Buck Manager | Buck Manager

4 Step Deer Hunting Plan: Basic Tips for Success

Hunting for Success

Question: “I live and deer hunt in west Tennessee. When should I put my trail cameras out to start looking for growing bucks? I’ve got my mineral stations and corn out now. The white-tailed deer are tearing the ground up to get the mineral. I’ve been spreading 160 pounds of corn out every 3 weeks when I go to refresh my mineral stations.

The land owner has been telling me that within three days the corn out it is all gone. What should I do or not do with regard to monitoring this property and preparing for deer hunting season?” -Jerry P.

Response: It’s mid-June so if you want to watch the process of antler growth in bucks there will definitely be something to see at this point in the year, but white-tailed bucks are not yet near the end of the antler growing season. Expect antler growth to terminate by the end August for most bucks, with a substantial amount of change between now and then. Summer is a great time to document the bucks in your area through the use of game cameras because the weather is typically hot and dry. That equates to bucks taking advantage of any nutrition they can find on the landscape. They will be on feed, so your cameras should be too doing some pre-season scouting.

The mineral sites on the property are likely more beneficial for antler growth than the corn you are providing, but deer will readily consume corn during the summer months since native vegetation will be less palatable as new growth has slowed and older leaves are now tough and offer less nutrition. Corn and minerals both serve as warm weather attractants so they are ideal locations to capture deer on camera. Place a camera on each of them.

Game cameras work 24/7 and do a great job of inventorying bucks using food sources/attractants during the summer and winter months. It can be challenging to get bucks, especially mature bucks, on camera during the spring and fall when natural foods are abundant. However, if those deer are there and then that makes your summer time photo sessions quite valuable! If you waited until just before fall to deploy cameras then you would likely miss a number of bucks. At the very least, I would recommend that hunters do their pre-season camera scouting during the month of August.

When deer hunting a new property, or even a place that you have hunted for a while, the first thing that you need to do is PLAN for the upcoming fall. The best way to ensure success at anything is to plan. We develop deer management plans for properties, so why not deer hunting plans?

Basic 4 Step Plan for Deer Hunting Any Property

1. Consider how you will access your hunting ground.

You’ve got to get there, right? But… will your arrival tip off the very deer you intend to hunt? We tend to know when someone is in our yard, at our house. Whitetail are the same way. They pay attention to what is happening in their front yard, side yard and back yard. It’s called survival. Over the years I’ve learned to address anything that announces my approach, whether it be a noisy chain on a metal gate, a diesel truck driving through a field or a ATV/UTV humming along through the woods. It’s best to walk. Quietly.

Deer can handle all of the things mentioned above when that is what they are used to on a daily basis, but not so much when it’s out of the ordinary. When white-tailed deer perceive their surroundings are different they will act different. Go stealth from the start.

2. Keep some areas quiet and off limits all of the time.

You will want sanctuaries on the property you are hunting. These are areas that are off limits to all human activity during the pre-season as well as during the hunting season. If you own the property then you have more control over this, but if you are hunting someone else’s land then you are at their mercy. Even then, there is likely at least one area on their property that they tend to avoid for one reason or another. I’d recommend that you avoid the urge to march off into the middle of it and put up a stand and/or feeder, especially on small acreage since sanctuaries are more important on pint-sized properties.

Instead, place your stand on the edge of the sanctuary, or better yet, a short distance away on a travel corridor or funnel. This gives the hunter the edge because hunting deer where they travel to and from bedding and feeding areas is much better than hunting deer where actually sleep and feed. You will disturb them. Hunting travel corridors will likely allow you to see more deer, as well, since not all deer (especially older bucks) will head straight to the feeder once the hunting season is underway.

3. Identify the feeding, bedding and travel ways of local deer.

Before a hunter can figure out how to successfully hunt a property, he or she must understand how deer are using the property. Deer are out there doing what they naturally do, so the worst thing a hunter can do is disrupt the natural course of events. Scout every inch of the place during the off season to find natural sanctuaries, bedding areas and travel ways. If you can’t get into all the nooks and crannies for fear of bumping deer (too close to hunting season or during hunting season), then resort to aerial photography.

A look from above will also tell you where you might expect winter agricultural fields or neighboring food plots to be situated. This will give you more insight into how deer may be moving within and adjacent the property you are hunting.

