# Deer Per Acre wooded acre SE Ohio...?



## Hardtop (Nov 24, 2004)

We own/hunt a nice section of woods in Perry Co. NE of Logan. The 140 acre property is about 60% wooded, with the remainder open meadows going thru sucsession into brushy/pine first growth cover. We are bordered by larger tracts of conteingent woods on three sides, with below average hunting pressure, a few small grain crops grown within our mile section, good creeks, and several nice ponds on the property as well. I know we are blessed with this setting and have taken plenty of deer over the last 25 yrs. 
What we would like to know is how many deer would actually be "local" spending most of their time on our property. This is leading to the question, How many deer could we kill there each season without reducing the overall population to the point we would notice a change in sightings...? Thanks HT


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## M.Magis (Apr 5, 2004)

That&#8217;s a very difficult question to answer. Part of it of course depends on what deer are taken, does, fawns, or bucks. Populations vary so much within a small area that I don&#8217;t think it&#8217;s possible to make an accurate estimate without knowing the property. I know the population around my place a few years ago was beyond over-populated, but other places less than 5 miles away were only moderately over-populated. There were a few years I was taking 10-12 deer per year (6 bow tags, 6 crop damage permits. 1 buck and the rest adult does) and barely made a dent in the population on my 135 acres. But, I have a high concentration of crops and surely pull in a lot of neighboring deer. I would think that 6 does would be a decent guestimate, and a couple mature bucks. If the surrounding areas get little to no pressure, I think you could increase those numbers quite a bit.


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## Lundy (Apr 5, 2004)

The other big question is reproduction.

How many adults does? fawn predation, etc, etc,

6 does last fall could be 18 deer the next spring. In a perfect world with no predation and 100% survivability and a 50/50 male to female birth ratio you would need to kill 12 deer, 6 buttons, 6 does just to keep population level, providing none leave the property on their own.

In a little more the real world. Those same 6 does, with 2 fawns each, 50% buck to doe, 40% mortality could grow to be 16 does, 9 bucks in a 2 year period.

I think the real question is how many mature does do you think call you property home during the hunting seasons? Where they live the rest of the year really doesn't matter, if they aren't there for hunting season you can't harvest or preserve them.

If you do the math you, mother nature, cars, somebody, needs to kill a lot just to hold populations level


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## mbarrett1379 (Feb 23, 2012)

Do you waterfowl hunt there


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## leupy (Feb 12, 2007)

How to manage deer populations, it will depend on what you are manageing for total population, large headgear or just reducing the population. My personal opinion is the number of deer that reside or pass through any given property is totally dependant on the food supply. Any given property can only supply food for X number of deer, male or female. When the food is gone so are the deer. That said if you want more bucks just kill does, if you want large bucks kill large bucks with poor racks, if you just want numbers kill small bucks and yearlings. If it were me in my opinion never kill a yearling, take large does and large bucks (trophy) and garbage bucks and try to get to a one to one ratio but you will never reach that with that small of a track of land unless everyone around you also follows what ever you are striving for also follows your plan.


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