I am. Need to thin em down some. I am seeing some bucks on the trail cam too. We are allowed 10 or 11 deer

Yeah I’ll shoot a doe for my nephew. He says “You can’t get anymore organic than that Uncle Geno”. The buck are for me. And here in Pittsburgh they are everywhere. That was taken this past Saturday morning (Opening Day of Archery in 2B)

In Pa. it's one buck per year, and however many doe tags you apply for under the current game laws. This year Pa is being pretty open with doe tags up here in our area, normally that's reserved to some more urban locales. I haven't shot a doe since the 1980's and don't know if I will until the time comes. I sure have nothing against it as they need culled but for us there has to be a need. The current political structure though may make it advisable to add to the protein section of the larder. :)

Me

BigGOutdoors there are some nice bucks in Allegheny County. I shot this one (pictured) in Allegheny County a couple years ago. I haven't shot a doe since the year 2000 in the late archery season after Christmas. I just have no desire to shoot does now days. Maybe that will change someday.

urban deer have it figured out,keep your friends close and your enemies closer

Looks like a few of the bucks I see inside San Antonio city limits (non-huntable) while I MT Bike.

Sure will.

I'll shoot a doe if given a shot. Frisky says, it's all about puttin meat in the freezer.

I have always regarded a doe as a trophy. Can't eat the horns. I will not shoot a doe with a little one tagging along. I will shoot a 4 pointer or bigger if given the chance. In the wind he is still alive !!!!

I will never, never, never shoot a doe...THAT'S THE FUTURE OF DEER HUNTINMG !!!!! Des

If one gives me a shot I'll take it. Any deer taken with trad equipment is a trophy in my book. Cant' eat the horns (although they look nice on the wall) :)

I’ve never tried to climb a light pole but that one in Pittsburgh is tempting.

Didn't draw an antlerless tag this year. According to our 'new improved' online license sale system I didn't apply when I bought my license. Can't disprove that, so s-o-l.

Saturday morning, took the bear rifle out for a walk, wanted to check an acorn-heavy area and bear season is open. Big doe stepped out 25 yards in front of me. Nothing I could do about it...

I won’t shoot a doe with lil ones either . Nice Buck Nemo

I won’t shoot a doe with lil ones either . Nice Buck Nemo

Personally I think a doe taste better but you have to take some out to have a healthy herd

I’ll shoot a mature doe if one shows up, their the toughest ones for me to get a shot on.

I might when it cools down, but not in this heat I won't.

I have shot does in the past, but it isn't about it "being a trophy". I just usually have enough bucks running around not to make it necessary.

I like desperados answer ??

Hunting on the ground the old doe is smarter than a buck, as good as one gets.

we've got plenty of deer in my area. Almost too many. No reason not to take a doe. I will always take a doe given the opportunity. My neighbor farms my property and he says kill a bunch. They're tearing the corn field up. I also have several friends asking for deer meat, so if I can get one for them so much the better.

I'll shoot at the biggest deer I have in front of me.

No because I am not allowed. One deer a year is the limit no matter what method of hunting or sex, and although I own a camp in Ontario I am not a resident so cannot apply for a antlerless tag.

So one buck only. A year. Period.

If I was a resident and could get a doe tag once I filled it with a doe my hunt is over…

If the OP can take 11 deer a year it’s good he’s taking does because the high limit is indicative of a dire overpopulation issue that needs to be addressed.

for years does were illegal except for archery. Now we are swamped with deer. If I am on the lease (they have extra tags to thin them out some according to the state biologist) I will take one in a heart beat, I am a meat hunter first. Behind the house, it all depends. If my neighbor comes over and asks us to thin them out again because they clean out their garden, we'll do it. I give them venison anyways.

Absolutely I will be shooting a doe. Hopefully Saturday morning! First day of the season here in Ohio.

Nemo ——- that’s a bruiser! I usually shoot a doe in early season for the freezer and wait for a nice buck. I shot a nice 11 pt last year but prior to that it was 6 years ago for a buck for me. I believe in letting them get big. No basket 8pts or six pointers for me. Rather shoot a doe for the meat and let the bucks get a little bigger

Both my Wife and I take a buck and a couple does each year with our traditional bows. It doesn’t matter the order. Learned a long time ago that big antlers doesn’t mean a thing

(Answer 2.0)

Got an anterless tag in both MA and VT and live near the border of another E.MA zone with an unlimited number of extra "OTC" tags but whether I get to hang one is a different story...more deer and tags than places to hunt around here and just the opposite up north.

Last year I emailed a VT deer biologist asking about areas with excess deer problems to check out for archery since I travel the length of the state to get to my cabin. He recommended two small cities up north replying "having too many deer doesn't always mean a lot"...wth

Yes, I want some meat.

