Rut Timing based on Fawn sighting?

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TN Whitetail Freak

TN Whitetail Freak

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Dyersburg,TN
Found a fawn on june 2 looked to be hours old......what do you guys think about when this deer was conceived? Does this give a good indication of planning the rut in the area?
 
Not really.. especially just based on one deer, IMO. Breeding and what we call the rut aren't exactly the same thing. The rut, to most people, is the period of time in which we see a peak in mature buck movement during daylight hours. This is obviously a stage of the rut, but there are multiple parts to it.. Including pre and post rut where it is possible for breeding to occur.
 
So could i reasonably say plus or minus 10 days? Or could use it to narrow down buck breeding dates or trying to pinpoint a 2 week window based on fawn sightings is not a very good indicator?
 
Great indicator as I have heard. I won't guess at the gestation period because some one here knows it.
 
I may be mistaken, but I believe I've heard here that it's 203 days maybe? I definitely use fawn drop as an breeding time indicator. I've found some interesting data for my property that I never would have guessed for when breeding is occurring out there. I"ll put it this way, it really ups my adrenaline level for bow hunting now! ;)
 
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One fawn may not pin point the rut perfectly but it is one data point to remember and add to over the years. I keep notes on first fawn sightings with guestimates of their ages, then count back 200 days for the breeding date. Over time I've come up with a mid December breeding date for most of the does around my area. This is consistent with the Tennessee map I have somewhere giving results of a deer conception date study several years back.
 
Good info to gather...
What I see is day to day changes in daylight rut activity. It changes on a daily basis based on individual estrous status of given does in a couple hundred acre block of land. It also changes based on weather conditions. So you may see chasing one day then get skunked for a day or two, then a week later u may see three or for chases in a day... We know most does are bred in a 10 day window or so.
The best thing to do is find that best two week window and hunt as much as possible... For me I don't get to do that, I just hunt whenever I can all yr..
 
The big problem with using early summer fawn sightings to backdate to peak breeding dates include knowing when that fawn was actually born, as well as knowing if an individual fawn was conceived during peak breeding or as an outlier. Fawns often do not travel with their mother until they are several weeks old. Even in a tightly timed rut, 95% of breedings still stretch out over a 5-6 week period (although 50% occur within a 10-14 day window).

Keeping track of when a peak in young fawns are seen each year is better than nothing, but personally I feel there are observations that can be made during the fall that are better indicators of peak breeding dates.
 
I just pulled first couple cams of yr, still gettin lots of does carrying... So those fawns were concieved after dec. 1st... Which peak chasing for us last yr was thanksgiving week.. I seemed to start getting fewer doe pics toward the end of that batch of pics, could be because they were getting ready to drop?..
 
The average gestation period of the whitetail deer doe in North America is 200 to 205 days. This period can be shorter or longer depending on the availability of food. When food is plentiful the fawn will be born after a shorter gestation time while the opposite would be true if the food supply is scarce.As a general rule, most doe end up only having one fawn the first time; however, the following years they are more likely to have twins, and it's really not uncommon for them to have triplets in some cases as well. Once she has her young, she is on her own raising her young.
 

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