Quote
Originally posted by jbwhttail:
If you read many of the papers and are familiar with the South you would find the "cover" is the problem with fawn predation down south. Mature conifer forrests don't allow cover needed for fawns.

Read the Pennsylvania and other stusies that show the rate of coyote predation on fawns to be 48%. That is 48% of fawns that die, not of the total fawn population. That is a big difference from a perceived coyotes takes X percentage of the fawn population. Michigan showed similar results.

Again, look at the guy in the mirror, as you see deer populations decrease....... it is that guy in the mirrors fault! IDNR can do as they want with license and seasons, you are the deer manager, not Chad Stewart and IDNR.

One last thing, blaiming the neighbor as killing everything he sees doesn't wash, if you let that deer walk it has a 100% better chance of survival. If I decide to pull the trigger because a neighbor will kill it.... it is DEAD!
Dead On Post.....no pun intended.

Here is another example of this truth. One of my areas I manage with 3 other guys is an area that encompasses 1,200 acres.....so that's a total of 4 deer managers in that particular 1,200 acre spot. We share trail cam pics, and ID bucks we will NOT shoot at the beginning of the season.

This area is a well known area in our County that we manage and have been doing so since 1987. We have inherited 47 other hunters on our borders/neighboring properties that we know of.....and we talk to them regularly. In the last 26 years we have only lost 4 mature deer we wanted to "make it" to our neighbors.

Think about it.......ONLY lost 4 in 26 years. We believe in the theory of "Very High Survival Odds" if we don't pull the trigger.....and it shows in Spades that theory works.

Your neighbors usually DON'T shoot what you "imagine" they will.

Just putting out data and true life experiences we have seen in one location of management.

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