Do you shoot the doe?

I pass does with babies with spots. I also always pass does with twins or triplets. I try to only take big mature does. So yes, I would have passed her.

If you want more deer, pass on does. If you want fewer deer with the potential to grow bigger and not eat themselves out of browse, shoot the does. I've never been a believer that orphaned fawns of age will not survive. I read a study done in northern MN, well known for harsh winters and a healthy wolf population, and no significant difference was found in survival of first year fawns with or without mom.

If also noticed that mature does will take over the prime areas in winter when times are tough, and this might lead to decreased survival of mature bucks. Guess it all boils down to your management goals and how taking the does will affect your population and habitat.

I try not to shoot does with young. They say it's better to shoot the young deer. Have a deer or two already help, but if I have no meat there's nothing much better then a milky doe.

Generally take mature to point of near non breeder. Late in season pick out oldest without fawns and limit cull to fit herd.

Depends, but typically I pass on does with fawns. Lone deer are fair game, deer in herd groups are fair game, but when it’s a small family group I just can’t do it.

I haven't shot a doe in many years.
The last time I did, there was a fawn with a milk mustache wandered into the murder scene.

At this time of year any fawn is fully capable of making it alone. Depending on how badly I wanted the meat and how hard it is going to be to get the meat out would be the deciding factors. Archery season here starts in mid September. I might be concerned then.

I'd generally pass. Sometimes on the farms I hunt there are so many deer in a field that you can't be certain who is with who though. I once helped a buddy manage a farm he just bought and we'd usually see 30 doe for every buck. Even then the bucks weren't much to look at. We began a campaign to get that ratio back in order, and it wasn't unusual to see 20 to 30 deer at times in a field 300 yards long. In those cases I'd usually pick the largest doe, or the meanest one. It was pretty common to see a doe walk over, rear up, and start whacking another doe with her hooves over some perceived territorial slight. It was dang near knee deep clover for hundreds of yards and they still found stuff to fight over. So sometimes I just whacked the one who was starting trouble.

I wouldn't shoot the doe in the early part of the season.
By this time, it's fine. The young ones will make it.

I've not shot does, and normally wouldn't unless I see one injured... and that will depend on whether it's an "either sex" day, aka "doe day". No challenge there... rattle the corn bucket and half the time they're eating while I'm still throwing. (This is the second year for legally hunting over bait on private land in Georgia.) Bucks follow does... the two I harvested this year and one last year, plus a bunch I let walk... they weren't there so much for the corn as because the does were there. The bucks I've observed and/or harvested other years, without corn... they were following the does too. So, I don't see a need to shoot does in my situation.

And speaking of button bucks, which I also don't shoot, there's one with the main group of five does... looks like give him two or three more years and he should be a good size.

We shoot a lot more does than bucks as a general rule. If the fawns don’t have spots, Mom is headed to the freezer.

Ok. So I like to shoot moms with fawns (no spots of course) because it is really easy to tell you are shooting a larger deer and not a yearling button buck.

The fawns will be just fine. Lighten up.

Having said that, I don’t have the luxury of hunting a property through an entire season. I get to hunt during gun season up north for a week and whatever I can get, I get. When there is a time crunch I don’t have the time to weed out too many deer. My drive is too far and the tags are too expensive to come back empty handed. I envy those who can be so selective.

Also, I am not a wildlife biologist but this is my anecdotal take on game management and shooting does and QDM. In my youth when I could hunt full seasons I started hunting a piece of property my dad had bought. For years we never saw any bucks. None at all. We wanted venison so we started shooting does. We may have shot 3-4 a year for 4-5 years on 60 acres. Magically we started seeing bucks. Small ones at first but as the years went on we started seeing bigger ones. Soon we could start being selective.

I will never understand the reluctance to take does. Get some primo venison by taking mommy.

I've passed real young does, and does with young. One year I passed on a doe with 2 fawns, saw the same group later with another group of 3. I took the second largest doe.

I shoot them rather than seeing them on the side of the road. I must say though that the young are quite tender.

I hunt for the quality of the meat so I am more incline to shot a doe than a buck. It may just be personal preference but I've always felt that the does tend to yield a more tender and tasty product. Once the fawn is weaned it has zero need and zero affection for its mother and I would prefer my children eat well rather than to succumb to Bambi syndrome.

I shot a fawn this past Sunday. There were 2 traveling together. I saw 5 bit only the tails flagging. It was cold, windy, the storm started here with freezing rain and sleet. Within 5 steps all 5 spooked. I was driving a wood lot comming down a ridge looking into darker woods. Didn't see them until they were heading out.
The 2 fawns tried to sneak out and circle me but came straight into where I stopped and saw them.

I'll add a thought to this one. In the area where I own hunting land in Northern MN, I would have loved to shoot does this year. I NEED to shoot does this year. The population is up, even according to the same DNR that limited antlerless tags this season to nearly zero. Over the last winter, browse was heavily impacted on my area of heavy winter cover. The only non-nipped white pine saplings I found this spring were below the March snowline, an indication of overbrowsing. I fear the impact this winter will be severe; on the white pine I am trying to nurture, on the browse species necessary to maintain my deer herd long term, and on the deer population if this winter is severe. I have no scientific data, but very few bucks were harvested by hunters in the area that I have talked to, upwards of 50 individuals despite decent weather during season this year and countless hours spent in the woods. Game cameras paint a similar picture of a skewed sex ratio approaching 15:1 in sightings on my property. This is what happens when your does get out of control.

Generally the first breeding a whitetail doe will have one fawn. After that they generally have twins. Then back to single fawns when they age.
Deer season here in New York open in the middle of November, by then most fawns can survive on their own. They will blend right in with other deer when mama is gone. If we have the doe tags, does are fair game.

jmr40 said:

At this time of year any fawn is fully capable of making it alone.

Click to expand...

^^^This.

Our club got a 6000 acre lease in Alabama in 1982. There were few bucks killed the first year but the ones that were killed were large. The state biologist did a survey of the herd and told us to shoot 40 does. We balked. None of us were used to shooting does. We shot ~25 does and he told us that wasn't enough.

We finally followed his directions and killed 40 the next year, then 60 two years later, then 80. Finally, it topped out at 100. Every year there were more deer not less. Does had only single fawns before, now they were having triplets. The bucks increased and we only shot trophy bucks. There were lots of does and large fawns killed during this time and our herd increased in numbers and quality.

The moral of this story is SHOOT THE DOES.