Late season doe hunting-pregnant

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Axis II

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I hung up deer hunting on January 4th and ate tag soup for the first time in probably 5-6yrs. My buddy called last night and said he counted 22 doe in his corn field and asked if I wanted to hunt the last two days of the season. I made mention to my girlfriend that I was going and she’s upset because I may shoot a doe that’s pregnant. Our rut hits around 2-3week of November and we have had fawns with spots all the way to end of September.

So, what you guys think? I can’t see div of wildlife letting us shoot doe with developed fawns. I’m usually done by first week of January but 22 doe just on the south side of the farm is a lot. We have seen totals up in the 30s of doe during late season.
 
buck460XVR said:
Odds are, a healthy doe of fawn bearing age, is gonna be pregnant. But odds are, she woulda been pregnant on Dec 1st too. Your Div. of Wildlife knows this and has adjusted harvest rates for it.
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Yep and in my neck of the woods they could actually be carrying on the 1st day of the season which is first weekend in November. I don't worry about it and most I have taken were carrying but there is a reason why Parks and Wildlife set the rules...
 
I have killed lots or sows when they were pregnant, takes less ammunition. I would feel better killing a pregnant doe than one that had a fawn that still needed it’s mom, dashing away to go starve to death.

Field dress it before you get home and bring up the weather first thing or don’t go.
 
If it is legal, go for it. Its really no different then taking the same doe in in oct or nov. Our late season muzzle loading only goes until dec 15th. Im sure the doe's are carrying the start of a fetus then. Most states allow for this as part of the anterless deer allocation tags.
 
We also have a late doe only season that runs 1-12 JAN or so and another earlier 3 day antlerless season in OCT.

There was a few years when 3 or 4 of us were shooting 12-16 a day to thin them out, trying to keep the lease owner happy. We'd basically shoot our 5 doe tags a piece, hang them in a barn after moving them on a flat bed trailer, then spend the next weekend butchering deer. Wasn't really what I'd call hunting, but it was management. This years late season I shot two off my back yard for the same reason. When I start getting 7-10 on the game camera at a time, some have got to go. They're eating the same food the bucks would eat.

It's also a great time to get kids out and a lot easier to get permission to shoot.

IF it's legal, I say go for it as it's all part of the "balancing act". If you read anything that deals with land management or QDMA sooner or later you'll read about keeping does in check. Our state is pretty aggressive with managing the seasons and tag quotas to take into effect the numbers.
 
The state game biologist factor in the late season hunts for a reason.
Most wives or girl friends are soft hearted type of people who are very opinionated on this subject and in thier eyes they know more about life then a trained game biologist.
And most of them do not eat deer meat any ways so for me it doesn't matter what my old lady has to say about it. I cook and eat the deer that I shoot and she can have all of here chinese food, mexican food and thia food, i will not have any part of that mix so it balances out.
I tell her that they all use dogs, cats and rats for thier protien and she can have it, I'll stick to cows, chicken, pork and venison.
 
I never really thought about it until last night because I am usually done way before now. Pretty much what I was asking are what are the odds I field dress a doe and there is something already developed inside of it? I dont think i could handle that and would probably hang it up after that. BTW she eats more of the venison than I do. I like the taste of it and eat it about once a month where she cleaned up several pounds of steak and ground in a month.
 
Axis, Being this early, I doubt you will even notice anything "different" while field dressing.

end of February or beginning of march, that would be a different story. I have field dressed a doe hit by a car in the end of March, that was a different story.
 
That's simple then, just get the backstraps and quarters, without gutting her! All that's been said is true and in reality it`s no different than shooting her in Oct because that yearly wont hit the ground either way!
 
