1. Can I keep two different properties under my one account?
If you have two properties that are not located next to each other then you should purchase two separate subscriptions of the software. You may have higher sightings on one property versus the other. Also the Doe to Buck ratio may be 3 to 1 on one property and 2 to 1 on the other and the recruitment rate could be .800 on one and .600 on the other. If you combine your sightings for both properties then you will be getting an average of both properties combined which could be misleading. One property could be improving while the other is getting worse and you won’t be able to see this with them both combined. Please read the next question if the properties are contiguous.
2. Can I join my neighbors together and share one subscription?
If you can get a few neighbors together whose properties are contiguous or at least very close together you can put all of your information into one account. You would treat all of the properties together as one larger sized property. You can set up all of the hunters from all of the properties or if it’s easier you could set up a single hunter name for each specific property. (i.e. Jones Tract) You can then enter the sightings from all of the properties or the trail camera counts if that is preferred. You can also enter all of the deer harvested for all of the properties. You will now be able to track the sightings and harvests for all of these neighbors combined. To get a good estimate of your Doe to Buck ratio and your Fawn Recruitment Rate you should try to get close to 1000 acres or more. But if you only have a couple of hundred acres you can still monitor your sightings/camera survey to see if you are seeing more or less deer each season. You will also be able to track all of your deer harvested season by season. If you provide your neighbors with the account login each and every one of them can bring up your account on the website so they can see the sightings and harvest information. They now feel like they are truly participating in a group for the benefit of the combined properties.
3. Why should I monitor my property?
Every season many of us make a remark about how many deer we are seeing or not seeing compared to previous seasons. It is easy to prove this by just doing some simple record keeping. We all come back home or to camp and tell everyone how many deer we saw on our hunt. If you just write this down in the form of Does, Fawns and Bucks sighted you can then enter it into the computer at your convenience or just enter it without writing it down if you can get on the internet. I can tell you what our average sightings per hunt are for Does, Fawns and Bucks since we started keeping these counts in 1996. We know without question if our sightings are changing drastically or not. The sightings will naturally vary from season to season but we are looking for any big changes. If my average for the whole season goes from 1.00 deer per hunt down to .25 deer per hunt I will be watching this closely next season to see if it is indicating that there is a reduction in our deer density. Even if you are hunting small acreage you can track if you are seeing more or less deer than in previous seasons. The more hunts you have the more representative the results will be. If you only hunt 2 or 3 days each season then it’s difficult to establish a meaningful result since the deer may or may not have been moving on those 2 or 3 days. On the other hand if your co-hunters hunt several days each then you should still have a good representation of your deer sightings for the entire property. You need to use your own judgment here since the important thing is that you get a good representation of you deer sightings.
4. How do I determine what the season is?
I always put the year that the season starts in. For example the 2023/2024 season is designated as the 2023 season.
5. On the entering of sightings what do I put for am/pm if I sit the stand all day?
The best thing to do is to try to remember how many deer you saw before noon or so and how many deer you saw after noon. If this is too difficult then just enter your total sightings under am or pm and know that it will distort your sightings statistics by am/pm.
6. If I don’t see any deer do I still need to enter my sightings of zero?
Absolutely “Yes” This count of zero, zero, zero goes into your average sightings per hunt. Even if you have a lot of deer on your property you will have times when you don’t see any. Let’s face it if the deer aren’t moving then you won’t see them!
7. What should I do if I’m not sure if the deer was a Doe, Fawn or Buck?
If we aren’t sure what the deer was then we don’t count it! We consistently do this so we are always comparing apples with apples so to speak.
8. What is Fawn recruitment rate?
This is simply the percentage of Fawns to Does. For example if I see 2 Does and 4 Fawns then the recruitment rate is 2.00. If I see 2 Does and 1 Fawn then the recruitment rate is .50. In order to get a good representation of your fawn recruitment rate you should try to analyze at least 1000 acres or more and use a trail camera survey or your actual sightings as long as you have a large enough sampling to make a good estimate.
9. What is Doe to Buck ratio?
This is simply the percentage of Does to Bucks. For example if I see 4 Does and 2 Bucks the ratio is 2 to 1. If I see 4 Does and 4 Bucks then the ratio is 1 to 1. In order to get a good representation of your Doe to Buck ratio you should try to analyze at least 1000 acres or more and use a trail camera survey or your actual sightings as long as you have a large enough sampling to make a good estimate.