4. Have at least two hunting setups.

Once you know the lay of the land and have identified deer use of the property, it is only then that you should take your a stab at picking stand locations. Make a map and insert all of the pertinent features onto it. Then, consider how the property should be hunted during a north to northwest wind. I’ll submit that this is the best time to hunt since deer movement increases significantly during cold weather.

Hunting warm weather can pay off, but when you want to limit disturbance on a property so as not to impact buck behavior, then you will want to make the most of your few days out there each fall. Cold weather helps keep human scent down, but more importantly lower temperatures get whitetail bucks up on their hooves and moving. Go cold or go home. Really. Have at least two stands that you can access under a couple of wind conditions with minimal disturbance setup on your deer hunting property.

Use this four step deer hunting plan now to put the odds in your favor this fall and winter. A little planning will allow you to make the most of your hunting property, whether big or small. In addition, a well thought out game plan will likely result in more enjoyable hunts, which hopefully result with the tagging of a big, mature whitetail buck.

Staten Island Deer Population: Failure Ahead

Staten Island Deer Vasectomy

There are many aspects to managing a white-tailed deer population, but once the basic concepts of population management and an understanding of white-tailed deer are in hand, implementing and effective management plan to achieve desired results can become reality. With all that said, science has never been able to stand in the path of public perception. Perception, after all, is reality. This is playing out with the Staten Island deer population in New York.

This site is dedicated to helping property owners interested in white-tailed deer management. The goal is to help people manage their land and the deer that live there. We regularly focus on management practices that can be implemented to successfully improve whitetail habitat and deer population parameters. The focus here is on techniques that work, but we would be remiss if we did not point out things that no one should do, not even with someone else’s money.

Staten Island Deer Population Control — Image ny1.com

Population Control on Staten Island: Is This the Plan?

The citizens of New York are about to have a lot of their hard-earned money wasted in an attempt to improperly “control” the Staten Island white-tailed deer population. Their plan involves sterilization of buck deer over a three year period with an expected cost of $2 million… for just the first year.

Source: The city wants to give Bambi a vasectomy.

The Parks Department plans to sterilize hundreds of male deer to help manage Staten Island’s out-of-control and expanding herd, starting as soon as this fall’s rutting season if the plan is approved by the state.

“We do aim to get all of them in order to completely limit the reproduction,” said Sarah Aucoin, Chief of Wildlife and Education at Parks.

The three-year effort is expected to eventually reduce the borough herd 10 to 30 percent. The city would spend $2 million this first year, with the annual cost going down as fewer males are left to sterilize.

Mayor Bill de Blasio will ask the comptroller’s office to fast-track contracting for the endeavor this week. The chosen vendor and city will then apply for a permit from the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which regulates wildlife and must approve a control plan.

“We are moving ahead with a plan to manage the impacts of the deer population on Staten Island in a way that is smart, effective, and humane,” de Blasio said in a statement.

Deer Management: Assumptions Flawed

As I was reading the remainder of the article it was evident that the Staten Island deer management program was going awry. There were a lot of assumptions but, no measurable objectives other than they hoped to decrease the deer population by 10-30 percent lower in three years. Someone will make a lot of money (cha-ching) trapping and sterilizing deer, but throwing good money at a bad idea will not make it a good idea.

An improbable solution, no matter how expensive, will not address the growing deer population living on Staten Island. Let’s look at some assumptions made by NYC officials that need to be addressed:

1. “We do aim to get all of them [bucks] in order to completely limit the reproduction.” It has been assumed that contractors can actually put their hands on all of the bucks living on Staten Island. By the way, the island is almost 60 square miles.

First, there is no way to capture all of the bucks. Impossible. As you successfully sterilize bucks within the herd, the time and money it takes to capture the remaining bucks goes up exponentially as the number of untreated bucks declines. And, if you do not get them all the first year then the remaining bucks will breed the remaining does. Contractors would need to sterilize at least 90 percent of the buck herd in year one, otherwise all the work done during year one is for naught.

A short course on whitetail breeding ecology: A whitetail doe initially comes into estrus during the fall for a 2-3 day period. If she is not impregnated during the initial estrus period then she will continue to cycle every 28 days throughout the fall and winter until she is bred or her hormones make her stop. In short, a few less bucks will not impact the number of does impregnated but only the timing of when they are bred.

