Whitetail Deer Record Keeping Methods

Keeping track of information on each of the deer that you harvest is of great value to your deer management program. I have limited information on the deer harvested in the first 20 years for our hunting property. I also failed to record the body weights of the bucks that we were shooting in the early use of our deer scales. Looking back I regret not keeping track of more of this information.

There are various methods of keeping track of this information including good old pen and paper; self made spreadsheet programs and ready-made deer management software programs that you can purchase. I have tried all three to a limited extent.

Up until recently I have kept track of all of our deer harvest information on paper. This is simple and cannot be lost when your computer crashes but can just as well be lost, ruined or eaten by your dog. Although I have moved into the computer generation I will continue to write it down in addition to my computer records.

Anyone with a computer and spreadsheet software such as Excel can put together their own spreadsheet to record their deer harvest data. The factor here is the availability of the software and your willingness to use it. Some people do not want to design their own spreadsheet. I’ve played with Excel some and was able to put together a simple spreadsheet in a short amount of time but I do have access to this software and it wasn’t my first time using it.

The third option, and the one most likely to grow over the coming years, is ready to install deer management software. I have used Whitetail Pro Log for a short time and found it easy to use and handy for trying to spot trends in our deer harvests.

It doesn’t matter what whitetail deer record keeping method you decide to use, just pick one and get the information recorded. If you don’t you will likely end up kicking yourself later.







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