Based on studies he conducted in South Texas, D&DH Southern Field Editor Bob Zaiglin warned, “There is the potential drawback of prematurely removing does that have fawns.”
According to Zaiglin, “Early orphaning can reduce a fawn’s home range. Although fawn movements were unaffected by orphaning, orphaned fawns occupied smaller home ranges (383 acres) than did unorphaned fawns (713 acres).More importantly, without a doe, the orphaned fawns could have experienced a disadvantage, particularly in search for food, water and, more critically, escape cover from predators.”
Probably as a result, in South Texas, orphaned doe fawns weighed an average of 9.1 pounds less than unorphaned doe fawns when killed about a year later. The orphans were also more likely to die from natural causes.
And here is a solid argument against having too early of an antlerless season as we do in October as part of HR disguised as an additional ML opportunity. Although it would also tend to go against harvesting does in early archery season as well, though the archery doe harvest is likely spread over the month and a half season, giving some opportunity for does to finish weaning and even run off the male fawns prior to her entering estrous in early to mid november, as opposed to the concentrated harvest during the ML and senior/ junior rifle seasons in Oct, giving nature a chance to run it's course, so to speak.