Still seeing fresh scrapes in Southeast Texas

[AntlerCollector]

This is what I was told by a biologist several years ago. I am not claiming that it is right or wrong but that I was given the information.

This was on a lease in east Texas near Chester and Colmesneil.

The biologist said that if a doe was not bred when she was in estrus, she would go back into estrus about a month later and possibly a third time.

He believed that part of the problem was the number of does in the area. On our lease of approximately 1200 acres the estimate was maybe eight does per buck.

With that ratio he believed it was easy to think that some of the does would have to go into estrus more than once before all of them were bred.

I can guarantee that if I hunted two or three days a week, I might see a dozen does at the feeder and never see a buck. The biologist suggestion was we kill does and then kill some more does. After that, kill some more.

This was before antler restrictions and was in a two doe county. For the next couple of years I think we killed about 25 or 30 does each year. Sure enough, more bucks were being seen and we killed a couple of the biggest deer ever taken on the lease.

But, the point is that according to that biologist, it would not be strange to see does in estrus into the next year. In his opinion, the higher the doe to buck ratio, the more likely we would see this occur.

One of the lease members that was there a lot longer than me spoke to me after we got the information from the biologist. His opinion was, and I can almost quote, “everybody knows that if you kill does, there goes your deer herd“.

I agree with the biologist.

Years ago I also had lease members with the same mentality about not shooting does. Growing up I always heard, “it’s the does that make the bucks.”

[Backwoods101]

Old timers thought of the deer herd like cattle, goats or sheep. The more mama’s the better. My Dad use to tell a story of when he was a kid in the 60’s and him and my uncle were yelling “doe killer!” at a gentleman driving through Harper with a doe strapped to the hood of his car lol


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[cva34]

I think this stupid weather we had this year is a Major factor

[kruppa24]

Yeah I’m still throwing rugs all over the house and licking the Christmas tree.


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Made me laugh!

[Pstraw]

If the bucks here don't quit fighting and breaking up racks/tines, they won't have anything left to shed. Still have 3 active scrapes that get worked daily.