few doe hunts in some units to balance the heard.not every year but every few depending on population and ratio.move the hunts from unit to unit as needed .I'm not a biologist just a hunter .it works in the mid west .better balance could lead to a healthy heard.there are several units that the doe to buck population seems outa wack .

The deer numbers in the Midwest are so high they have to kill does. We don’t have enough deer to kill does. 

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The thought is that with so many does in a given unit that a buck would not get around to breading the doe and then we have two and three different cycles of fawns which could drop in times that are not conducive to there survival.that alone would cause a drop in deer population.it is used for places with over population as well as to generate healthy buck to doe ratios in others .maybe we need to lighten the tags on buck hunts and open a few doe if the population is more balanced it leads to a buck breading more does and there for more deer .if the buck can't get to the doe and breeds her later and she has a fawn that dies due to food or climate it still don't help the population that's why most have limited doe hunts

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I 100% understand the sentiment behind this. I have, multiple times said " I swear I am going to shoot the next doe I see, if I dont see a buck first" (of course that is just hyperbole).

 

But the biology isnt there. More does = more bucks.

The answer is fewer tags, plain and simple. 

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The only way to fix skewed buck to doe ratios in a state with a low deer population is to shoot less bucks.  The AZGFD policy purposely manages that ratio on the low end in most units so they can issue more tags for "opportunity".

 

Or they'll tell you that the buck to doe ratio for the unit is higher than what most people see because they flew a survey and saw a single spike where 90% of hunters are and then in the roadless areas they counted a bunch of bucks chasing does.  

 

The whole issue is very complex and I'm not sure there is a great answer that fixes all the problems.

 

What I do know is that without mandatory reporting the AZGFD makes decisions with an incomplete picture. In reality they have no clue how many animals are being shot in each unit every year.

 

 

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28 minutes ago, Crazymonkey said:

The thought is that with so many does in a given unit that a buck would not get around to breading the doe and then we have two and three different cycles of fawns which could drop in times that are not conducive to there survival.that alone would cause a drop in deer population.it is used for places with over population as well as to generate healthy buck to doe ratios in others .maybe we need to lighten the tags on buck hunts and open a few doe if the population is more balanced it leads to a buck breading more does and there for more deer .if the buck can't get to the doe and breeds her later and she has a fawn that dies due to food or climate it still don't help the population that's why most have limited doe hunts

Every doe that is killed will definitely not produce a fawn.

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4 minutes ago, Crazymonkey said:

After reading the quote I could help but laugh also and wish we all had that kinda problem to many girls to little time.

if they go into season, they get breed. its just like denim and diamonds tonight 

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