dtk913

A couple of years ago I heard a theory about shooting mature does that still had fawns with them. It said that if you shoot a doe that has fawns with it, if one of the fawns is a buck it will never leave it's "home" area. As opposed to the doe eventually running the buck off when it starts to mature.
I never really had paidattention to it until this year. We hunt about 350 acres in Southern Iowa, and over the last 3 years we have taken about 75-80 does. We were trying to get our ratio down. It has made a huge difference in the mature bucks we are seeing, but we are also seeing about 3 times as many 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 year oldbucks as we used to.
Just wondering what you guys think.

gibblet

i think that's right, as long as the youngin is old enough to get by on its own. way to go with that ratio. get that competition started and watch that gene pool.

Angus74

Ive heard that too, the way I understood it is that the doe will run her buck fawns off by the time they are 1 1/2 or 2, so they relocate to find territory of their own. Some bucks will still move to find their own place if their mother dont run them off, but some will definitely stay around liking the familiarity of home. Ive noticed the number of 1 1/2 year old bucks on my place it up too, but as you said, Im also seeing more mature bucks too. Something Ive also noticed is that we have a very old,(8 years plus) doe on our place, and she really rules the roost. Ive noticd that she doesnt seem to like hardly any other deer at all, every time Ive seen her the last couple years, and other deer come around her, she will run them off, even bucks, Ive never witnessed a mature buck around her, but every time a young buck or another doe is around she dont like it much. Id like to take her but it is much harder than it would seem, shes pretty smart, and seems to bust me every time she is in range.

Talondale

Yeah, dominant does will establish their own territory just like a buck. This helps her get the most productive area for raising her fawns. It's good to usually take out the dominant doe because she can prevent the younger does from breeding. As far as the young buck is concerned, I wouldn't say he'd NEVER leave the area but he is likely to adopt it as his home base until something drives him out (you or a bigger buck).

442deer

Another thing to consider is , younger does generally have more male offspring. So, it would be a good thing and a great challenge to whack that 'ol doe.

gutshot

I've never heardthat. I'm pretty surethat a doe will run the buck fawns off by the time that the next rutting season comes around.

QuickkillMcgee

I'll tell you what I like the taste of deer meat but a couple years ago I shot what we wager was about a 12 year old doe. Huge doe for where I hunt. Blacktail mind you. My father when he was like 30 shot a deer and sent in the teeth and they said it was 10 years old and the doe I shot was bigger and the teeth were way deteriorated. That the yellow fat and the strong flavor were a dead give away to it bein an really old deer. We actually watched her push off a good sized 2 point away from her yearling she had with her. Its kind of funny that older female deer run their territories and older female humans generally run their homes as well lol. Makes you think a bit huh?