This is a great conversation. Lots of good anecdotal information. It's interesting to see what different folks see on their different properties. So, anecdotally, I will share my experience. This is the first year I have hunted the property. It is 15 acres, a lot of thick bedding with ag on 2 sides, road frontage on one, and contiguous woods on the other. Being the first year I've hunted it, I was largely looking to get an inventory and start to develop an understanding of how the deer use it. Cams placed in mid summer showed that it was definitely holding does. I confirmed 3 separate family units that were using it as "home", 2 does with twins and 1 with triplets. My goal was to not kill any does this year and see what the neighbors were doing hunting-wise. From what I can tell from the cams, nobody is really in the doe killing business in the neighborhood. They all made it through all seasons as of last weekend (except the yearling I killed during gun season). If only the mature does were bred and have fawns in the spring, I will begin to be overrun. Next season will be herd reduction mode pending what I see from the fawn drop. From my small understanding of herd numbers, buck/doe ratio, and how much a certain piece of ground can support, I don't want to over burden the property as far as what it can support. Now, being that the property is largely used as bedding and travel, I don't think there is much browse pressure on it. Especially with the close proximity of ag and large woods.
That being said, the property doesn't hold a lot of "resident" bucks. What if have noticed is that around mid October through rut, there was a parade of bucks coming through with regularity. Presumably to check for hot does that they knew were residing there. This would lend itself to the "hold does and the bucks will come" theory. The trick, I think, will be figuring out how to maintain the balance of how many is enough. Alas, that is the fun part, right? Anyway, that has been my observation.
