Boo wrote: That dominant buck will also have a better chance of making it out of the winter
Interesting fact I learned only recently-- A northern whitetail can only "go calling" on 7-10 does, because if buck/doe ratio is worse than that and he has to chase more than that number of does, he is putting himself in a way where he will be unprepared and over exerted for the winter, and depending on the severity of the winter, could end up dead.
August issue of some deer mag (dont remember which one) I was reading in Gander Mtn had an excellent article by Charles Alsemer (sp) He gave the story of one bush he was photographing in. The dominant buck hurt his foot right before chasing season started, and so was out of the running. All the lesser bucks, then, started jostling for the now open "dominant" position. One nice 9 pt came out on the top - just barely - just as the first doe was ready, and he was always with her. The problem was that he had to continually run off 3 - 4 smaller bucks that together were working to get him from her. Alsemer was able to give the story day by day until the doe was done, and suddenly the buck disappeared. He found the buck almost dead laying on the ground, and after it died took it to the vet for a post-mortem. What the vet figured out was that by overexertion his muscles had broken down, leading to his death.
Since reading that I think it has put a new perspective on finding dead deer. I have found a number of real nice dead ones scoring from the 130's to the 160's, and just always figured, "Oh, some sloppy hunter." Well in some of the cases, yes, probably was. The same assumption is followed when you read in hunting mags - they find a huge buck dead, no sign of lead or arrow wound, but just figure "Some poacher." But in all reality, buck might have chased too many ladies, then he ended up in harms way.
A buck might like too many does, but too many does may be bad for him!
Might be interesting around my end of town, though, because through the summer and now these first few weeks of season I have been seeing substantially more bucks than does!
Want to buy a K98 Mauser 8mm. If you have an old one sitting around someone brought back from the war please message me!