A highly skewed buck to doe ratio will result to lower fawn survival the following year because fawns born later in the year, closer to fall, are less likely to obtain the body weight needed to survive the winter. Mission accomplished?

Staten Island Plans to Control Deer Population Using Sterilization — Image silive.com

2. “Sterilization was chosen because Staten Island’s herd is mostly growing through reproduction, not migration.” The assumption here is that “other deer” will not move in and add to the island’s current deer population. Also assuming, again, that they will have a significant impact on the number of breeding bucks in year one.

White-tailed deer do not technically migrate, so this statement is true. Yes, reproduction is responsible for population increases. Unfortunately, the deer found living on and off of Staten Island do not recognize the same arbitrary boundaries that we do. There is a 100 percent chance that bucks living near, but not on, Staten Island will move in and breed does living on Staten Island during subsequent breeding seasons.

It is an Island, but it’s not necessarily a closed population. Whitetail arrived by swimming over from New Jersey and they will continue to do so. They will come from other areas bordering the island, too. The news about sterilization will not stop them.

3. “A 2014 aerial survey found 763 deer in Staten Island’s green space, though some ecologists think there may be more than 1,000 here now.” It’s assumed that 763 deer was the number of the deer in the population in 2014, but that is really only the number that were observed, actually counted. There have also been two additional years of reproduction.

There are way deer more than you think. Aerial surveys for wildlife are designed to work by observers counting animals in a given area, say 1 square mile, then interpolating those numbers to additional, similar areas that were not surveyed, such as another 10 square miles. Observers, however, do not see all of the animals.

This is inherently true for just about any type of wildlife survey because it is completely possible to miss animals that are present in the environment. Deer can stay bedded down, simply be out of view and can avoid detection by moving away from observers. Surveys are critically important for managing wildlife populations, but most biologists acknowledge that surveys typically result in an estimate of the “minimum population size,” for the reasons outlined above.

Depending on the survey method used, the estimated population can be significantly lower than the actual population. This is especially true for aerial surveys, where a number of factors must be considered. If surveyors observed 763 deer in 2014 then the Staten Island deer population consists of least 1,500 animals now. In short, the scope of the work is much larger than they think.

4. “The biggest adult bucks that mate with the most does would be sterilized first, followed by smaller, younger and less popular males.” It’s assumed that older bucks do 90 percent of the breeding.

All age classes of bucks participate in the rut. Mature bucks do breed more does than younger bucks, but the score is closer than most think. Research has found that older bucks (3 1/2+ years old) will actually sire about 50-70 percent of the fawns, but the percentage of fawns sired by younger bucks actually increases as their proportion increases within a buck population. Sterilization will prevent treated bucks from participating in the rut, but that gap will be quickly filled by untreated bucks, regardless of age.

It should also be pointed out that older bucks are smart animals with experience on their side, so they will be much more difficult to capture and treat. Contractors need to capture 90+ percent of the buck population every year for sterilization to be effective in a closed population, so my recommendation would be to not pass on any bucks, regardless of age. But the Staten Island deer population is not closed.

Deer Management in New York — Image imgur.com

Cost to Control Staten Island’s Deer Population

The first year of this three-year project is expected to cost $2 million. Assuming at least $1 million is set aside for each of the two subsequent years, that would put the 3 year project at a total costs of $4 million. Some have said there could be as many as 1,000 deer on the island. Officials hope to decrease the deer population by 10-30 percent over 3 years. That would be a total of 100-300 deer given the “perceived” population size.

Apparently, NYC is content with spending $13,300-$40,000 per deer to decrease the Staten Island deer population. They could use that money to help those less fortunate. And they could deliver them high protein, hunter-harvested venison, too.

Texas Adopts New Deer Hunting Regulations

TPWD Changes Regulations

Deer hunting season is still a half-year away, but planned changes to Texas’ deer hunting regulations may impact your harvest later this fall. That’s because the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission adopted a bevy of changes to this year’s deer hunting regulations that includes expanding white-tailed deer hunting across counties located in the western Panhandle, as well as creating additional deer hunting opportunities in the eastern half of the state.

