My First

[wapiti1997]

Just to follow up a bit with some biology stuff.  This may be offensive to some, but the fact is when you take a doe after the rut, she is likely pregnant.  Biologists use fetal data to determine conception dates, fawns per doe and the peak of breeding.  Normally here some does get bred in late October, some as late as February, but the peak of breeding (statewide) is always a week around the 15th of November..

When you field dress a late season doe, the uterus will resemble the urinary bladder, the fetuses will be inside. 


The length of the developing fetuses will determine the conception date.  The QDMA folks sell these scales, which many active managers use to help with adequate doe harvest and population modeling.  In healthy growing populations, twins and triplet fawns are common.  I normally only see single fawns in does that were bred as a fawn or yearling.  This doe was over 5 years old, based on tooth wear.


My apologies if I ruined your lunch.. :0

[Gsulfridge]

Oh yeah! Thats the way to do it Joe!!  Man, how many guys from the 1st annual Moontree stuck their first deer with a selfbow this year?  Seems like over half of us.  Good mojo.

[Buffalogobbler]

Congrats on your first with a selfbow and thanks for the biology lesson.

Kevin

[osage outlaw]

Awesome Joe!  There is nothing like that first one.  I think that is 4 of us from the Moontree that got our first selfbow deer.  And Blackhawk got his first kill with that squirrel.  Definitely something good going on there.

[TRACY]

Just to follow up a bit with some biology stuff.  This may be offensive to some, but the fact is when you take a doe after the rut, she is likely pregnant.  Biologists use fetal data to determine conception dates, fawns per doe and the peak of breeding.  Normally here some does get bred in late October, some as late as February, but the peak of breeding (statewide) is always a week around the 15th of November..

When you field dress a late season doe, the uterus will resemble the urinary bladder, the fetuses will be inside. 


The length of the developing fetuses will determine the conception date.  The QDMA folks sell these scales, which many active managers use to help with adequate doe harvest and population modeling.  In healthy growing populations, twins and triplet fawns are common.  I normally only see single fawns in does that were bred as a fawn or yearling.  This doe was over 5 years old, based on tooth wear.


My apologies if I ruined your lunch.. :0

Like you Joe, I would be eating lunch while collecting crown-rump data at harvest stations during late muzzleloader season A lot of folks don't get to see this side of the harvest so Thank You for posting this! Those are some little loins on the twins

[wapiti1997]

I'm really weird about food Tracy, well, condiments make me gag.  No ketchup, mustard, mayo, salad dressing, etc... but I can eat lunch between field dressing deer without even washing my hands...  I'm almost 50 years old and have never eaten a McDonald's burger..

I've pretty much lived off of what I catch or kill since childhood... We do occaisionally get exotic meats like beef and chicken..

[PAHunter]

Congradulations man, great job!!