Of the properties I know of that have been clubs or managed the last 15 years or so, they shot does before corn or they didn’t shoot does before corn. Corn didn’t change the fact that they shot does or didn’t. Not saying that is the norm, that’s just what I know of in my circle.
You’re correct…..It probably did not change the number of does many of the bigger properties are killing……It changed the number being killed on the 5-50 acre type parcels around them and around the rest of the county where folks find a spot in a good county and “fill freezers”……Not labeling it as good or bad but just as the source of the change. You need some of the bigger folks who are just whacking does to meet a quota to back off and compensate for all the numbers that the smaller guys are now shooting…….
Something else that needs thrown into this mix to consider is that all of that quail hunting land is also likely helping to prop up one of the highest coyote densities in the whole state…….which effects far more properties than just the quail land…..That impact is likely felt for miles on EVERY parcel…….So therefore it may be that when the balance gets tipped too far toward killing, killing, killing…….then its not so easy for the overall population to rebound from that if the only places that are highly successful in fawn survival are just the best of the best…..and its not even to say that those properties see really high rates……maybe its just average
