Alright, in all seriousness before Frank 2 has a coronary, here’s my theory. This is based wholly on anecdotal evidence as it relates to our farm. I’m an arm chair biologist with mediocre skills afield, so take this for what it’s worth…
When we bought the farm in 2005, our 80 acres and the three properties with the most influence on my hunting (21, 52 & 295 acres respectively) were drastically different from a herd standpoint, but more so from a habitat standpoint. Fast forward 12 years and the habitat is 1000% better on all the properties, as well as some of those within the 640 acre section. This has helped the herd rebound, in addition to us not shooting does since 2010 and the guys hunting the 295, have held off for 3 years now. There is more restraint in the neighborhood now too, so we now have a banner crop of 3+ year old bucks and judging by my pics from the last 2 years, our buck to doe ratio is the best I’ve ever seen it.
So, all that said, I think the big increase on our place comes from a higher number of older age class bucks competing for prime ground with plenty of available does. In essence, there’s a literal pissing match going on out there right now.
