Hopefully your provincial laws were put in place by a wildlife biologist who understands the value of balancing the buck to doe ratio. Proper management of any game species is critical to the health, well being, and survivalbility of that game. If you have the tools, time, equipment, and skills to fill the limits set forth by the law, then you would be foolish to not take advantage of it. Depending on the strength of the deer population in your province, then you may be able to petition for either stronger or looser regulations to help keep the balance of the herd in check.

 

Hopefully your provincial laws were put in place by a wildlife biologist who understands the value of balancing the buck to doe ratio. Proper management of any game species is critical to the health, well being, and survivalbility of that game. If you have the tools, time, equipment, and skills to fill the limits set forth by the law, then you would be foolish to not take advantage of it. Depending on the strength of the deer population in your province, then you may be able to petition for either stronger or looser regulations to help keep the balance of the herd in check.

 

In Michigan, the DNR sets doe permit limits for gun season. Bow hunters are allowed to shoot a doe or small buck and a 8 point deer or better. Horns are nice but you can't eat them. If you see way more does than bucks where you hunt shoot a doe if you can. Be selective, if you have groups of does, which is often the case, you have 2 choices. The oldest doe, usually the biggest of the bunch or and year and half year twin. usually about 110 pounds. leave the spikes and 4 points to grow up. The land around you will only support so many deer without a feeding program. If no one feeds the deer then, and you want to see bucks.
The choice is clear shoot some does. This has worked for us in our area. we see a good buck every year.

 

There is lots of big bucks wandering around the antlerless open season has been put in place to control the whitetail population boom that we have as they are moving into new locations and pushing out other species. There is no feeding program other than farmers that don't want them because of the crop damage that occurs. The issue isn't not enough deer so much as to many. The debate is on if doe harvesting will improve the quality of deer.

 

i have 20 depredation tags to fill right now. NC area I live in has WAY too many deer! it's nuts!

 

Doe hunting can cause a lot of anger among hunters.

If I had a very large area to manage for large trophy deer AND wanted to build the quality:

I would keep the largest herd population that the property could safely contain ( meaning mainly does );
I would shoot all of the management does before the rut ( old does asap );
I would consider spikes, low grade bucks, bucks without brow tines, etc. as I would does and remove them prior to the rut;
I would not shoot any trophy bucks before the end of the rut.

If you want a good quality herd then do what a rancher would do.....keep your best breeding males, and get rid of your oldest females first.
The youngest does have the best genes if you follow this and the herd quality will improve the fastest.
Most QDM does not do this and high grades the herd which reduces the overall gene quality.

edge.

 

Doe shooting depends on area hunting, i.e. number of deer in a area, around here, deer numbers have been going down in the last 30+ years,(deer seen & sign, etc.) on wooded public land, with no crop land around. But on the crop lands to the south, the numbers seem to be going up & up over the same period.
Wish the doe permits issued in our area, did a better job of reflecting this trend. i.e. more doe shooting around crop land & much less or no doe shooting where deer numbers way down.
I guess, to sum it up, of what I've seen is:
In the 70's & 80's I was seeing many more deer in the northern public land woods then in the crop lands to the south, in the north we would see 10 to 40 deer per day, But in the 70's & early 80's we would find what we called "yard kills" while rabbit hunting the swamps, were there would be 20+ dead deer in one little area that have starved.
In the 90's I started seeing the deer numbers in the south go up (seemed like overnight) - in the north, the numbers seemed to be perfect, seen 3 to 12 deer per day, no yard kills seen.
But starting in the 2000's I would see 100 deer a night feeding on the crop land to the south. But in the north we avg. seeing 1 deer every 3 days. And no, this is not a T.B. area.
My veiw is, doe hunting is needed, but as hunters we must use some common sense about this, even if you got a doe permit, look at the area your hunting in, if you have not been seeing very many deer for a few years, do your part and don't shoot the doe's, .... If your seeing lots of deer, do your part, and shoot doe's, it's no fun finding yard kills.

 

Don't be afraid to shoot does, provided your area can handle it. I know of too many people who won't shoot a doe because they only want to shoot a buck. Everyone wants to shoot a buck. And last time I checked, bucks don't taste any better than does. However, if your area is full of does and just a few bucks, the bucks don't have to travel as far to search out that doe in heat. I'm not saying shoot every doe you see, use good management practices. That's the whole point of shooting does, to help keep the herd in check. And with more does having twins in my area, that's a tough proposition.

