How to age hill country does

[Hogmauler]

Folks we’ve been covered up with deer at the small place we bought in Mountain Home. Problem is their young, tons of nubbin bucks and one 1.5 year old six lives by the pop up. I’m of the mindset that why shoot a buck if he’s not a mounter?
Brings me to my point. Can you age a doe the same way you do a buck?
Ive been going by the thickness of their body thinking that the sleek ones are the youngest and anything with a paunch is older. Only seen one like that and didn’t shoot her. It was first light and first hunt so I gave her a pass.
Another couple of questions. Is there such a thing as a “barren doe” and would y’all shoot 1-1.5 year old bucks and does. Haven’t been able to bring myself to do it.
Thanks in advance for yalls input

[S-3 Ranch]

The biologist told us shoot every age class of doe , shoot the mule ear doe 1st IMO
Or the 1 year old old ( they aren’t matriarch yet)

[Hogmauler]

Dang Pilar what do you glean off a one year old doe? 40 pounds? So the matriarch does usually lead the group?

[HighwayHunter]

How to age hill country does

I learned the hard way to age them. If it’s a lone doe look at the head. The longer the snout, the older the doe. Yearlings have nerf football shaped heads. I however wouldn’t shoot the oldest doe. They usually attract the mature bucks first so I’d shoot the 2-3 year olds. It will mostly be a guessing game, but if you see one and think “that’s an OLD doe”, don’t shoot her.


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[Hogmauler]

Wow. That’s contrary to the way I was thinking. I was Reasoning that the younger they are the longer they have to breed etc etc whereas an old doe my be near the end of her life.

[Greenheadless]

You can gauge the distance from their ear to their eye, then compare to the distance from their eye to the end of their snout.

Yearling/fawns tend to be one-to-one ratio, in other words, the same distance.

The older they get, the longer the distance from their eyes to the end of their snouts. Real old does tend to be +1-1/2 to 2 times longer.

[Hogmauler]

So is everyone on board with shootIng all age classes of does?

[eastxhunter]

Yep shoot em all

Except the ones you need

[glen]

Yep shoot as much as you can in that area. Lots of mouths are hard on forage. I was in that area for a few years and never really cared what I could get folks to shoot as far as age just as long as it was a slick head

[Hogmauler]

I’ve gotten soft in my old age!

[Greenheadless]

I tend to not shoot does with fawns, but it really doesn’t matter, just a personal preference.

I try to find middle to older age class does without fawns. Doesn’t mean they are barren, might have lost their fawn to a predictor, who knows.

Nice thing is though, we have a good stable population and good ratio.

If I was having a population issue, I wouldn't hesitate though on anything. A mouth is a mouth at that point.

[Hogmauler]

I’m just wondering what the other landowners are doing, if they are shooting their limit of does. At what point is the breeding stock gone? The largest deer I saw was a 1.5 year old six. Everything else was nubs. So folks must be wiping out anything with antlers.

[glen]

Best answer I can give you in that area. It’s best to age them hanging in a cooler for 2 weeks but if not just shoot and grind away. It has high numbers but property is broken up to small parcels and not a whole lot of mature deer. I was in the area for years and place I was on got broken up.

[Hogmauler]

That’s what I was figuring Glen. Nothing here can live to maturity. Sad but true.

[Fishndude]

Shoot the one that turns broadside first.