max the dog

This question started getting hit upon in another post but deserves it's own thread.

On my property I pass on all older does and let them continue breeding. Young does are a different story and I'll shoot almost all of them that come by. The buck to doe ration in my area is off kilter a bit and needs to be brought in line so I feel no guilt taking 8 young does with bow as I did last year. I feel that they taste better and aren't very good breeders to begin with. I read somewhere a couple years ago that for every year a doe is old her fawn mortality drops in half. That means a 2 year old doe looses half the fawns a year old doe will and a 3 or 4 year old doe won't loose very many at all. Everything I've seen in the field has backed me up, I've yet to see an experienced older doe loose a fawn even if they have twins. I also don't like orphaning young deer right before winter. If you take their mama out the fawns might not make it to spring.
Am I doing more harm than good? Should I let the younger ones pass and start shooting the older big mama's? Or should I keep eating deer veal?

Shootstuff4570

i'd take the older does, they dont have that much longer to live to begin with, and the younger does can grow up and breed longer than the older doe will.

Moose75

Kill the old does they run your little bucks off how much land do you have? If you dont have like at least 1500 acres then you are gonna have trouble with management. Your buck to doe ratio is messed up because your letting the old does walk and in turn keep the young does around and run the young bucks off. I kill all the old does and young does I killed a doe and her two 1 year old does at one time. but now after doing this for 5 years I have far more bucks around, I have three that I have watched each year for 3 years this year I am going to kill the bigger of the 3 he is in the pic on the left.

http://huntchristiancreek.com///DC

Liv4Rut

It all depends what your goal is, you said that your buck to doe ratio is a little out of whack. do you mean more bucks are on your land or more does? I assume that you have more does to bucks, but maybe i'm wrong. In that case I would shoot every old mature doe that walked by. The main reason is, they are the ones that produce the most fawns. By eliminating many of the old does, you have young does left that usually only produce one fawn a year. As you can see by shooting big mature does, it will eventually leave you with a herd that only produces one fawn a year instead of two and possibly three. This means, with less fawns a year, your buck to doe ratio will improve, and overall your hunting. I have seen it work in a place I currently hunt that is strictly Qdm managed. I barely rarely see a doe having twins, and the overall buck to do ratio is the closet to 1:1 that i have ever seen. Goodluck in whatever you do And as Moose75 has said, if you orphan a button buck by shooting its mom, that buck is most likely to call that place home the rest his life. Otherwise the big mature does, will run their young bucks away

SWAMPMAN

This is what we practice. We have @4500 acres. We are on management program and get 35-50 doe tags yearly. What we were told by the state game managers is that the old does need to be allowed to walk to maintain quality breeding stock. They say a young doe will eat more browse and not be quality breeding stock. We were advised to shoot as many yearling does as we could. Not sure if this is property specific but this came from state wildlife biologists. The only problem with harvesting that young is being sure it's not a "button buck." It does seem to be working well for us.

timbercruiser

At a QDMA meeting in Troy, Al. I asked the question if an old doe and two fawn does walked out in the food plot which to shoot. They said to shoot the old doe and then try and shoot both fawn does.

cardeer

Old ones in wheelchairs.try for the ones with grey in the faces and no choppers

James B

I shoot the biggest does in a bunch. More meat. We have way to many does of all sizes. I took eight mule deer does last fall. The young does will be old does someday.

Ryan Campbell

shoot the "herd doe". the one that, no matter how long you sit frozen, will not look away from your position. wait her out and when she finally does look away or snort or run or what ever, kill her. I've been foiled more than once by this doe. There's one in every herd and i figure if i kill her i set the example for the rest of them to not watch me so closely...hehe

rick_reno

I'll take the older doe. Last year I had 4 of them come out - I picked out the biggest (oldest?) and harvested her.