 

The number of does taken depends on the area you live and what the deer population is. I live not far from saintdeer and we have an overabundance of deer. When I first started hunting in the 1970s, you were allowed to take one buck, period. Gradually, the NC Wildlife Resources Commission has increased the harvest numbers based on the deer population numbers. There are different hunting zones throughout the State depending on population too.

At my lease last Fall, we took one buck and 12 does. The low buck harvest is because we have self-imposed antler restrictions and the fools who hunt the land surrounding us shoot almost any buck they see. We have a 2 doe minimum required for each of the four hunters who hunt that land. There are still too many does, but if a buck survives the neighbors, he can get pretty big. I don't think we've taken less than a dozen does each Fall over the past 6 or 7 years, while 3 was the most bucks removed during that same period of time.

Jim

 

Environmental studies have shown that properly managing the doe to buck ratio will improve the overall health of a herd of deer because there will be enough sustainable feed, less competition for food, a healthier habitat for herds, less deer vs auto collisions, disease increases due to overbreeding and under nourishment, and better genetics for bigger/stronger/healthier deer. So yes, it is a nessasary function that needs to be performed properly and managed closely.

 

Here in Michigan, NE corner we are allowed to purchase 5 Yes Five doe permits per day. We are considered a T.B. Area and have more deer than we know what to do with. DNR rules no Baiting in our area, BUT most of the private property ownerrs do bait. Its a real mess. We went from no Doe's years ago. to only Doe's by lottery to now we have 5 per day. go figure.

 

after i kill my first six deer here in NC, I can then go to walmart and get 2 doe tags a day for 10$ each and kill 2 more does everyday for the rest of the years hunting season. Funny thing is, I talk to people all winter who go hunting and don't kill a deer? most are sitting waiting to kill a monster buck and let 30 deer walk past. I for one cannot do it! I am a chef of 20+ years and if I do let the first doe walk by, I promise you by the time the 5th one goes by it will be leaving a blood trail. I have about 1500 acres of farm land I now hunt and kill deer all year long and it just amazes me how many deer we actually have running around here. I hunted for 20 years in Louisiana and saw more deer the first year in NC than I had seen my entire life hunting in La. No kidding! I evacuated here the night before Katrina and hunted the opener on private property and had 20+ deer feeding in front of me. I almost fell out my stand. The next week I went to Jordan Lake which is surrounded by a mall and neighborhoods and shot 1 doe and 1 6pt. I swear I saw deer ALL DAY LONG! I waded across a creek and the deer acted like they never saw a human before. It is just nuts here how many animals are running around.

 

There are plenty of doe tags available in both areas that I hunt here in Wisconsin and I hunt for meat! Can't eat the horns!

 

I know what you mean Saint. Here in Louisiana you are lucky to see a deer. Last season I only seen 7 deer all year and only 3 of them gave me a shot. I only took one deer last year. This year I am in a new lease and my scouting camera looks a little better than it did last year but all bets are off once the season opens and there is foot traffic in the woods. They go nocturnal pretty darn quick and thats it. I work offshore and last year I had to work for 3 weeks at the end of the year. Just so happened to be during the rut. I was able to hunt bow season hard but that was it. I wish I could hunt somewhere were I could see 30 deer in a day. I would love to sit back and watch them graze.

 

I take a doe every year , before i take my buck...around my area there's some many, you can get permits to shoot them till the end of Jan...too many deer in a populated area is bad news for cars...but it's not the deer's fault, we pretty much back them against the black top...Thunderbolt

 

I have taken 3 off our property over the last 6 years...I wasn't able to hunt 3 of those years do to an injury. I am hunting the early season this year and plan on taking at least one during those 5 days and then 1 more during archery season. The surrounding neighbors have only taken the bucks.

 

PA in 5C you can pre-purchase doe tags for the most part as much as you want. In NJ, they want you to take does. No extra payment to keep taking does. Hunting in NJ in the different seasons and locations, one can take doe at will from mid-Sept. through late Feb.

Hopefully, this time next week, I will be cutting up a nice tender doe or two and making some jerky!