It will depend on the weather for me. If summertime temps are still here, I won't even go out to look. I have never been a speed demon at processing deer, although, I am getting faster.

I recently read where Oklahoma Ranchers predict beef to rise To $50 per pound next year, and there is no way I won't take a doe if given the opportunity. It sucks living on a fixed income, but I keep my food costs low.

We have about 8 doe to a buck ratio which is ridiculously unbalanced numbers. So, yes but I’m a meat hunter anyway. There is no trying to draw a tag here, you’re allowed 6 deer no more than two antlered. You have to purchase each tag unless you have a lifetime license which I do. Fat does make excellent table fare.

Yes, I will and already did shoot a nice lone doe with no fawns on the morning of my opener this past Saturday here in PA (2B).

I have the tag, I eat the meat and that's good enough for me.

I'll shoot a deer egg, if one rolls by.

Yes i'll try and take a couple,we have so many deer.Nine miles to work and i see 4 or 5 each week run over.

Now that’s funny

This is the first year we have had permission to shoot doe, so yeah - were gonna shoot some doe.

Rick

The people that had the land before me only hunted trophy bucks. Lol. They didnt shoot anything but 10 points or better. I have some nice bucks as well but the does need to be thinned down. Maybe the previous owner sold it when he found out it want Iowa

At first opportunity!

We do have a lot of deer. My dad never believed in killing does either. He hunted in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s when you could only kill a buck. No does. I get that because it was a different deer season. I love to hunt and shoot deer with my recurve or longbow. I eat a lot of deer also.

We do have a lot of deer. My dad never believed in killing does either. He hunted in the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s when you could only kill a buck. No does. I get that because it was a different deer season. I love to hunt and shoot deer with my recurve or longbow. I eat a lot of deer also.

I'll definitely shoot one if the opportunity presents itself. I'd like to tag a buck this year but one deer is not enough to last through the year.

I never liked messing with them either in the heat but I bought a walk in cooler for the garage at the cabin and now I can just field dress em and hang em in there. It’s suppose to be low 40’s opening day in the am. If so it will be our warmest opener in years

I would like to put a couple in the freezer early. Does are everywhere right now around my place in WV.

Providing I get an opportunity I will get a doe or two. We are limited to 4 doe but in a lot of Texas 2. I am fortunate enough to get to hunt further west than I live and have the opportunity at more deer. Our own county is 1 buck with antler restrictions and 2 doe if you get them during archery. The further west counties in Texas do need to thin the herds from what I have seen. They look terrible after all the drought, and not like there are a lot of groceries to get them through this coming winter.

-Bones

I’d like to to get 1or 2

Here where I'm hunting I can buy as many anterless tags as I want. I killed a nice buck on my property last year and 2 does on a management hunt. Given the opportunity I would take 3 or 4 does off my property.

I like to fill freezer as early as possible so I can then focus on a good buck. Not a horn hunter but like to at least try for a “good” buck. So try to get a doe early in season before the rut. If it doesn’t work out that way then I wait till late season when it’s snowy, love hunting in snow late season when everyone else is at home.

First opportunity, though I won't starting the last week in October through November.

The first good adult one that will give me a shot.

Yes !

I like eating venison. Does taste better in my opinion.

I will but it has to be a mature doe, preferably an older one.

Without hesitation!

If a doe presents a good target for me I will absolutely take the shot. My wife and I typically put 2-3 doe in the freezer every year.

No hesitation on a good opportunity.

“more deer and tags than places to hunt around here”

That about sums it right up. I don’t think there is any place East of the Mississippi that doesn’t have an unhealthy and unsustainably high population of deer overall. At first I thought BigG’s picture was Santa’s sleigh, but where there is No Hunting, that’s what happens.

It depends where you are, but honestly I think overpopulation is a bigger threat to the future of hunting than the taking of females. If the population gets low, it’s relatively easy to reduce hunting pressure from humans; but once it’s out of control, recreational hunting can hardly make a dent. And if it gets bad enough, states are going to have to explore alternatives. I don’t want that.

The real problem is not supply, but distribution; there are potentially catastrophic numbers of deer stockpiled on unhunted and unhuntable land, and they can be scarce as hens’ teeth everywhere else in a state. Around here, I can’t imagine passing up a shot on a public land deer unless a guy is pretty much otherwise unemployed. There’s a reason that the late ML season here has a success rate in the low, single digits, and it’s not that all of the deer have been killed off; it’s that they have gone nocturnal and/or are holed up on private land, likely near a bait pile which is being hunted by a guy who won’t shoot them.

