cantkillathing
Very Active Member
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Why do we manage elk by population objectives and Deer to buck/doe ratio? Elk on most units are anywhere from 1 bull to 1.5 cows. and 1 bull to 10 cows. But that isn't how they are managed. The san juan unit is managed for 1000 elk, and we could care less if it has 400 bulls to 600 cows, but if it goes over 1000 head of elk we shoot the crap out of the cows.
The deer we try to manage by buck to doe ratio and not population size. If there is anything over the majical number of 17 bucks per 100 does we want to increase buck tags to shoot them back down. Why not let the bucks continue to grow, who cares if there is more bucks on a unit. why not let the buck population increase like we let the bulls increase on units?
I think the buck to doe ratio crap needs to be thrown out the window, it only should matter if the buck to doe ratio falls too low, but if it rises, let it rise. Dont increase tags on units bucause there is a few more bucks. If the unit is far below herd objective there is no need to ever increase tags until the unit is close to its herd objective and then look at giving more permits.
The deer we try to manage by buck to doe ratio and not population size. If there is anything over the majical number of 17 bucks per 100 does we want to increase buck tags to shoot them back down. Why not let the bucks continue to grow, who cares if there is more bucks on a unit. why not let the buck population increase like we let the bulls increase on units?
I think the buck to doe ratio crap needs to be thrown out the window, it only should matter if the buck to doe ratio falls too low, but if it rises, let it rise. Dont increase tags on units bucause there is a few more bucks. If the unit is far below herd objective there is no need to ever increase tags until the unit is close to its herd objective and then look at giving more permits.