This is good news out of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). Simply said, the bulk of Texas’s new deer regs will add or create additional hunting opportunity is just about every county they touch for the 2016-17 season. There are really only a couple changes that do not increase deer harvest in some way, with the two most notable being changes regarding “unbranched antlered deer” and then addressing some issues regarding youth hunting.

Legal Bucks in Texas

The hunting regs approved for this fall will clarify what constitutes a legal buck across seasons and aim to alleviate confusion among hunters. This has been a little ambiguous regarding the “Special Late Antlerless and Spike-buck Season,” where hunters in antler restriction counties could harvest a buck with “at least one unbranched antler during the regular season,” but then were limited to spikes (bucks with two unbranched antlers) during the Special Late Antlerless and Spike-buck Season.

The new regs will allow the harvest of any buck with at least on unbranched antler during the late season, remove the mention of spikes from the name and will officially be named the “Special Late Season.”

MLDP Program Clarification

Another regulation clarification (say that over and over) involves archery-only season, youth hunters and properties enrolled in the Managed Lands Deer (MLD) Permit Program. The changes for the upcoming fall with clarify that white-tailed antlerless deer harvested during the archery-only season does not require a permit and harvest of antlerless deer during youth seasons is restricted to persons 16 years of age and younger including on properties issued Level 1 MLD Permits.

Whitetail Hunting in Panhandle

TPWD is opening up hunting seasons in a 14 Panhandle counties where no white-tailed deer hunting seasons existed previously. Changes for 2016-17 will implement both a general and special archery-only season for white-tailed deer in Andrews, Bailey, Castro, Cochran, Gaines, Hale, Hockley, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Parmer, Terry and Yoakum counties, with a bag limit of three deer (no more than one buck and no more than two antlerless), which is identical to adjoining/nearby counties that currently have a season.

Hunters in Winkler County will also be greeted with new deer seasons. The regs for the upcoming year will add both a general and special archery-only season for white-tailed deer in Winkler County, with a bag limit of three deer (no more than one buck and no more than two antlerless, with the take of antlerless deer restricted to the archery-only season or properties issued MLD Permit antlerless tags). The new season is identical to adjoining/nearby counties that currently have a season.

Doe Days Added in Some Counties

Deer hunters in the Blackland Prairies, Post Oak and western parts of East Texas will also see a boost in deer hunting opportunity. TPWD is establishing four “doe days” (time periods in when antlerless deer may be taken without a permit in parts of the state where antlerless harvest regulations are conservative) in Bell (east of IH35), Burleson, Ellis, Falls, Freestone, Kaufman, Limestone, Milam, Navarro and Williamson (east of IH35) counties.

They will also increase the number of doe days to 16 in Anderson, Brazos, Camp, Gregg, Grimes, Henderson, Lamar, Leon, Madison, Morris, Red River, Robertson and Upshur counties.

For all Texas counties approved for more liberal doe harvest regulations, deer management goals across-the-board by TPWD cite increasing deer populations and diverging buck to doe ratios as rationale for the changes. Many of these counties will also get a muzzleloader-only season.

More Muzzleloader Hunting

TPWD’s hunting regulation changes for 2016-17 will implement a muzzleloader-only late season in Anderson, Bell (East of IH 35), Brazos, Burleson, Comal (East of IH 35), Delta, Ellis, Fannin, Falls, Franklin, Freestone, Grimes, Hays (East of IH 35), Henderson, Hopkins, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar, Leon, Limestone, Madison, Milam, Navarro, Rains, Red River, Robertson, Smith, Titus, Travis (East of IH 35), Van Zandt, Williamson (East of IH 35), and Wood counties.

TX Regulation Changes Add Up

In short, changes to Texas hunting regulations will provide hunters with more opportunity and flexibility when heading to the field this fall. Increased antlerless options will allow doe harvest as a management tool on properties not participating in the MLD Permit Program. Harvest is still one of the most basic habitat management tools for whitetail deer.

Landowners and managers will no longer be limited to archery equipment to tighten up sex ratios, and many counties will have brand-new seasons. That is awesome for hunters!

Killing Mature Bucks Means Not Shooting Them Young

Hunting Mature Deer

The secret to killing mature bucks during hunting season means implementing harvest management: Don’t shoot them. Well, at least not while they are young. If bucks are protected when they are young and allowed to age then they will become mature. Makes sense, right?