And any deer that’s careless enough to offer me a shot hasn’t got a snowball’s chance of making it past opening day of shotgun season anyway…

We can shoot as many as 7 between two Bowzones. I'll shoot 4 around here if I can but in the north where I hunt there's not enough of a population in my opinion. 1.5 deer per square mile

Don't know if I'm going to, but if the right shot presents itself I sure will. It's called "DEER" hunting, and they are deer!

BTW, I didn’t see the earlier thread

But where the density is 1.5 DPSM…. What’s the buck:doe ratio?

No benefit to leaving does out there that won’t likely get bred in first round of rut because there aren’t enough bucks to service them all.

When all the fawns drop at once, there are more than the predators can catch in whatever window the fawns are most vulnerable. Let’s say a fawn is easy pickings for a coyote for the first month of life. If all of the does get bred in first rut, then that’s one month of easy living for the coyotes. If it takes 3 rounds (as it often seems to up here), then that’s THREE months for the coyotes to find and eat vulnerable fawns, and THAT is going to depress the population for a lot longer than if fewer does produce more surviving offspring. Also helps more coyote pups to survive.

Oh, and that extended rut leaves the surviving bucks in especially poor condition going into “post season”, so they are more vulnerable to starvation & predation.

And FWIW, if you’re in an area where the deer population really IS low, your best management decision in filling an antlerless tag is on a fawn, because fawns have relatively poor odds of making it through a tough winter, and does with fawns in tow have tougher winters than those without, so they’re less likely to drop twins.

So let’s run the numbers on an a doe with twins, figuring that fawns have 50% mortality over their first winter when under the care of their dam and just assume that mortality increases to 75% without Momma watching over them.

If you take the doe with fawns, that’s arguably 4 1/2 fewer deer in the spring: you’ve lost the dam, the twins she likely would have dropped, and 75% of last spring’s twins.

If you take a fawn that only had a 50% chance anyway, you’ve only taken 1/2 of a deer from next year’s herd and you’ve improved the odds of survival for the other 4, so it could be that you’re really taking out LESS than half of one.

So from a herd reduction standpoint, you want a 2.5 YO doe, eliminating the maximum number of potential offspring over her expected breeding lifespan.

For growth, the herd is better off if you take the smallest, weakest fawn with the poorest chances of making it through the winter.

And Bon Apetite!

I average about 10 does per season and a buck every 2 or 3 seasons. I'm a meat hunter and honestly have no desire to eat big old bucks. The last buck I killed was so rutted up and stinking with musk I could smell him from 30’ away. I ground everything but the backstraps and donated it to my local church that cooks meals for the needy. There's a serious doe population problem in my area. The younger generation of hunters have zero interest in a freezer full of venison. Only interested in that hero shot on fb with some horns...

I try to kill one or two to eat. I don’t shoot does with fawns. Those one year old maiden does are tasty creatures.

As long as no young with her I will kill any adult sized doe. My wife prefers doe meat and I won't shoot young bucks- just too stupid sometimes.

Yes

Only if no fawns with it. Orherwise, the two doe tags I drew need to be filled...so DOES the freezer.

I had no idea guys even considered it wrong to shoot a doe.

Yep. As long as she doesn't have fawns and is a mature doe, I'll take the shot if blessed with the opportunity. But I'll only take one per year on our property and after that I'll wait for a mature buck.

Every state is different and within some states, there is a difference in deer densities in different zones.

Basically, with a few exceptions, in New Jersey you can shoot a doe a day from mid-September to mid-February. In many places, shooting does is essential to the entire herds ability to survive a bad winter.

Yes, I will shoot several lone does every year.

I agree with timed. Young hunters want a buck and most lose interest fast if they don’t kill one.

Nope. Nothing against it, but the deer population is way down where I hunt. Luckily, very few doe permits are given out there. Really shouldn't be any doe shooting until the population builds back up there.

On the other hand, can get multiple doe permits in the southern part of the state. Problem there is the high incidence of CWD.

Got a doe antelope and a doe whitetail already this season. I just like having a freezer full of meat and having more opportunities to let some arrows fly throughout the season.

Btw way I think our buck to doe ration is 10/1

would love a doe kill

First one to give me a shot, like every year.

I would do so given the legal opportunity without a second thought.

I have no problem shooting a doe, I like to eat deer. I take the first legal, healthy deer that presents me with a good shot. This year it was a fat buck, and I used my old compound that day.

From legal shooting light on opening morning untill last shooting light on the very last day

Hopefully I end up with three in the freezer

If I get the chance……..

The one thing i can't buy for archery is experience. Shooting live game is a whole nother skill from yard shooting. I need as much of that experience as possible and we are a one buck state

I buy 3 doe tags and havent even used one of them in years...but i sure try.

“I had no idea that guys even considered it wrong to shoot a doe.”

You must be a younger guy, then??

