I am not sure how much of this years success can be attributed to a well managed population (at least intentionally). We are hunting 200 acres of private land. The surrounding land is hunted extensively. Most the neighbors hunt with dogs, and to be honest, their success rate seems to be much lower than ours has been. They go through a lot of ammunition too. One of our guys asked one of them if they had any luck the other day. The response was "we wounded one, but he went back in the bush. So we sent the dogs after him. He hasn't come out, so we are done for the day." hmmmm..........
We had three guys present today, which makes things a little more tricky for running chases, etc. I put the new guy in the most likely spot for deer to come by. Everything worked well today with lots of deer seen, but they were all does. We have one antlerless tag left in out group, but that hunter was not present today. The new guy had to take a pass on large does on three separate occasions. Oh well. We have had a lot of success already. Plus he got some good pictures on his blackberry.

I have to say though, we have seen more deer every day than the group has in the last two years. Everything this year just seems to be falling into place.
Tomorrow just the new guy and myself will be out. I have a plan that will hopefully result in another buck. I will report back tomorrow with the results.
Good luck to the rest of you!