UPDATE: Another interesting history thread

MtnMan

Ten Pointer
I figured I would update this thread. This old doe, now 9 1/2+, has been quite visible on camera this year. I have gotten more pics of her this year than the past 5 years combined. She actually looks to be in good shape - much better shape than she was in at the end of last summer. It's just amazing to me that with most deer in NC being killed before their 3rd birthday, this doe has been able to evade hunters for so long. I have still never seen her from the stand.


View attachment 22106View attachment 22107View attachment 22108
If those two young ones are hers a buck must have blind sided her .
 

30/06

Twelve Pointer
We had 2 on our lease that were there for years. One had a nasty hole in its jaw, corn would actually fall out of it when she ate. She was a young doe. when injured. We saw her for 3-4 more years, had a very noticeable dark patch of fur where the injury was. I saw her from stand a few times and also watching the neighbors bean field one evening over the summer. She was killed in that bean field on a depredation permit.

Another was a doe that one of our club members hit low in the shoulder, she lost the leg. I never saw her from the stand but others did, you could hear her coming from a long ways away due to her only having 3 legs. She was also killed in the bean field on depredation......wonder why there are so few deer on that side of the farm now. Ever since the farm next door has had crops in it deer numbers have plummeted and very, very few good bucks that way.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
She was also killed in the bean field on depredation......wonder why there are so few deer on that side of the farm now. Ever since the farm next door has had crops in it deer numbers have plummeted and very, very few good bucks that way.

I know the feeling. They need to review how they handle depredation permits.
 

Aaron H

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
"I believe she is now 8 1/2+ years old. She has lived her entire life in an area with a very high coyote population, and quite a bit of hunting pressure. I tried to kill her for several years, but she never showed herself. I think if I see her now, I'll just tip my hat. :D"
I can agree with that Sky Hawk... I had an old doe around one place I hunt each year. She was very smart. I hunted her 3 years with a bow, seeing her but getting no shot. After her beating me many times I vowed to never kill her. I watched her many times and saw her take extreme caution in every approach near my stands. I could easily have killed her with a gun. She died with Hemhoragic disease in 2016 at about 12 years old by my best guess,
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
I finally saw her a few weeks ago from the stand. Came in as part of a group of 5 does. Could have killed her with a gun.

Just got a picture last week. I swear she's pregnant. Or else she's just packing on the pounds. Either way, looks a lot healthier than she did last year.

MFDC0748.jpg
 

DBCooper

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
From time to time, I will get a picture of an old gnarly, lumpy doe that I just know has to be a very old deer. Unfortunately there's just no way to prove it or track them from year to year. This old doe is the exception. She is blind in her right eye, from an injury, and I believe she may have been shot with an arrow about (or exactly) the same time. I believe a 2" 2-blade from a hunting partner brushed her eye and buried in her right shoulder

Here she is in 2012 shortly after sustaining the eye injury. She was good sized then, most likely 3 1/2 years old or older. She has a 2" wide scar on her right shoulder, which happens to line up with a large mark across her eye. It's not the best picture to show it, but you can see she is in poor condition. She is actually quite thin.

EM2zXwm.jpg



Here she is in 2013. She recovered well, and filled out nicely. All except for that eye. Big old girl.

vDuPyoj.jpg



2014 - not the best pic, but the only one I got

OivzEXO.jpg



2015 - again not the best pic, but she looks like she's thinning out.

GqQWhXC.jpg



2016 - No pic

2017 - Here she is again, a good pic showing that she is well past her prime

NCYmq4R.jpg





I believe she is now 8 1/2+ years old. She has lived her entire life in an area with a very high coyote population, and quite a bit of hunting pressure. I tried to kill her for several years, but she never showed herself. I think if I see her now, I'll just tip my hat. :D

Very cool.

2 things. First, a biologist once told me the largest does aren’t necessarily (or even likely) the oldest. He said they were bigger at 2-4 than they were in later years. I hope she’s doing well.