I guess it depends heavily on where you are from, but I seem to recall a time when labeling someone a Doe Killer was an insult right up on par with calling him a child molester. Serious stuff!!

No doubt that’s part of why our modern hunting culture seems to perceive the taking of a doe as somehow a Lesser Accomplishment than getting a buck, and why a lot of guys will take a spike or a fork over a large, healthy doe, just so that they don’t have to “admit“ that they had somehow “settled“ for second best.

I totally support Voluntary Restraint on does where the herd is thin and on bucks when it’s not. In the years that I have been able to hunt here in CT, I’ve gotten about 2 per year and only once have I taken 2 bucks in a season; when there are just minutes left in your season, freezer ballast trumps a whole lot of Luxury Biases…

And if it eases anybody’s mind, I don’t think there are any solid data that suggest that fawns are substantially less likely to survive without their dams - at least not with whitetails, because with their territorial tendencies they have pretty much got things sorted out by the rut, as makes sense, since Momma’s Busy then. It’s not as if they aren’t weaned by then. And I distinctly recall a study which found that young bucks are substantially MORE likely to survive being 1 and a half WITHOUT their dams because they don’t get kicked out of their native territory, and the mortality rate during dispersal is the highest of any point in their life.

Mulies, often being migratory, may be different because they may need to have their dam around to teach them the migration routes; on the other hand, they can always take up with other members of the herd and find their way that way. Mulies and Elk are similar that way.

Not here... No longer legal. So few deer in my part of the world that we can legally only take one buck - 3 point or larger. And I guarantee you will wait a LONG time for that opportunity! JW

I average two a year. Sometimes three.

I'm a trophy hunter..until something else comes along..lol

I will take a doe if I get the shot. Way things are goin we may need to take whatever meat we can get and stock up on pork n beans.

I remember when if you killed ANY deer with a bow back in late 60's early 70's people came buy the house to see the bow killed deer. I still think they are ALL trophies.

"I still think they are ALL trophies."

I couldn't agree more!

I agree with Jack

I agree with Jack

my wife decides. She goes in the "store for winter mode" every year at this time.

We don't buy beef, rarely ever, never have. Our 5 kids were raised on venison,once they were old enough to hunt, that helped. now my sons are the same way providing for their familys.

We had some left over last year, plus we had bear meat, so i only shot 1 doe and a buck last year.

This year we could use more, but i am way overdue to eat tag soup, been a long time and i hate the taste of it.....but you never know.

I'll shoot more than one doe this year if i can.

Jack x4

I would rather have a doe.

l already have one in the freezer.

I have let a lot of does walk over the last few years, but this year, I will probably shoot the first decent sized deer, I see, to start with.

Well, I better rephase that. I will probably shoot the first decent sized deer, doe or buck, that comes inside my effective range, which will be pretty darned close.

I rarely shoot Does, have nothing against it just do not like shooting my bait (for Bucks) Deer. Also the Deer population is not as high where I hunt as it was several years ago.

Who wouldn’t? lol

Yep

Yepper. 3 a day in TN Sep-Jan. Alabama 1 a day Oct to end of Feb. Thats a lot of deer for the 2 1/2 freezers we have.

Nice shot KennyM

Yes sir Monkeyball

yep

we have an old doe behind our place that has lived to a ripe old age! she has to be very intelligent because none of us can get a bow shot at her! she always has a little one with her and a yearling following! and yes i will shoot a doe and be very thankful for the great venison! my dad always said " if you kill it you eat it" !

Yeah Craig, and it was a 4 week season. There were no rifle or inlines in October, no crossbows. I hunted many years on public land before i ever saw another bowhunter in the woods and he was an older guy on the ground with a recurve. There were more deer around too. Loved it. Had the time of my life.

I try for two a year. One for a neighbor and one for me. The farmer wishes I would shoot even more.

Tried to get one this morning. Had a group of 7 come in. Several kept watch while the others ate. Had eyes on me the whole time. Deer were moving all around me for the WV opener.

Yep, the place I hunt says we need to thin the herd on does...

Just shot a doe this evening and I’m back from the processor. The “goodies” will be ready in a week. Antlers don’t taste that great.

i remember that craig, back then i wouldnt shoot a doe in early archery.

And jeff, yep, never hunted out of a treestand either, was no such thing, except those death trap bakers.

im with ya....those were the days.

i'm hoping for a doe or two this fall. season opened yesterday here, but not going for a couple of weeks. way too many fawns that i see still nursing. i'm not in that big of a hurry...

I remember the Pa. archery thing too. For a few years, I shot a doe early and was done. I did enjoy hunting grouse with a shotgun, (it's rare to see one of those around here anymore) , that would fill in time until I would walk around trying to push deer to my family during gun season, eventually I started to pass up does early.

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