10. What’s a normal Doe to Buck ratio?
This is a loaded question. I don’t really want to touch this with a ten foot pole but I’ll say this. If man wasn’t a predator (hunter) to the deer I think we would all agree that it would be somewhere closer to a one to one ratio. I said closer and not exact. We have proven that hunters can definitely have a big impact on the Doe to Buck ratio by harvesting more Bucks than Doe’s or vice versa. If you have enough acreage to study (approximately 1000 acres or more) you should be able to estimate your own Doe to Buck ratio by doing a trail camera survey or by recording your sightings over a length of time just prior to the season. We actually strive to keep our Doe to Buck ratio at a certain level because we have determined that it absolutely improves our Buck sightings, which in turn improves our Buck harvests. We proved this by monitoring our sightings since 1996 and from experiences we had prior to then. If you are able to at least estimate your Doe to Buck ratio and then keep track of your sightings you may be able to determine if changing your ratio did have an impact on your sightings. The biggest obstacle here is that mentality that it is bad to shoot a Doe because you are actually shooting umpteen deer over the next few years. You should be able to prove by keeping some records that you should not shoot any Does for the good of your deer population and don’t assume it.
11. What’s a normal Fawn Recruitment Rate?
This is a loaded question. What’s normal? Do you have a lot of predators? Do you have a lot of winter kills? Do any of your fawn Does get bred? Are your Does unhealthy? If you have enough acreage to study (approximately 1000 acres or more) you should be able to estimate your own fawn recruitment rate by doing a trail camera survey or by recording your sightings over a length of time prior to the season. By monitoring our sightings and doing a camera survey we are confident that our recruitment rate is approximately .80 which is pretty good. I am working with a high fence operation where their recruitment rate has averaged .62 the last two seasons. You need to figure out what is normal for your own area. I sound like a politician now!
12. What are average sightings per hunt?
This is how we keep track of our deer sightings season by season to determine if our deer sightings are going up, going down or remaining about the same. Every property can do this even if you are hunting smaller acreage. The more hunts you have amongst all of your members the more representative the result will be. In other words if you only hunt 2 or 3 days throughout the entire season it’s difficult to establish a meaningful result since the deer may or may not have been moving on those 2 or 3 days. If I go on 5 morning and 5 afternoon hunts and see a total of 5 deer my average sightings per hunt is .50 (5 / 10 = .50) You will actually break this down into Does, Fawns and Buck’s. Needless to say if I hunt 20 days and you only hunt 5 days I will probably see more deer than you but that’s why it is broken down per hunt. If I hunt 20 days and see a total of 20 deer my average sightings per hunt is 1.00. On the other hand if you hunt 5 days and see a total of 7 deer your average sighting’s per hunt is 1.40. You actually have a higher average than I do but the important thing to remember is that all members may participate in recording their sightings so you will have an average of all hunters. This isn’t a contest between hunters but a cooperative effort to monitor the deer on your property. Please read my management articles where I explain this sightings information in more detail.
13. On the harvests what is deer number?
This is simply a sequential number starting at number one each season. The first deer harvested each season is deer #1, the second deer harvested is deer #2 etc.
14. On the harvests (Advanced version) why do you have the antler measurements in inches?
The purpose for the antler measurements is to be able to run a statistical report that will allow you to analyze your Buck’s antler characteristics to see if antler restrictions will work for you. I do not ask for all of the antler measurements needed to calculate the B&C score. I only ask for the measurements that can possibly be used for an antler restriction.
15. On the harvests what if I don’t know how to age a deer jawbone?
Knowing the age of a deer is important to know for deer management. There are videos and articles available on the internet that show and explain how to estimate the age based on the tooth wear. If you have not done so then make sure you read my article “Deer Management Phase I” where I review the importance of trying to age a deer. Also, read my article “How old was that Deer that you harvested?” Like I said in the article if nothing else you can pull the jawbone and write the deer number on it so later you can have someone age it for you. Even if you aren’t into managing your deer it would be nice to know the approximate ages of the deer you are harvesting. Was that big Buck 6 ½ years old or was he just 2 ½ years old?
16. Should I enter the whole weight or the gutted weight of our deer?
You can do either one but do them all the same. We prefer entering the whole weight so we see what the deer actually weighed. When we analyze the weight of our deer by age group we are thus seeing it by whole weight. If you are in a situation where you field dress your deer out in the field then you will obviously use the gutted weight. If you are working with a biologist they may recommend that you do it one way or the other depending on what analysis they will be doing.
17. How do I estimate how many individual (different) Bucks I have on my property?
It’s an involved yet important process if you can do it. Please read my article “How do you determine how many different Bucks you have”
18. Why would I want to analyze our Buck’s antler characteristics?
One of the most important things in “Buck Management” is trying to get your Bucks out to an older age class. The best way to age these Bucks is by being able to age them on the hoof. Please watch my video “How to age a Buck on the Hoof”. With that being said you and/or some of your hunters may not be able to age a Buck on the hoof so it would be beneficial to you if there was a certain antler characteristic that you could use to protect your 1 ½ and possibly your 2 ½ year old Bucks. Please read my article “Analyzing your Bucks Antler characteristics” for a complete explanation.
