Which Deer to take

Truth is too many does, dilutes the urgency or peak of the rut. In other words you will see less chasing and less deer movement. This has been my experience over 30 years of deer hunting.

Alot of differing opions on this.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by jettdog68 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">Truth is too many does, dilutes the urgency or peak of the rut. In other words you will see less chasing and less deer movement. This has been my experience over 30 years of deer hunting.

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tis true, to many ladies create less competition. with a large population of girls, even the subordinate's get a piece of the pie, right down to the lowly spike.

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HOOK123 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> Alot of differing opions on this. </TD></TR></TABLE>

Could be because we don't really have the whole picture of your situation and most everyone is gonna answer based on how they manage their own deer. Their goals may or may not apply to your area and this being the internet, answers will be all over the map anyway.

Sounds like your land is still mostly open, is there enough cover to hold the bucks you want? How big is your parcel? What's around you? Do any of your neighbors try to follow QDM? You said it's not overpopulated but is it at carrying capacity? Whole bunch of blanks to fill in before you can come up with any sort of plan.

I still doubt it'll matter much one way or the other if you took a yearling doe and they're good eats.

the subordinates are gonna do alot breeding anyway...not matter what type of ratio you have in the woods.

here's another tidbit....all does, regardless of age (it is said that fawn does will only breed minimally...@ 30%) will come in heat...all will breed....all are capable of producing fawns....no such thing as an old barren doe...oldest doe on record in the wild was 22 years old...she had singles, twins or triplets until her last year...so any and all does will breed and come in heat and attract bucks. problem is, with too many does, a very simplistic was to look at it is that the bucks don't have time to breed all of them, as they are only receptive for a day or two...if they don't get bred the first cycle, it may be 2 or 3 cycles later before they get it....what occurs there is late fawning, miscarriages, poor quality feed when the fawns are born, etc. None of those are good scenarios for the deer herd. Shoot plenty, and shoot them early....