buckwild eb

i have the hardest time mistaking buttonheads for does, and then shooting them. what is the biggest trigger for you guys that a deer is male or female when they are in a group of slickheads. one fooled me this afternoon

Rebel Hog

Use your bino's! Here in FL they have to be 5" above the hair line!

charlie brown

I wonder why people worry so much about shooting button bucks? I am sure there are more killed every year from disease, predators and other factors than all hunters combined kill in one year. If the Fish and Game Departments were worried about it, then only animals with visible hard antlers would be legal to shoot. For every button buck that gets shot by a hunter, I would bet that 5 or more get taken due to other causes.

If its legal, shoot it, take it home, be happy and don't worry about it.

Good luck.

UPHunter89

Well, usually I tell the difference by checking what they got between their hind legs....

Rebel Hog

MDManiac

you can tell an immature deer from a mature one simply by snout length, the longer the snout, the other the deer.

Also, Button Bucks/Fawn Doe's will have unproportionally sized ears as compared to thier heads...just a heads up!

UPHunter89

This is a yearling buck:



Notice how, as MDManic said, their snout is much shorter and closer to their eyes.

Now, here is a doe:



Can you tell the difference?

mauser06

actually i think studies been done in PA that we take like 50some percent of our bucks before they grow their first rack.......and now with a few years of herd reductionits been rough on them.....too many guys bring home to many buttons....i mean...mistakes happen....sometimes its hard to tell...but when you can i think its best to pass them.....thats a future monster!!! lol........but really......they are important and should be kept alive.....figure the natural ration of bucks to does is probably 1-1 at birth....maybe 1 buck-2does.....depends where your at.....but thats natures balance......but i saw about 15 deer today...1 had an identifiable rack....thats how it is in my expirience in my area...about 15 does to 1 buck......WAY out of whack..thats why we have antler restrictions AND herd reductions going on at the same time........thought they had a good idea....but toooooo many buttons get killed as does....and non-AR bucks can be shot by juniors and seniors...plus illegals....found my first ever skull in the woods with just and horns sawed off.....heard of it by many guys on forums but never seen it.....i think for the first 5 years or so ARs should have applied to EVERYONE......just to get the bucks living longer and showing better results quicker...guys in this state need to try a little harder to identify buttons.....we had sooooo many more bucks if they werent killed the year before as buttons...

UPHunter89

How to Identify Button Bucks (Via the MI DNR):

[font="arial, helvetica, sans-serif"]Each year many hunters harvest buck fawns, commonly called "button bucks" on antlerless deer licenses. Though perfectly legal, harvesting these deer reduces the number of bucks for the future. By learning the difference between adult does and buck fawns and observing these suggestions, hunters can make a conscious choice on whether to harvest a buck fawn. [ul][*]Button bucks often travel alone, but adult does rarely do. Consider this when you observe a single antlerless deer.[*]Wait until several deer are together; then harvest one of the larger antlerless deer.[*]Look at body shapes of deer. Adult does are different in shape from juvenile deer. The mature doe is rectangular in shape with a long neck and face. Fawns are square shaped and have a short neck and face.[*]If two juvenile deer are without an adult, one will probably be a button buck. Normally the young male is larger than the female and may be mistaken for an adult doe because of its larger size. Look at the head of the deer. A doe's head normally is more rounded on top between the ears because a buck's head is flattened by the base of the antlers.[*]Look closely with binoculars for the antler bases on button bucks.[*]Wait until the deer are standing or moving slowly. It is easier to identify sex and age when deer are not running or moving fast.[*]Shoot with good visibility. Poor light or heavy cover make it difficult to determine sex and age.[/ul]
http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10363_10856_10905-29622--,00.html

timbercruiser

Get some good optics and then look at a lot of pictures of young deer. It is fairly easy to tell the difference if you take your time.