Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Deer Hunting Anyone noticing a lack of does this year?

Not just at my lease, but spoke to a few others saying similar. Bucks outnumbering does which is not normal.

On a 4 hour one road trip all or nearly all the dead deer by the roadside were bucks too.

In the varmint forum one hunter said he shot, I believe, 11 squirrels and all ended up being males. Said the odds were astronomical of that happening.

Sounds crazy to think something is amiss, but given the times we live in...... hello Faucci or what??

Ok, being dramatic but.....what about in your area?

In the areas I hunt, they seem to be rittled with doe. Had numerous nice bucks on camera all the way to opener which have since disappeared of course. I have seen probably 3-4 times as many does and yearlings this year versus past years.

Looking at the DNR harvest stats, the bucks taken are 60+% more than the does, it seems this year everyone is after antlers of any variety.

Couldn’t get away from them this year. Both here in Maine and in Pennsylvania

We’ve got way too many does in relation to bucks!

We're in Kendall County and 5 of us have not fired a shot so far. Our deer numbers have been way down for the last 3 years and seems to be getting worse.

Does are few and far between in our part of Texas. Drought, Anthrax, predators, poor range conditions (over grazing), influx of non-native species. The list of reasons goes on. It is a cycle in our area where rainfall and when and if you get it is the biggest factor. This is in the Southwest edge of the Hill Country.

The property I hunt in Southwest Virginia is over run with does. I counted seven at the little pond behind the farmhouse just a few days ago. Need to kill a few but my Sons and grandchildren all want to shoot bucks and I cannot convince them too thin the does a little to help the overall property, although I am as guilty as they are.

Eastern Oregon is full of does and twin fawns and in some cases three fawns, have seen ton of does and only few bucks.

Shot 5 doe and 2 bucks this season.

Normal for here.

Seen more bucks on my WMA this year than any previous, courtesy of the work performed by the DNR. They cleared the head-high brushy meadows and planted food plots. Does go for the food and bucks go for does. Had just a great time watching all the grab-assing, and took two bucks and a doe. Still have tags, but will hold out for a bigger buck. ML season is a week away.

All the does are here..in my garden and back yard, lol. Had 20 plus deer in the yard at the same time yesterday afternoon.

I've got The only 45 acres of woods and fields that ain't growing houses and concrete in the area, and every critter imaginable has moved in.

Next door to you in Arkansas, I haven’t seen a shortage of does…



In Mississippi, when I opened the bow season with a buck-only hunt, of course I saw 10 does & zero bucks. Got one during primitive season & two more during modern gun because my friend asked me to harvest some of them.

Yes

I was, then saw a dozen at the same time yesterday maybe they was on vacation

A couple miles northwest of there.....this year we saw more deer than we've seen in ages. We were hunting a unit with draw hunts and huge mulie bucks. Tags are extremely hard to draw because lots of hunters know those bucks are there. While hunting elk, every time we turned around we saw does. Since the mulie rut was on, we also saw lots of big bucks.

A field about a mile from my house had 30+ does in it 30 minutes ago and no horns. Half mile north of it was another field with another 10 does and no horns. I'd say we've got the opposite problem.

i like having does around my land ,does are live decoys or a whore house for bucks .

I had a lack of anything resembling a deer at our camp. However, the pre-season was loaded with them. Our guess is they stayed deep in the woods feasting on acorns. The acorns dropped unusually late this year. Either that or they all went in on a condo at Gatlinburg.

It’s the horn restrictions in most of Texas causing the low doe numbers. It’s part of the plan for bigger bucks. If guys don’t see a buck they want they take does instead. Taking 5 does a year just to have 13-15” wide bucks for the most part is crazy to me.

I saw does every day. I saw a lack of old bucks