Do you shoot does?

[pigguy]

A couple family members and myself went out yesterday on the "holiday antlerless" hunt.Though we werent successful,I couldnt help to notice the lack of hunters out.During the regular gun hunt,I spoke with several landowners/hunters in the area.Without having to ask,it was clear they dont shoot does.There are an abundance of does in N.Sequoyah,so I am trying to do the management thing(and the freezer thing!).It appears maybe the tradition of bucks only is still alive and well.Maybe folks dont trust our game biologists.I am not putting down anybody here,if you have a reason to hunt,I call you my brother.Just would like to know how the brethren feel about this issue.Merry Christmas to all!!!!

[bilmac]

I agree with you, trust the managers, managing populations of wildlife is what they are paid to do. The barroom game managers don't have any information to go on other than their own small world. Actually if others won't take advantage of God's bounty that just means more for you and me, right. I stopped hunting elk a long time ago when I realized that I could fill up my freezer with deer and antelope does, and have a lot more fun doing it.

[mattmillerrx]

I am in the minority, I only take does.  Now, I would not pass on the buck of a lifetime but I hunt for the meat and do not find the bucks to be very good eating.  It would be like killing you 2000lb herd bull for the meat, you just don;t do that.  I did not get to go this year, due to a crazy work schedule and a new kid but still have some time left to bow hunt so maybe I will get to go.

[Savage_99]

The question of shooting does or not is very area specific.  Of course most hunters want a 'buck' and will say how many points it had etc.   This is quite normal.

Where I have done  all of my early hunting for deer is in Vermont.  During the rifle season there always was a buck law.   It required the deer to have at least one antler 3" long.   Later an archery season came in allowing does.

In CT where I hunt now there are plenty of deer, unlike VT,  and we can shoot two and both can be does.

To get a deer  I have and will shoot does  in CT but I don't brag about it as much if it were a buck.

[Specklebelly]

Does are pretty much all I shoot now a days. 

This is not necessarily by choice as I usually only deer hunt when I am fortuanate to draw a controlled hunt.  I always seem to get the doe draws which is fine.

[lik2hunt]

Do you shoot does?

Absolutey. Took two this year, one of 'em yesterday morning. I take at least one every year. If they're a legal kill, and the ODWC thinks we need to harvest 'em, I say take the shot. They taste better than bucks 90% of the time anyway. I was really proud of the nice buck I took this year, but I'm proud when I take a doe too. I enjoy the outdoors as much as the next guy; I believe in the propagation of the many species of wildlife; but I believe in order for that to happen properly then there has to be responsible management. Whether responsible or not, the ODWC is smarter about that than I am, so I'll just take their word for it and shoot the does when they say it's proper to do so.
I'm a bass fisherman also and take a limit of bass home regularly. If I'm fishing here on Texoma I take every legal fish until I reach my limit. That's what the law/regs say I can do. Texoma is a thriving fishery and won't be hurt by my taking the legal limit of bass once or twice a week. However, if I'm in a small pond, or in my favorite pond, I practice catch-n-release as a matter of choice because I either don't want the pond fished out, or because I want to catch those fish again and again.
It's a matter of choice. If I've paid for a lease, and have invested in feeders, corn, food plots, etc., all for the purpose of maybe producing that trophy buck then I might be more careful about taking the doe that is carrying the genes that may produce the fawn that turns into that buck. Less likely to be the scenario on a lease than if a landowner, but the principle applies.......it's matter of choice and I choose to shoot the does and fill the freezer.

[deernhog]

I would rather shoot a buck first but have no problems shooting a doe. My family goes thru 3 to 4 deer with some to giveaway to friends so that is all we shoot. When I had the lease that was off the road I would pass on the old momma does as they were the ones that seemed to have the larger yearlings with them every year. Now our lease is on the road we practice little managment due to the road hunters helping us so much. I have noticed that the does are getting larger around Pontotoc and Hughes county since the doe management began. Has anyone noticed a drop in the number of does they are seeing? I haven't.  As far as the taste of a buck or a doe for eating goes i have only seen one buck in 25 years we would not butcher. For some reason he had a strong putrid smell that I have never smelled before, except for that one buck the rest are as good as any doe.

[Specklebelly]

Has anyone noticed a drop in the number of does they are seeing? I haven't

I went to a deer management meeting a few years ago in OKC hosted by the ODWC.  The biologist said you can harvest 43% does statewide before populations start to stagnate or decrease.

They also said to shoot the older does if you are concerned about too many deer.  The bigger does tend to have more than one fawn, while the young ones have singles.

[deernhog]

Good point Speck. Those old does we used to let walk did have a lot of twins. I also noticed they were the ones that would bust ya quicker than the other ones. I watched a old doe the first year for the late anlterless season. Had a snow that Sunday and just before dark she walked out with a pair of fawns. She would paw them out a spot to eat wheat then walk off to the side to watch. That lady got to finish feeding and walk off with her fawns. 

