I'm late to the conversation however you should pay attention to what STX is saying.... Total numbers.....

We just picked up a new ranch and our numbers are out of whack. More bucks than does. Our biologist gave us way more buck tags and we've taken out the bottom end of the management/cull end. In the end its about total numbers and what the range can support! If your dealing with goats good luck-you might want to find another lease they'll eat everything down to the dirt. Just sayin.....

For the heck of it I'll put a little more fuel on the fire.... We backed off our does since we weren't seeing many and hammered the lower end of the bucks to use up our allotted tags. We did this discretely and without making a lot of noise to rattle the other deer on the ranch. We shut the harvest down around Feb 2 within a few days does were popping up. So the moral to the story is. You've got more ladies than you think!!!! Maybe not a bunch but more then you originally thought.......

Be happy to show you plenty of pictures of the results on our ranch

STex - we cull plenty of does when needed along with cull and management bucks - we helicopter each year and keep our ratios in check - as you know the results have been pretty good for us - we also use trail cameras and video extensively so we can have a good idea of what the age is of our bucks

I feel that under the right, or wrong, circumstances you can definitely have too many bucks. We definitely do. The biologist in our area dismissed my view that changing/increasing the doe harvest allowance in our area is hurting the ratio, so there's really nothing to we can do about it. I feel that 5-6 bucks per doe is getting a little bit ridiculous. But hey, he has a college degree and I just spend more time afield on our property than he does all year long. So what do I know?

Curious, are you getting your 5-6 bucks per doe comment from personal observation, survey or what? That’s a very unusual and extreme ratio.

Freerange.... if you feel you have a problem...then it's up to you to prove your situation. If no one else's property is having a problem, then you will have to get yourself numbers to prove your point.
I would get a few cameras and put them out for one month and then move them to other locations and get some numbers. Count the deer ...bucks and does for both places. Then let your data do your talking to your biologist.
I know it is possible to have a buck to doe ratio out of control if you have less does that you should have. The ratio normally has a tendency to self level to some extent around 1.2 ratio..but you have to have the does to produce the fawns to over come your imbalance. But I have never experienced a 5 bucks to 1 doe ratio, however I suppose anything is possible. If ya have a small hunting area everything is on the table. For a larger lease, a 5 to 1, I think, would be super unusual.

Good Luck
Let your data do your talking!

oops: sorry that was Roadkill..lol

sorry: that was psycho...lol

We run cameras year-round, move them around the property (food plots, protein feed pen, corn feeders, creek crossings, fence crossing, known travel paths, etc), combined with personal observation by me consisting of hundreds of hours afield in a year (day and night), as well as confirmation from neighboring properties who are resident ranchers. So no, I'm not just someone who bases assumptions upon a few hours a year spent sitting on a stand, which is what the biologist for our area infers when we have spoken in the past about this.

Like most, we had too many doe back when the county was rifle doe by permit only. On our place, we worked hard during bow season to help that ratio, and it did seem to help some. Antler restrictions seemed to help that a little bit when they went into effect. Then TPWD gave us a few doe days a year and we saw notable change. But just a few years later we got the rifle doe season that lasts until thanksgiving weekend, 2 per person. Now we're overrun with bucks, mostly younger bucks that aren't spikes but don't yet meet AR rules.

The problem is, as I see it, is a two buck harvest with antler restrictions combined with a free for all the first three weeks of season on two doe per hunter limit. No way, no how the deer herd has improved enough to support that kind of harvest, especially not in a county historically known for low deer numbers and high poaching rates. I speculate that hunters now kill doe to put meat in the freezer, then hold out for that bigger buck. Sounds great on paper, but the reality is very different for us.

What we have as a result is a gross overpopulation of young bucks, few mature doe, and young doe that don't make it past 2yrs before they get taken out if they range beyond what we know/control as a group of landowners (which they certainly do). Yeah, that's achieving the stated TPWD goal of "improving the average age of the herd".

How many acres do you have psycho? Get on the MLD program and utilize a harvest plan tailored to the habitat, and herd on your property if you want to take you ability to manage the herd up a notch. Your permits will be issued on a per acre basis based on density and buck/doe ratio and carrying capacity.

My neighbor contacted me a couple of days ago and we are going to do a deep dive to try and be more accurate with our surveys. We have three MLD ranches next door to each other that are going to take part in a DRONE census utilizing infrared and camera technology in hopes of getting more accurate counts. None of us have been overly happy with our helicopter and spotlight surveys of the past. We feel weather conditions play a huge part in the number of animal units observed thus impacting reporting and tag allotment. This is going to be very interesting! More on this as it unfolds......