As I was perusing some of my TC pics this week, I saw a doe that seemed to be very mature and had a Roman nose. Then a mark on the left side of her face started to ring a bell. I've seen her before!

Then I went back over my pics from previous years, and yep, there she is! I've got her each year (2011 is questionable) back to 2010 and she looked mature even then. Folks here may not share my enthusiasm as usually we're concerned about growing bucks, but to me this is very cool! The only question that remains: do I try to take her out?

Here she is and you can see the spot just in front of her left eye:

2010


2011 (I think this is her, but not sure)


2012


2013


2014

This should be a good post for STX to comment on, but i have heard that doe's do not go "Barron", they'll have a fawn each year up until they die... not sure if it holds true or not, i have also heard a rule of thumb, shoot the younger 2-3 year old does, due to, your older doe's like the one you have will raise fawns or yearlings if their mother has been killed. All of this is just things i have been told by several of my friends that have MLD property, i have no solid proof. But with all of that being said, if you're shooting for numbers, a mouth is a mouth!

I would let her go, take a younger for meat. you know us old folks have to stay together.

A veteran like that I'd let walk.

The young females are more tender and taste better anyway.




^Yes that could become a sig line^

I appreciate the thoughts and potential sig lines. I'm sure she wouldn't eat the best.

One thing I always wonder about though are the old dominate does and how they persistently run off the younger bucks.

Nice history with the pics. She is plenty mature. What have your fawn crop humbers looked like over the past 4 yrs? If she is not a good enough mother to raise a fawn then it might be time to shoot her. What are your predator numbers like?

Fawn crop has always seemed good, but I cannot recall ever seeing her with a spotted fawn. She always seems to have a yearling with her though. She does seem very dominate, and I've seen her running lots of deer off the feeders, especially from another "family." I'm hardly ever there during fawning and I'm not running cameras at that time, but there are always lots of yearlings, buttons, and spikes come hunting season.

Predator numbers seem in check. I know there are yotes around, but I just spent six days in camp and never heard the first howl. I shot one that was with another back in June. No fox and few bobcats that I've seen.

All of your potential coyotes live around my place. There are three packs NW, SW, and east of my place.

Good for you, bad for me.

Let me clarify...I've had this place (TX panhandle) for five years and have always listened to them light off at dusk and dawn. This one time in camp, nada. It's actually pretty strange.

Ah ha.

My place over in Fannin county has me hearing more coyotes than anywhere else I've ever been. Wonder what an average population of coyotes is in the panhandle vs. NE Texas? NE Texas country isn't near as hard as panhandle country is.

Good question. This last trip I took a picture of yote scat full of nothing but cotton seed. Never known them to eat cotton seed and never seen it before.

Never seen that.

Ours have grasshopper legs and berries in it. I think they can survive bout like a cockroach or hog can. And they're in the top three smartest animals in North America.

I would let her go.