There is a lot of debate ongoing concerning deer numbers. It honestly baffles me to see some of the statements! So, my question is:

Do most of you understand the Concept of antlerless harvest?

It IS to lower the population!

No more, no less.
Simply curtailing buck harvest will have SAME effect on buck:doe ratio as killing does. So, save that argument. It is to reduce overall numbers and it works very well.

Works too Damn good if you ask me.....

The doe harvest has not adjusted to account for the radically reduced Fawn Recruitment Rates due to predation.

Coyotes, bobcats, bears, etc numbers are all on the rise. Their harvest is either protected or virtually non-existent due to fall of the fur/trapping market.

Fewer does raising fewer fawns is a bad thing....

And, I gotta add......doe harvest seems to favor trying to see who can kill the biggest does. That leaves the young ones. A yearling doe with no matriarch is NOT a good mother and her fawn survival rate will not equal what an older aged does would.

Could you call the expert over Skyline and tell him this.It seems that his goal is to wipe every deer off the place making every gun hunt either sex.There is no telling how many does end up being button bucks.

I know one thing, I have seen more fawns this year than ever in my areas.

I am with you on this 1000%. My take on it is the coyotes IN CERTAIN AREAS have really put a hurting on deer pops. As far as the adjusting doe harvest, it's coming. DCNR will research it to get facts. This takes time...years of data for a trend either up or down. Too slow for most of us who want instant results. I have 2 properties that the doe harvest needs to be stopped all together. We don't shoot does here at all and encourage others to not to also. Then I have 1 property where there doe harvest is OK where it is. All 3 properties are in the same county. Trying to throw a blanket over the whole state is what DCNR is facing. The only solution is hunter education which the state seems to count on by letting the people manage it themselves. But how do you educate hunters in masses??

Now break it down. What changed? A newer cutover providing better cover for fawns? Better food causing does to be healthier? Just a freakly good year? Think it through and see if there something that you can do/continue to do to help.

The hunter is the final judge on his or her property. Each individual like their property is unique. Rules and regs are blanketed to keep some control. It is left to the hunter to decide. Some will blast away and some will not. Deer hunting will never be perfect.

One is a new property and the other has seen no change.

You either have excellent fawning cover right now, or there is some serious predator control going on around you. It's not by chance you're seeing more fawns this year.

The coyotes are there.

We have had increasingly less fawns year after year. Oh, we have plenty on camera with spots with their mama's. Sometimes multiples, then they disappear. We never get pics, see them while hunting. So where do they go? I have a pretty good idea. If we are losing that many deer to the predators then we must stop killing the does. Like I said in an earlier post, we have killed no does in 3 years and "some" neighbors longer than that.
Someone needs to start educating the Hunting population on what is going on with the deer herd. And what we can do to help it. And that certainly does not mean year long either sex season to satisfy the lobbyists and big money insurance companies. Its time.

It could be a one year freak thing. But if it continues, something is favoring fawn survival. Jared should know his land better than anyone and know what he's talking about, so it could be something the neighbors have done.

On the new property I think it would be the fact that no one does anything until gun season. I didn't see any one until mid October on the dirt road. No tracks either. No pressure for 9 months may be the reason. Time will tell on this place.

How long have we had an open doe season?

As far as educating the hunters the hunter should educate himself.

Really, they do what they are told. You tell a kid he can shoot one a day and thats what he will do. Until they are gone. Kinda like putting catfish in a swimming pool and having a fishing rodeo. It must start with the rules and regulations.

Gotta add to that also is the fact that over the course of her life a young doe will eat more food (resources) than an old doe and produce more offspring, which in turn consume resources, than an old doe. We were taught that if your goal is population reduction, which ours was for years, it is much better to shoot a young doe than an old doe.

A yote will take a fawn a day if given the opportunity, and they are efficient killers. It's not by chance or a freak thing that he is seeing more fawns. Either he has optimal fawning cover, or someone or thing has put a dent in the predators. The only other thing it might be is he has better food sources than the surrounding property owner, so he is drawing more deer to his place. I'm just happy someone on here is having an increase in fawn sightings