Shooting mature bucks down the road means not filling your tag/s with young and middle-aged bucks this year, or maybe even next year. More and more deer hunters are subscribing to this deer management philosophy. But at some point, young bucks grow up to be old bucks. And shooting older bucks is exactly what US hunters did during the 2014-15 deer season.

The deer harvest data we are discussing today is from the season prior. It takes some time to compile the information from each state and put it into a cohesive report. It will be equally interesting to see how the 2015-16 whitetail season shakes out.

You have to have mature bucks in order to hunt them. — Image pureairnatives.com

Deer Management Practiced, Bucks Mature

According to harvest data compiled by the Quality Deer Management Association (QDMA) in its 2016 Whitetail Report, deer hunters in the United States tagged more mature white-tailed bucks than 1 1/2 year old (yearling) bucks for the first time in recent history. Yearling bucks comprised 33 percent of the buck harvest, continuing the steady decline since 1989 when yearling bucks made up 62 percent of the buck harvest.

Source: “Since QDMA was founded in 1988, we’ve watched the harvest pressure on yearling bucks decline steadily from the extremes seen after restoration, and this resulted in climbing rates of mature-buck harvest as more older bucks became available. However, the 2014-15 season will be remembered as the first where the two trends intersected and hunters took more mature bucks than yearlings.

“The ongoing decline in harvest pressure on yearling bucks means that more and more hunters are enjoying an opportunity to see and kill mature bucks. They’re also enjoying other benefits of hunting deer populations with healthy numbers of older bucks, like intensified rut activity, more rubs and scrapes, and better success with rattling and grunt calls. This is good for hunter retention and participation, which is good for ensuring the future of deer hunting.”

Top States for Mature Whitetail Bucks

According to the 2016 Whitetail Report, the top state that killed the most mature bucks during the 2014-15 season was Mississippi, where 74 percent of bucks killed were 3 1/2 years old or older, followed by Arkansas and Louisiana at 67 percent, Texas at 62 percent and Oklahoma at 60 percent. The 5 states also had low harvest rates for yearling bucks.

Hunting Mature Bucks is Not Easy — Image druryoutdoors.com

Complete state-by-state estimates of total buck harvest, buck age structure, and other harvest data are available in the full Whitetail Report. This document is chock-full of deer data for the 26 reporting states, which includes most of the white-tailed deer’s range. I recommend checking it out for some interesting and eye-opening reading.

Will the trend of killing more mature bucks continue in your neck of the woods? That’s to be determined, but the trend is definitely our friend in this case. Harvest data suggests that whitetail hunters are increasingly passing on young bucks during the hunting season so we should all be very optimistic about the deer hunting seasons ahead!

Managing for Maturity

Passing on young bucks is easier said than done. We are all human, so we all have a desire for immediate gratification. Deer hunting is no different. Besides, there are ways to avoid eating tag soup over winter. First, start out with a plan. A deer management plan is a great first-step towards putting population management and a harvest strategy into action on a property.

The initial steps will involve figuring out what you have to work with, taking inventory of both plant communities and the deer found on a property. Next, it will be a matter of identifying your goals and establishing objectives so that you can get there. If one of the goals is to kill mature bucks, then it’s going to take hold off on younger bucks during the hunting season. Again, it’s not easy. Having a plan that can serve as a roadmap, however, will help tremendously.

Corn Toxicity: Acidosis in White-tailed Deer

Corn and Deer

The disease termed acidosis can occur anywhere when wild or domestic white-tailed deer, cervids or ruminants ingest large quantities of readily digestible carbohydrates. Often times, these food are grains such corn but acidosis in deer can also be caused by beets, apples and any other high carb, highly fermentable food. Acidosis is whitetail is characterized by indigestion, a static rumen, dehydration, diarrhea, toxins in the blood, a lack of coordination and death.

Acidosis can occur relatively quickly in whitetail whenever there is a SUDDEN and SUBSTANTIAL increase in carbohyrates in the animal’s diet. Within 24 hours of grain ingestion deer may be recumbent (down), staggering or standing quietly. Death from corn toxicity can occur within 24 to 72 hours. The rumen is usually static accompanied by diarrhea. The deer is essentially “poisoned” and dehydrated.