19. Should I do a camera survey?
Anyone can do a camera survey but to get reasonably accurate results you should have about 1000 acres or more. The more acreage you are studying the more accurate your results will be. The goal of the survey is to try to come up with an estimate of your Doe to Buck ratio and an estimate of your fawn recruitment rate. The other thing that you can try to determine is approximately how many different Bucks you have on your property. For a high fenced property this is valuable information because it gives you the ability to use the two formulas I have available in the advanced version of my software to estimate the size of your deer herd. It is difficult for unfenced properties to determine their number of Bucks because they have deer coming and going from their property. Please read my article “Deer Management Phase II” where I cover this in more detail.
20. When is the best time to do a camera survey?
It would be best if you can wait until the middle of September or into October. I can get a pretty good estimate of our number of individual Bucks and our Doe to Buck ratio before the middle of September but the problem is that the fawns may still be laid up tight and not walking around freely with their mother. I have always noticed that our recruitment rate looks lower in July and August than it does in September and later. Try to do your count before your hunting season starts because if deer are being shot then that will affect the results of your count.
21. Should I record my actual sightings or do a trail camera survey?
Please read my article Should I track my sightings or do a Camera Survey?
22. What’s the difference between an Administrative User, Advanced User and a Limited User password?
Even though you set up a single user id and administrator password for your account, you have the ability to set up 2 additional passwords that can be used by other members of your hunt group. Here is an explanation of the 3 levels of access.
Administrator: The person that purchases the software and sets up the account automatically becomes the administrator of the account. This person has authority to access and update all information on the account including contact information, passwords and property description. This person is responsible for setting up the Advanced User and Limited User passwords that I describe below.
Advanced User: If a person logs into your account using the Advanced User password they can access and update all information except the contact information, passwords and property description.
Limited User: If a person logs into your account using the Limited User password they cannot update any information. They will only be able to view the various reports.
23. Paypal says “The card you entered cannot be used for this payment”.
In your browser try deleting your cookies and then try the payment again.
24. Why are the charges set up on an annual subscription basis?
With the advancement of technology you will begin seeing more and more software applications being presented as a web application.
In the past you would receive the software on a CD to install on your own computer or you would download and install a copy of the software onto your computer from the internet. This would mean that you could only run that program on that computer. It also meant that you would have to get updates to the software the same way. Also, there are usually compatibility issues with the type of operating system you are using and possibly issues with settings on your computer. Let’s also point out the problem if your computer crashes. The programs and data are lost.
The benefits of using a web application are that you do not have to download any software to your own computer. Wherever you can get on the internet you can bring up your account. You could be at home, at a club meeting or in the woods with a phone that has internet access. The software and your data are both stored on our server which you access over the internet through our website. When we make an enhancement to the software it is immediately available to all users. Also, your data is automatically backed up every night in case you have a problem. Because of the expense to maintain the software and the expense to store your data we have to charge an annual subscription to help cover these expenses.
25. Why does a report not line up correctly on the printer?
If you have a report that doesn’t seem to line up correctly or looks like it should just print on one page then try the following. Where you do page setup or where you can set your printing preferences try changing the print to be portrait and then try landscape to see if that fixes the problem. If you have the ability to do a Print Preview select that and try Shrink to Fit and select a smaller percentage.
26. The headings don’t seem to line up correctly on the screen and/or the report when I print a report.
Because the software runs in your browser there may be settings that can be changed in your browser that will fix the problem. I will list six common browsers and the settings you can try changing.
Internet Explorer Version 8:
Click the Page tab: uncheck compatibility view
Zoom- adjust the zoom level
Text Size- change to medium or smaller
Internet Explorer Version 9:
Click the Tools tab: uncheck compatibility view
Click on the View tab: Zoom- adjust the zoom level
Mozilla Firefox:
Click on Tools tab: Options – Content change your font size.
Click on the View tab: Zoom- try adjusting the zoom amount
Click on File tab: Format & Options- Shrink to fit page
Try Landscape
Margins/Header Footer Reduce margins
Google Chrome:
Click the wrench: Zoom- try adjusting the zoom amount
Print- try Landscape and changing margins
Opera:
Click on Panels: Customize- Themes- Try changing icon size
Info- Wrench- Zoom Change % then close Info Panel or slide the zoom bar at the bottom right
Safari: