The bucks do have a higher mortality rate. 50% of the fawns are bucks. But a natural whitetail deer herd would have a ratio of 1-2 does per buck. That's just fact. If you didn't shoot anything and left them alone that's what you would have. Thinking that you have to shoot the does back or you would have a natural balance of 5:1 is NOT accurate. Facts. They get in the way of a good theory sometimes.

But we aren't raising deer in a sanctuary somewhere so let's move on to what's really happening in Alabama:

If you have 1 deer per 10 acres (which is considered good) and you have 500 acres you have 50 deer. If you start out with a 3:1 buck/doe ratio that's probably close to realistic at the beginning of hunting season. 15 bucks running around. Then you shoot 2-3 bucks each for 5 hunters on 500 acres. You have killed 20% of your overall deer population. The bucks have a higher mortality rate in general..... Whoops.... Now you have essentially wiped them out.

The result - Does are all you have left. Should sound familiar.

So this is what you do..... Shoot a bunch of does. Have less deer. Still have no bucks. Wonder why.

This is a simple concept some of y'all can't grasp.

I am not against managing does by shooting some of them. But the scenario above is what happens in Alabama and is exactly why people "think" they have too many does and need to shoot them. You don't have a doe problem you have people blasting small buck problem. If you shoot a bunch of the does you have less deer next season and even fewer the next and you still don't have a healthy deer herd with any age structure.

Should sound familiar because this is the deer herd in Alabama and doe shooting has done ZERO to help this. We've been doing this for 25 years show me where it has worked. It hasn't.

Shooting does is not the real problem and is definitely not the solution to having a better deer herd with better age structure. It just simply DOES NOT WORK as a blanket overall state wide management plan.