Secondly, I caught trail cam pics of twin doe fawns 10 years ago. Anyone who has ever come to my place hunting was warned not to shoot either of them. I saw both of them, regularly for years. I stopped seeing one of them in 2016. I was turning out of my driveway last Sunday morning and saw one of them. She’s 10 yrs old. That’s hard for me to believe. She’s also a piebald and is 90+% white.
 

Larry R

Old Mossy Horns
Had a doe on game camera about five years in a row after she broke one of her legs. It looked like it was all she could do to hobble along at a corn bait pile. Ironically she showed up at a corn bait pile maybe 50 yards from where I also have my coyote bait pile. Also amazingly she showed up the first time a year before I began to seriously work on the coyote population. At that time I commented that if I saw her I'd not hesitate to do a mercy killing because we were hearing a pack of coyotes every night and I KNEW she was going to suffer one horrible and painful death at the hands of coyotes. To my surprise the next year she showed up again, having just as difficult a time hobbling along. And she had a single fawn with her. For the next four or five years she showed up, same walking disability but with twin fawns. Every time she showed up on my game camera we would wonder how in the world she still managed to survive. Heck I think I could have out run her. LOL. I think it was the sixth year one of my friends son shot her. At the shot he didn't think anything about it but soon realized that he had shot the crippled doe I had been capturing on my deer cameras. We still often discuss/ponder how she managed to survive and evade so many coyotes for so many years as crippled up as she was. One of the other amazing things we noted was that even in her terrible condition she always looked well nourished.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
2019 UPDATE:

She should be 10 1/2 years old now. Lots of pictures of her on multiple cameras over the past few weeks, and she's got a fawn nursing. Her hip bones and ribs show more than the other does, but that's just from old age. She's in good condition.

MFDC1362.jpgMFDC1705.jpg
 

country

Ten Pointer
Got an old one like that on one of my farms. Her right ear is square (not rounded) where she lost part of it in some sort of incident. Always alert. Cant make myself shoot her.

1st time I see her in person each season is a welcome reunion.
 

Lucky Clucker

Old Mossy Horns
Im sure alot of deof are older than thought when killed,I killed a Doe 10 years ago that I had shot in the nap of neck with a arrow in 2002.She was at least 8. She was healthy had sharp teeth a fawn weighed around,90 lb.looked like a year old or 2.
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
2020 Update: 11 1/2 years old!

She's still here. Looks really good, actually. I have noticed the truly old does begin to sag. Their ribs show, their hips poke out, and their belly always has some sag to it. Not because they are in poor condition - that's just the appearance they take. They remind me a lot of a cow, the way even a healthy individual will have ribs and hips showing.

This girl should be at least 11 1/2 years old now. For the guys that talk about old, "dry" does... She had a fawn last year. I haven't gotten enough pictures this year to tell.

MFDC6450.JPG

MFDC6448.JPG

MFDC2499.JPG
 

CutNRun

Ten Pointer
Contributor
Cool history series. It makes me wonder why she went from looking kinda rough, to robust & healthy after she recovered? Maybe a poor mast crop that year or something?

I've been feeding the deer at my house every day for 28 years now. There's a doe that visits from time to time who survived a high arrow shot (she probably jumped the string) 3 years ago. It cut her above the backbone, but opened up a 4-5 inch long gash about mid way between her head & tail. The cut healed well and left an obvious scar, but you could tell it took a lot out of her to recover. I named her Missy (right?). She's not a constant daily visitor like some, but she knows a safe place to eat when she wants a bonus meal.

Jim
 

sky hawk

Old Mossy Horns
Contributor
Cool history series. It makes me wonder why she went from looking kinda rough, to robust & healthy after she recovered? Maybe a poor mast crop that year or something?

I think she initially suffered poor condition from the injury. It could have been her just not feeding, or it could have been a physiological reaction to the injury. It was not a poor mast crop the year she was shot. I know because that first injured picture I got of her was taken under a group of oaks that I hunt only on good white oak years.
 
Top