Thanks for the responses. We have quite a few deer, I wouldn't say we are over populated though. I don't NEED the meat, but will I eat it? Hell yes. However, not at the expense of the hunting for years to come. I guess there's really no way of telling unless you actually have a survey done.

The last day of this season I shot a doe i'd been watching all season, she had a yearling with her that finally decided to go off on his own. At the time, there were 3 fawns/yearlings and 3 does. The one i shot was definitely the dominant doe and was chasing the other deer off, so that was enough justification for me to go ahead and take her. But in hindsight, I've kinda wondered if that was a good choice, she had a fetus.

You have to shoot Does so some on here will like you.

what does that mean?

The surveys I have seen done in Mills County is driving county roads with spotlights at night and doing doe and buck counts. My thoughts

Just depends on your ranch and what your numbers and overall density are. Some areas don't need to shoot does at all, in fact should not shoot any. Some areas need to shoot 8-10 does for every buck taken. I've hunted in both situations.

yep - you are correct - as always depends on situation

Now that's funny...... wait I hunt mills county.

I've always understood that the proper buck/doe ratio will keep the breeding environment competitive and the largest, strongest bucks will (more often) breed. When there are 10 does to every buck, the runts will still have their chances. I don't think it's 1:1 though - probably anywhere between 1:1 and 3:1 does per buck.

Now "biggest/strongest" isn't perfectly correlated with antlers if you're looking for trophies, but they certainly help win fights.

Doesn't increased competition lead to an increase in dead bucks and busted antlers?

Apparently, you've never lived in a fraternity house.

I think there are a lot of assumptions that people make then pass it on as the truth.

Animals are dynamic and are going to move for a variety of factors.

Right now I am not shooting does because I want to increase population. To help I am also feeding year round. There may be a point in the future when I shoot does but not right now.

On my lease, I didn't shoot any does this season. The guy that hunted my area the season before this past fall shot 2 doe off about 150 acres. I'm in Archer county and the deer density is not very high. The buck to doe ratio seems to be fairly even judging from sightings and game camera activity at feeders. Now, on the other hand, at my Dad's lease in Val Verde county there are a ton of deer and they don't shoot enough does IMO. So, I usually take a doe or two off that place each year and try to give them a pass on my lease. As stated above, each property is different, but I'd venture to guess that more than half of places in Texas have too many deer on them and need to take does each season.

If more people tried to shoot does according to population densities and what the natie range would support I doubt we would have seen the big die offs in the last string of droubt years 5 or so years ago.

We hunted on a LF place in kendall county for over 20 years in that time we picked up management and realized we had too many deer and too many does. In a 5 year time our B:D ratio got a lot closer and bucks/doe body weights went up about 20 lbs on average. Along with the increased weights the biggest deer that have been shot on the place in the past 100 years were shot and were about 35-40% bigger than the standard for the past however long based on B&C score. That was with no protein.

They taste good

In our part of the world everyone likes to shoot bucks. Pretty low buck survival to maturity, yet lots of does. Those does make more does, and bucks that get shot. Pretty soon you've got double the deer you should have yet very few bucks. Much of the Hill Co is in this situation which is why some areas have deer that barely top 70lbs.

Shoot does to bring the numbers down to what the land can support. Surveys are a pretty easy way to say where you're at, and TPWD has published numbers on where each region should be. Shoot the difference and have healthier, bigger deer as a result.

best point made! lol

Like redchevy, I hunted a lease in Llano County for over 20 years. With the assistance of a biologist, we did a game count and came up that on our 1000 acres, we had between 350 and just under 400 head of deer. (number varied due to low fence and deer crossing from neighboring properties).
After 5 years of rather intensive doe whacking (technical term, ya know), we noticed a few things:
1. Rut behavior began in the end of October with scrape lines and similar starting to show up.
2. Average doe field dressed weights dropped by 10 lbs or so (if you're going to take a doe, why not take the big one?)
3. Average buck field dressed weight went UP by 35 lbs to nearly 125.
4. Average antler size increased (we had a strict '8 pt or better/width of the ears' rule in place)
5. Nearly all of the spikes seen after 5 years were young deer as opposed to the more than 15 head taken the first year that averaged 5 years of age( you know that's another myth busted - that all spikes can/will grow to 10 pt)

After 5 years our herd had decreased to around 200 total head. When the next drought hit, other than a decrease in antler size and a slight increase in herd size (due, we're guessing to 'illegal alien deer' crossing the fences). Deer remained healthy and we actually had a good fawn survival rate.

This is a very interesting topic. There is no set answer to the question. As mentioned earlier, if you want your population to increase....dont shoot any does. If your doe to buck ratio is out of whack, you probably should only shoot does. And then lots of places fall right in the middle of those two scenarios. I will give you an example of the last place I managed. This place was 10,000 acres in Refugio county. Prior to managing it, I hunted the place for 9 years so I knew what was going on. There was some internal poaching going on quite heavily in several of the pastures. Once I started managing the poaching stopped. Every one of those pastures had its own needs regarding management. There were two pastures I never took a doe out of in 9 years of managing the place because the population needed to be increased. Another pasture, it seemed I could never shoot enough does out of it. It is my opinion that you can never just have a blanket rule for managing your deer herd.

On another note, if you are trying to take does out of your herd, spread the killing around on your place. Try to take some out of each group of doe families.

. Last point is a good one. We shot around 90 does this season and kept track of where each one was taken so we spread it out Across the ranch

Population management, perhaps?

They make excellent sausage. I built my smokehouse with does in mind, and like stated here earlier, I too don't have a recipe for antlers.