Unless you're heavily managing. In that case the younger deer could/should have better genetic potential than the mature doe.

In two days will be opening weekend of rifle season here in Texas. I will be hunting in southern Atascosa County (South Texas) opening morning. I'll give the first hour of the morning to seek a nice mature buck. After that first hour, if I see a nice fat doe whether she has fawns or not, I'm dropping her. The meat is better early in the season. One less mouth to feed later in the season. I'm ready to make tenderized deer steaks, hamburger and jerky and I want to have that meat now, in early November!

We always had a spot that we would tailgate feed on the way back to camp. Does would come out in a matter of minutes.

Got our pick of does and kept the noise off the feeders.

Kind of did the same. I like to keep the same does around the feeders. Call them my “regulars” if they come in to eat twice a day. Try to find a way to recognize them (short tail, blemish in the fur, funky ear, etc ) they’ll pull in bucks when they come into heat. Just gotta be hunting when they do.
I’ll then shoot random does that walk thru that I don’t recognize as regulars. Prefer solo does with no fawns, or even a healthy yearling doe.

When I was a boy, my dad came home from the lease with a doe and a fawn in the ice chest. He said the fawn wouldn't leave the doe after he shot her. Tried to shoo it off and it just stayed there bellering at its mama. I don't shoot does with fawns.

Fawns will get run off by a buck here in just a few weeks anyway. By November most fawns are able to survive on their own. They don’t hang with mom all thru winter.

Bowhunting in October or on an MLD place, we leave does with a fawn alone

I've never witnessed that in 40+ years. I've seen does leave fawns to breed, but then join back up after the deed is done. Right now I've got family units where mom still has last year's daughters with her.

You sure they are the same fawn the doe had before? Bucks will sometimes chase a doe for miles. They may drift back into the area but by that time the fawn more than likely has fallen in with another group.

At 6 months old a fawn is capable of caring for itself.


I’m not going an advocating shooting fawns or does with fawns but when your hunting properties that require you to fill a quota, you stop being real selective on your does. And this goes on year after year. No harm is done to to the herd. The net goal is overall numbers

IMO, carrying capacity is the most overused and overhyped term used in the deer hunting community throughout the South. Simply put, our winter months are just not as brutal as what you find in areas where carrying capacity is far more applicable. If you want deer with bigger antlers, stop pounding does so hard and focus more on 1) better harvest decisions on bucks 2) habitat improvements 3) make use of deer sanctuary areas, and 4) offer supplemental food sources. As studies have shown, reproduction rates will adjust themselves relative to levels of available browse.

This^^^
The babies here stay with their mommy for a year. In the stand early the week one doe had twins at the feeder and they began to nurse and a larger deer began to join in. I'm assuming it was last years baby, the doe kicked her leg and wanted nothing to do with her.

Please stop clouding peoples mind with your incomplete and very inexperienced thesis's. Supplemental food sources and habitat improvements are a direct CARRYING CAPACITY tool, many will argue supplemental feeding is CC in a bag

If none of your does are having twins your herd health is below par and you are highly apt to disease and drought loss. And yes we have die offs in Texas. They are typically drought related more then blizzard related.

There is a reason why the majority of counties in Texas have high doe harvest encouragement/ability. There is a reason why every MLD program managed by actual biologists start with Doe harvest tracking and population estimates.

If carrying capacity is irrelevant, the core hill country instead of producing mature 115lb bucks, would be producing 180lb+ bucks with out any management. Ironically it does on well managed large LF or HF ranches with native genetics.

Tell me you’ve never managed a property without telling me you’ve never managed a property.

This is probably one of the most inaccurate things ever written on this forum.

There is a strong chance the good Lord will consider walking back his promise not to flood the earth again after he reads your post

I’ve seen the same.

Not long ago, He trolled parents for bragging about their kids deer that the kids shot from a box blind.

He is just here to troll

Obviously, he's here to teach.

And there are no "family units" in nature, besides humans. Somebody's been watching too much Disney. Word choice matters, particularly with the non-hunting public.

Myself as well, to a degree. I've seen the doe chase off one yearling, and let the other hang around. She's running off the yearling buck. After breeding, it's a group of three again. There are differing theories on why she doesn't want her own yearling buck around when she's ready to party.

Watched a single, mature doe get repeatedly run off one morning from two other does and their yearlings that were moving and feeding together. I'm sure they have their reasons.

I like to take the youth age kids from church and have taken many who have never hunted before. Killing does is a great way to teach kids reverence for God's creatures, how to hunt, clean, and process their own meat. It is also a huge blessing to those who do not have much, some extra meat really helps. Anyway as far as when and which ones, we try not to shoot does with fawns but in the end the big operations just want to reduce the number of mouths. Old solo horse head is always a good one to shoot as well as was said above the dang doe that won't stop blowing. Shooting does in January after the majority of trophy hunting is over with, for first time hunters is great. In February when some of the bucks start to drop antlers it is not fun, too easy to mess up and shoot a buck. If anyone has trouble getting all your does killed, holler. I have a bunch of kids that want to learn, families that can use the meat, and we are always looking for places to take them.

Well, I could have suggested shooting spikes. Nothing upsets the know-it-alls in the "Whitetail Management" crowd any more than saying there's great value in shooting spikes.

That's either an ignorant, or completely idiotic analysis. Given the poster is TD I'm not surprised.

I guess I don’t get your issue with my use of the term ‘family unit’ to describe a doe with her multi-year offspring group.

This, our population has been steadily going down, and we don’t shoot does.

He also advised against ever having a loaded firearm in a vehicle. Somehow every police officer in the country manages to do this every day,

Dang Dan. You really believe that mess don’t you? You are way off base. Short explanation here. Come up to speed if you want to. Carrying capacity is about habitat management. Deer browse is broken into three sub categories based on nutritional value and palatability. Each deer consumes 8-12 pounds of browse per day. Carrying capacity is the number of acres in a given habitat required to produce enough high value browse daily to sustain one deer. If you want to maximize the antler potential of the bucks, make enough first choice browse available for their daily consumption requirements and give them the age to express their full genetic potential. When carrying capacity is exceeded, first choice browse is depleted. Deer are forced into second and third choice browse sources. In turn the habitat is degraded. Carrying capacity then requires more acres/animal. Body weights and antler size is diminished. Habitat can take multiple years to recover to its former carrying capacity.