Would you shoot a doe?

[P8riot]

That is also what my neighbor had said. Apparently the Parke Co. DNR here 3 years ago advised to kill off the doe so the buck travel to give better opportunity. Thats great on a large scale 1000 acre ranch, but with small properties, it doesn't apply. He said the doe population has suffered since then.

 

[P8riot]

I feel like I would be half assing it if I got something this year. I like to feel like I earned it through trail cams and sitting so I know where they will be...if that makes sense. I would just be a lucky s.o.b. if I got one. Thats just me though, I'm weird.

 

[Boarhead]

EHD hit us hard this year so most likely won't shoot anything the next couple years unless a big buck shows up.
@P8riot if your deer numbers are down you coulda got hit with EHD also. I have talked to so many guys around the state that got hammered by it this year.

 

[giles]

If I asked any of my neighbors out front, they would tell you they've never seen a deer back here. I'm good with them thinking that.

 

[Hortontoter]

I understand what your saying but a natural balance is best, it’s what God created. Numbers ebb and flow, plenty sometimes a few in some years. It’s a cycle.

You mention about killing a pregnant doe, well all will be pregnant at some point so I don’t see the “when” being an issue.

We as stewards of the property we hunt, should do the right thing to sustain a healthy population. Only those people hunting the property can truly know what needs to happen. Don’t listen to a biologist who surveys your woods from the truck. They all say kill numbers cause that makes the owner happy. You will find yourself wondering where all the deer went. This happens in every state. Remember one thing if you listen to my crap at all “YOUR NEIGHBORS HAVE THE BIGGEST INFLUENCE ON YOUR PROPERTY”!

If the season starts towards the end of September and one could only take does up until Oct 20th most, if not all, does will not be pregnant in that time frame. Not something that will ever be implemented anyways. I understand the balance of nature, but when you throw man in that balance the true balance is gone.

I agree the neighbors are the biggest factor to influence my small property. But, I'd rather attempt to be part of the solution than part of the issue. I've proven to myself that passing small bucks on my 10 acres has allowed many to survive and grow year after year after year. Maybe I'm lucky and the neighbors aren't the best deer hunters. I've talked with them and they are not like minded. I just deal with what happens and do my part to conserve the does. It may well be futile, but I feel good that I at least let the does have the free pass when they step into range.

 

[Johnny44]

To some extent yes. I was leery because I hadn't seen many in my limited looking. I have been crazy busy with the house. In a month's time I have seen less than a dozen. I have a good view of the smaller field from my house. But then again that scrape I can't see from my house. My neighbor said they would walk along the edge of the ridge and then out into the field. The edge of that ridge is 100 feet from my driveway that I walk atleast 6 times a day to my shop getting tools. This house sat empty for 3 years. They had a pattern and me moving in changed it. With the new unknown activity to them, I'll bet they are just staying clear until they get comfortable with the new activity.

I'd sit it and find out for myself. I wouldn't think too much of killing one doe or bb. One doe is not going to make or break the future of your piece of property. After this season you can probably do some things to make your property more attractive to them as well. I am also the worst deer hunter imaginable though so take my thoughts, listen to them, or set em on fire. It's a 50/50 shot of being right.

 

[at1010]

ok - I am going to jump in here - hope you all don't mind a different perspective.

1. Using solely one person's perspective on deer numbers is about equal to asking them what the winning lotto numbers will be.
2. How many acres are we referring to here where the deer populations are hurting?
3. Have there been any camera surveys done? What about natural browse surveys?

Getting a population of deer to increase is easy, you don't shoot deer. You need to kill about 1/2 the doe population per year, per sq mile to keep the population at par. Extrapolate this out, because if one sq mile doesn't have enough harvest and the other sq mile does, you will likely have dispersion into sq mile A.

More than likely you shooting a doe or not isn't going to impact anything. I suspect within a sq mile or two of you, you have someone that has superior habitat and is holding a lot of does - especially in non-bait states.

I will further say, there are very few things harder to do once you get to a point where you need to harvest enough does to shrink a population because of habitat degradation.

Let's also look at low deer numbers, relative to the highest nutrition on the playing field. Often we look at does to fawns and stop our math there. However, does in better quality habitats, have healthier fawns with higher fawn recruitment rates. You also set up your self for fawns to become pregnant the first year due to the quality habitat and reaching maturity (70lbs) so they can enter estrous, allowing the doe/deer numbers to more than 2X in a year. This will also impact bucks and their genetic triggers over a period of years as they are now able to access higher quality food, relative to the population and landscape per animal.

If I was you, I'd probably shoot a doe....