Axis II said:
she’s upset because I may shoot a doe that’s pregnant.
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There are good odds on 2 things being true:

1. If you're hunting after the rut (or even during) you can assume all the does have been bred.
2. If you don't shoot the doe, she will have a reason to be upset about something else in the not too distant future

My advice:

Shoot your doe, then buy her flowers and take her to a nice restaurant
 
We have gun seasons through December and youth hunt the first week in January, plus our bow season runs through February. I've seen a lot does with fetus. I shot a doe in mid- December that had twins about the size of a mouse. If you don't want to shoot a pregnant doe I would suggest hunting August of September if you can find state with a season.
 
Give the girlfriend a gift, I agree, girlfriend’s always love gifts.

The best gift would be putting the unborn baby deer into a mason jar with clear liquid preserve.

Then put the jar on the coffee table as a discussion piece.
 
That’s a big group of does and as long as you have a good doe population you’ll have a lot of bucks when the rut hits. It’s not gonna hurt anything to cull a few does. Look for the older ones that are running out of years. I also will on occasion target a doe that is super spooky and always nervous because it keep the other deer stirred up. Your girlfriend having an issue with it is an issue in itself. Only you can decide if hunting is something you’re willing to part with. If she doesn’t understand it or see it the way you do then there will always be a bit of a division in that department. Sometimes you just have to agree to disagree but it can lead to bigger issues. If it was me and I wasn’t serious enough to consider marrying the girl I’d probably look for one with closer interests to my own
 
Both cow elk that we killed this year were bred and had developed fetuses. The DOW is perfectly aware of that and in fact figure it into their off take numbers.

My older daughter is an embryologist for a research firm that produces products for infertility. My younger daughter just got accepted to vet school, my wife is a veterinarian. So the ladies in my house were all fascinated with the fact that the cows were pregnant. I got a full course on fetal and reproductive anatomy both times.

Obviously this can be a sensitive and emotional subject. I’ve got an experienced hunting buddy who won’t shoot does or cows late season because finding a fetus freaks him out.

To each their own, just know that from a conservation standpoint point you are not hurting the health of the herd. In fact you are helping maintain healthy herd numbers.
 
Bacon buster said:
That’s a big group of does and as long as you have a good doe population you’ll have a lot of bucks when the rut hits. It’s not gonna hurt anything to cull a few does. Look for the older ones that are running out of years. I also will on occasion target a doe that is super spooky and always nervous because it keep the other deer stirred up. Your girlfriend having an issue with it is an issue in itself.
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I try to take out the lead mature doe as that's the one generally that chases off bucks. This year I had a lighter colored one in the herd that was a real biatch. I'd watch her bite and screw with the other does while feeding. Generally she had just a "less than positive" doe attitude.

So now she's in the freezer.
 
Chuck R. said:
I try to take out the lead mature doe as that's the one generally that chases off bucks. This year I had a lighter colored one in the herd that was a real biatch. I'd watch her bite and screw with the other does while feeding. Generally she had just a "less than positive" doe attitude.

So now she's in the freezer.
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Does she taste bossy?
 
The late doe season got extended to the end of January this year. The one month I was apart of 7 deer guttings. Minus the button bucks and a shed buck 4 were mature does. While I assume all were pregnant I couldn't find definitive evidence and I was looking half heatedly. I'm sure you could find what you were looking for if you tried but it was easy for me to miss.
 
Captcurt said:
You need to find a new girlfriend.
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No, he just needs to explain to her in realistic terms, how hunting to reduce herd numbers works. Shooting one doe with a small barely developed fetus produces less suffering and is more humane than shooting two does next fall, when one is a four month old fawn. Shooting a pregnant doe now makes room for two new fawns next spring, while only killing one living animal. With the concerns over CWD and other diseases due to large amounts of animals in small areas, sacrificing a few pregnant does may save the whole herd or at least improve overall herd health. If the girlfriend eats and enjoys venison, she already realizes the process of how it is obtained. Anyone who fishes the walleye run in the spring knows than any female they take is full of eggs. What about salmon? Much of that is harvested during their spawning runs when females are full of eggs. I'm gonna guess if the girlfriend is okay with hunting in general, she will get over this quite easily, once she and the OP think about it.
 
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