Corn and Acidosis

Corn is readily available and commonly fed to deer by hunters and non-hunters alike. Where legal, corn is the most widespread bait during the hunting season and there is no doubt that deer will eat it readily. Corn is high in carbohydrates and this is attractive to deer, especially during very cold periods when the seek out high energy foods. Corn consumption by deer is not necessary a bad thing. They can handle it. It’s only when they eat too much of it, when it suddenly becomes a major component of their diet.

Source: Corn causes problems in the deer’s digestive system because of characteristics of both corn and the deer. Corn is composed primarily of starch, which is meant to serve as an energy source for the corn seedling after germination. The starch intended for use by the growing corn plant is also readily available to the deer, which is why deer crave corn. Although starch is an important source of energy, it may be a problem for deer because deer are ruminants.

The Pathology of Acidosis

So how do corn or other high carb/starch foods cause problems for deer? Well, a shift from a natural diet of high fiber woody browse to low fiber, high carb foods is what starts the illness known as acidosis. The severity of the disease in deer depends on the type of grain, previous exposure of the animal to the grain, the amount consumed, the animal’s nutritional state and physical condition, and the microflora present in the animal’s digestive system.

The rapid intake of high carb foods can cause problems in deer almost immediately. Ingestion of toxic amounts of corn and other starches are followed within 2 to 6 hours by a change in the microbial population in the rumen of the deer. The number of Streptococcus sp. bacteria increase dramatically and replace the normally abundant, “good” bacteria.

This sudden increase in Streptococcus sp. bacteria produces large quantities of lactic acid. This results in the rumen pH falling to or below 5, destroying protozoa, cellulolytic organisms, and lactate utilizing organisms, and reduces rumen mobility. Suddenly, the digestion and movement of food within the deer stops. Chemical rumenitis and absorption result in lactic acidosis.

The lactic acid and lactate build-up cause excessive quantities of fluid to move into the deer’s rumen, causing dehydration.

How to Identify Corn Toxicity in Deer

Acidosis is diagnosed when deer in otherwise good physical condition are found to have died quickly and there are large quantities of corn in the stomachs. A common way to diagnose acidosis is by checking for dark colored lesions (eroded areas) on the lining of the stomach. These lesions are typically located on the folds but can be observed anywhere in the stomach.

There is no treatment for rumen acidosis in white-tailed deer and other wild ruminants because they usually found dead. A deer can survive if the high carb food is no longer available (removed, completely consumed). However, the animal will likely have a permanently damaged rumen lining.

Deer Management: Preventing Acidosis

Many people feed deer, although most of the time it is hunters that feed deer regularly and in volume through supplemental feeding programs. Some suburban homeowners feed deer with regularity too. Corn is commonly consumed by deer without issue. It’s also commonly used by hunters as bait prior and during the hunting seasons.

Corn and other high carb foods are not a problem for deer as long as they are introduced gradually into the diet and as long as they do not comprise the MAJORITY of the animal’s food intake. As such, acidosis can occur during the summer, but is more likely to occur during the winter when leafy forage is lacking. This is because without other available foods and a high need for energy, deer will readily consume any food available to them during this period.

The supplemental feeding of whitetail deer and other wild ruminants (mule deer, elk) is often the cause of corn toxcity/acidosis. The free-choice feeding of high carb foods is not recommended. Most hunters that feed corn by hand or use spin feeders to attract deer to an area for hunting do not distribute enough for it to comprise a substantial part of a single deer’s diet. This is baiting deer, not supplementing them. Baiting in this manner should not cause corn toxicity in deer.

A doe and fawn wait to be fed. — Free-ranging white-tailed deer wait for food.

Homeowners should not SUDDENLY pour a 50 pound sack of feed behind their house to feed cold, hungry deer that have not been exposed to corn. On the same note, hunters should not dump a pile of corn into the field since this could SUBSTANTIALLY alter a deer’s diet. Both of these scenarios end bad for the deer.

Digestive problems from the excessive intake of grain and resulting acidosis can lead to laminitis in white-tailed deer. Laminitis is caused by inadequate blood flow in the hoof which results in unusual foot growth and/or permanent lameness. Animals often die before the feet become involved. Avoid the disease of acidosis and corn toxicity in deer by NOT suddenly and substantially adding foods high in carbohydrates to their diets.