re: Whats the boards opinion of doe cutoff dates.

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To your point about does seeking out the biggest rack I don't believe that

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While it is true that a doe may be getting bred by whatever buck won his way there through fighting and endurance, there is more to it than that.

Miss State Deer lab did a controlled study. They took 2 bucks the same age(6, and body size and cut their horns off. They then strapped antlers onto each of them. One got a big set, the other got a small set. With the bucks separated by a fence so they couldn't see each other, but bordered by a doe coming into estrus that could see them, she chose the one with bigger antlers 80% of the time. 9 they also swapped antlers and did it again and she still chose the big set.)

It is believed that visually she can see that his genetics give her offspring the best chance. Of course this is a controlled environment and im sure the percentage decreases in the wild. Its not unrealistic to think that if a doe knows a large antlered buck beds a certain area that she may frequent it more to gain his attention as she comes into estrus. Of course when you add all the variables in with wild deer, he may not have been available at the time or in the situation you pointed out it may fall in the 20-30% range that she just didn't care.

Understand that im not saying "this is a fact and it cant be any other way". Im just saying that there are studies that suggest certain things. Maybe its not enough for a person to set club rules based on but its information to take into account when obsessing over deer