Usually after a deer sheds his antlers, he is sterile. The testicles ascend into the body cavity and shut down testosterone production. This is to conserve energy and help the bucks recoup their losses after a vigorous rut. Generally the biggest or most dominant breeding bucks lose their antlers first. Therefore, most late esterus does and fawns are bred by which ever bucks are still wearing their headgear, usually it is younger bucks doing this extra late breeding. When you start to see signs of this ( fawns with spots in September and later ) it is a sign that the buck/doe ratio is out of balance and/or the herd is over populated. You will notice that in a few years, without some kind of herd control, the antler size on 1 1/2 year old bucks will become noticeably smaller. You will see more spikes and forks instead of the basket rack 8 pointers that were the norm before the problem occured.