[snowbelt45]

I absolutely agree with taking does.  I have notice over the years the improvement of the size of buck and antler quality when we started harvesting does.  And I also agree, IMO that doe meat is better than bucks, especially during the rut. We have a really liberal doe season in zone 2, and the game management has a reason for such.  Take a doe and help the population and overall quality of the herd!

Snowbelt

[lik2hunt]

Good point about zone 2 and well said snowbelt.

[Cecil]

we take a few doe's from our place but haven't this year yet maybe next weekend

[BBF]

The missus and I hunt for meat* only and prefer antleress by a big margin. If it came to bucks we would take the younger ones if given a choice.



* that doesn't apply to varmints or anyhing that might be big/ornery enough to have us for supper.

[okielectrician]

I take what comes along first during bow season,meat first then I worry about antlers.

[deernhog]

If I shoot a bigun I was trophy huntin and if I shoot a doe or little buck I was meat hunting. Heck when I go to the woods I'm hunting period.

[JPShelton]

I prefer to shoot them.  I think they're better eating than rutting bucks.

-JP

[Wyo. Coyote Hunter]

  While I have never hunted in Okla., here I do shoot does. Mostly whitetails, but you would not believe the guys who still don't think it should be done. I really pis--- off one guy yesterday when he found I had shot a big whitetail doe. He stormed out of the coffee shop. Of course he is an exguide, an only interested in huge bucks. Part of the reason we no longer have huge bucks, because of the guide situation here, but anyway, we continued to talk, and a local rancher came in.  He said they used to have enough whitetails on the river that he could count 100 each evening in the fields. Now, they are gone .. The reason is they got a disease and most died. With some shooting maybe the herd would have been undercontrol, and possibly hunting may have scattered the deer so they didn't get sickness.  When there are ample deer, shooting does only makes sense. I seldom shoot bull elk, and never shoot one for my table. But buck mulies before the rut are excellent. They are my favorite...

[SHOOTALL]

In my county in Va. this year we can shoot 2 does every day if we buy extra tags . We get 6 tags to start and can buy extra doe tags .
 YES I shoot does there are way to many here and they are good eating !
We use dogs and shotguns also guess we are just bad here ! But well fed and happy hunting ! Did i mention season for ML is 2 weeks then 7 more weeks for reg. gun season ?
Listen to the game managers or you will be like us to many deer !

[mechanic]

Unless it's a super duper trophy buck, I'll shoot over his head to kill a doe.  If you kill the little 8 points you eliminate him from ever achieving trophy status.  Besides, does just taste better.

[JPShelton]

While I have never hunted in Okla., here I do shoot does. Mostly whitetails, but you would not believe the guys who still don't think it should be done. I really pis--- off one guy yesterday when he found I had shot a big whitetail doe. He stormed out of the coffee shop. Of course he is an exguide, an only interested in huge bucks. Part of the reason we no longer have huge bucks, because of the guide situation here, but anyway, we continued to talk, and a local rancher came in.  He said they used to have enough whitetails on the river that he could count 100 each evening in the fields. Now, they are gone .. The reason is they got a disease and most died. With some shooting maybe the herd would have been undercontrol, and possibly hunting may have scattered the deer so they didn't get sickness.  When there are ample deer, shooting does only makes sense. I seldom shoot bull elk, and never shoot one for my table. But buck mulies before the rut are excellent. They are my favorite...

I hunted deer in Oklahoma for the first time last year.  They were also my first whitetails. 

I grew up in California.  No whitetails there.

I left law enforcement in 1996 and became a full time licensed and bonded hunting and fishing guide.  If any state in the union could use a doe season, California is it.  Of course, I've got a cousin up in Siskiyou County who was also a guide and he totally disagrees.  He claims that after the last doe season they had up there, the deer hunting turned to crap, but I think he's a victim of emperical evidence wrongly interpreted.  There are plenty of other reasons why his deer hunting went to pot and it has little to do with a couple of doe seasons forty years ago.

The land can only support so many deer.  In CA, the buck / doe ratio is so out of whack that many does just eat and don't reproduce every year.  The food they eat could go into a buck's belly just as easily, but it won't as long as the buck / doe ratio is so out of kilter.  But that's what happens when emotions set game management policy instead of brains.

-JP

[Old Fart]

You guys have sure got me to thinking about deer hunting this year.
I've had about 4 offers to hunt on other peoples honey holes.

A nice young doe in the freezer would be nice.......

[Ray Ford]

Old Fart,
Do you have any relationship to the "Old Farts Gun Club" set up that once graced Tulsa gun shows?

[Old Fart]

Nope, it's just what name my wife calls me.

There are a few of us that call ourselves the old fart shooting team on okshooters.com though.
I live about 45 minutes to an hour southeast of okc.

[torpedoman]

in my area there are so many does that they cant get bred during the first rut (does will go thru heat cycles until they get bred) It is sept and i still see spotted fawns here ,