# Help!!! Flathead recognition!



## FairwayCAL (Oct 27, 2006)

I as well as others in my family seem to be having trouble determining if a doe is "big enough" or even if it is a mature doe. Does anyone have an easy way for me to educate my family and myself on how to make this determination.

1. I have heard of "measuring" from nose to eye and mature does have longer snouts. This isn't working.

2. I have heard of "measuring" the length of neck, mature does have longer slimmer necks. This isn't working.

3. Of course it would be nice if a fawn is next to the doe to compare the size, but where we are hunting in a wooded river bottom, the deer dont seem to stand next to one another too often.

Does anyone have an true tell tale sign of a mature doe??


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## stevepike (Sep 14, 2002)

She is the one under the buck :lol:


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

measure from the back leg to the tip of the nose, then from the front leg to the top of the tail, find the middle point, if it is greater than X<t, then that is a medium sizeer, if you divide that by 2, you can get the their age....

Hope this helps you


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## R y a n (Apr 4, 2005)

Check for spots 

No spots = doe

In all seriousness... it is quite difficult without a frame of reference such as another deer.

There really is no absolute way to be sure if it comes in alone. It just takes experience seeing enough deer. Besides... as many will tell you...the tiny does are more tender!

Ryan


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## Bison_Trax (Nov 7, 2006)

I'm with Lindberg: the square root of the distance (In centimeters) from the fawn following it to the edge of its back teat will give you the hypotineus of an oblique right triange of which you can use the equation a^2+b^2=c^2 to get the age vectors. Of course you will need to accomplish this with an accurate lazer range finder while it is walking under your stand, do all the neccessary calculations, make an informed decision and then choose to either harvest the animal or not. 
If it was me, quite frankly, I would just shoot.


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## Csquared (Sep 5, 2006)

Cal, the nose-to-eye method actually is the best way. We have a call-in check system here in IL, and that measurement is the ONLY info they ask for to determine the approximate age of a doe.

Last year thay asked for hoof length, and they still want to know main beam circumference on the bucks, but that one measurement is all they care about now for does.

Where I'm at a mature doe usually has at least one fawn with her for reference, and a lone "doe" is usually a fawn. I used to refuse to shoot a doe if she had fawns, but now I believe it is crucial to deer management, as cold as that may sound.


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## USSapper (Sep 26, 2005)

In all seriousness now, when bowhunting this year, i have had the most so called "action" this year than any other year. I have really payed attention to determining a mature doe to a fawn. I'm not sure if your talking about judging them while rifle hunting or bow hunting- it makes a big difference with the differences in ranges. The ways i tell are the snout method and i have started to be able to tell by is looking at the features on the doe, maturity-whether or not it has wore out features-the only way i can explain this is by telling you to compare a teenager to a 50 year old man-the two have different features-one will look quite a bit older than the other-with this method, you dont need another deer to compare it to. Like i said, this might not work when rifle hunting due to it being further distances. Hope this helps you


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