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Doe Management

1,013 Views | 14 Replies | Last: 25 days ago by Deerdude
joerobert_pete06
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10:10a, 1/19/26
AG
Do yal shoot off your does early in the season or late?

I hunt in south Texas and this season sucked real bad, mainly because it was so hot and we never got a freeze. We kill 60does early in season before we start shooting trophies and it got me thinking if we should wait to shoot off our does.
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SGrem
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10:20a, 1/19/26
Shoot the first does you see on day one.

Less competition for food.
And no reason to run the bucks to death only to shoot the does they were running.
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Furlock Bones
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10:27a, 1/19/26
AG
shoot early. get it done.
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MrWonderful
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10:28a, 1/19/26
AG
Some recent discussion about it here

https://texags.com/forums/34/topics/3591659/1

I'm a shoot early believer, but I hunt small properties where pressure (both hunting and social) become factors real quick.

Weather this year was wacky, wouldn't make changes based on an outlier year
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Chetos
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In reply to joerobert_pete06 • 10:29a, 1/19/26
AG
joerobert_pete06 said:
Do yal shoot off your does early in the season or late?

I hunt in south Texas and this season sucked real bad, mainly because it was so hot and we never got a freeze. We kill 60does early in season before we start shooting trophies and it got me thinking if we should wait to shoot off our does.


Sucked? Didn't you shoot your biggest buck there to date during this season?
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Gunny456
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In reply to joerobert_pete06 • 10:36a, 1/19/26
AG
There was another thread just recently about this.
Back some years ago both Kerr Wildlife Center and the YO ranch did some detailed studies on the physiological results on fawns and yearlings on losing their moms very early in life.
Was some pretty strong evidence that the fawns/yearlings did not mature as quickly physiologically wise and therefore would breed later than normal maturity causing late born offspring which would then perpetuate throughout the herd.
The end result findings was if you kill does early make every attempt possible to not harvest does that still have fawns, fawns with no spots or early yearlings.
Determination was that those fawns/early yearlings needed the interaction with their moms during there first year or so to properly develop physiologically wise.
I attended a seminar at KWC that had that as the topic and it was pretty convincing data.
My old fellow WFS roommate was a biologist for multiple years at the YO and worked on that research project.
TAMU Wildlife & Fisheries Sciences

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joerobert_pete06
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In reply to Chetos • 10:49a, 1/19/26
AG
Chetos said:
joerobert_pete06 said:
Do yal shoot off your does early in the season or late?

I hunt in south Texas and this season sucked real bad, mainly because it was so hot and we never got a freeze. We kill 60does early in season before we start shooting trophies and it got me thinking if we should wait to shoot off our does.


Sucked? Didn't you shoot your biggest buck there to date during this season?


Correct but I was the only hunter to get a trophy. In general a majority of the mature bucks never came out in daylight
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joerobert_pete06
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In reply to MrWonderful • 10:50a, 1/19/26
AG
Thanks for sharing
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Deerdude
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10:57a, 1/19/26
I do the shoot late approach. Gunny brings up some good points on this. I do it because I'm doing it to control numbers and killing bred does works for me and even makes my intended result more easily attainable.
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Gunny456
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In reply to Deerdude • 11:01a, 1/19/26
OnlyForNow
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In reply to Deerdude • 11:16a, 1/19/26
AG
Each time I've been invited to a doe cull at the end of season late Jan/Feb, every doe I have shot was bred and had visible fetal offspring in the uterine tubes.

It doesn't really bother me one way or the other, but wonder if removing them earlier would eliminate their draw down on resources as well as remove them from the service needs of bucks - maybe not make the bucks work so hard? Or is that wishful thinking?
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Chetos
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11:36a, 1/19/26
AG
Just my opinion but I think shooting does early is akin to eating your perch before you run your trotline. I'd rather have does for lure than worry about whether they are hogging resources. Most does you shoot are living on your corn/protein anyways. Also waiting till end of season allows you to align doe harvest goals with actual buck harvest. ie if you must shoot two does before for every buck you harvest. Reading gunny's post, it looks like there's also some science to backup shooting does later.

Good luck convincing your ranch "biologist" of this.
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MrWonderful
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In reply to Chetos • 11:41a, 1/19/26
AG
If your goal is to maximize the attraction potential of a hot doe, then more is not better.

Less does in estrous means the doe in front of you has a higher odds of being in heat.

On top of that, supply and demand works in deer too. Less doe means a more intense rut. You aren't going to have as many bucks on their feet looking if they are locked down on a doe.

Not arguing the impact on fawns, haven't dug into those studies, but it makes sense to me, hard to balance everything in terms of herd management.
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Chetos
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In reply to MrWonderful • 11:52a, 1/19/26
AG
MrWonderful said:
If your goal is to maximize the attraction potential of a hot doe, then more is not better.

Less does in estrous means the doe in front of you has a higher odds of being in heat.

On top of that, supply and demand works in deer too. Less doe means a more intense rut. You aren't going to have as many bucks on their feet looking if they are locked down on a doe.

Not arguing the impact on fawns, haven't dug into those studies, but it makes sense to me, hard to balance everything in terms of herd management.



My rifle deer stand hunting strategy has always been fairly simple. Anchor the does to your stand, does go in heat, buck gets stupid and comes after your anchor-does and reveals himself despite how bad you smell or if you parked in the wrong spot.

Kill off your anchor does before rut and you are just gonna see a couple of protein bully bucks …if you are lucky.
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Deerdude
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1:19p, 1/19/26
I don't know about anchor does but I like the low key does personally. In my culling , if you snort, you die.
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