bluedog

X2 I voted a little blood is ok, but the less the better in my book. I also see cleaning up the blood for a photo as being respectful to others (especially nonhunters) that don't like seeing all that blood. Plus it just plain and simple looks better and it doesn't take all that much effort. Might be hard to get a deer really clean in the field, but wiping the mouth with leaves and putting the tongue in the mouth is pretty easy.

This is going to be somewhat from an outsider looking in (I guess that's what you asked for ). I live in and hunt in Ohio, but I live only 6 miles from the PA line. I did live in PA for several years in the late 1980's, but didn't hunt during that time. I do backpack and hike quite a bit in Pennsylvania even now. These are my very biased observations :) . 1. You can hunt to see lots of deer or you can hunt to see big deer. It's hard to accomplish both. I know folks from PA who think that if you don't see 20-30 deer at least during a day of hunting, then there aren't enough deer. Do you know how many deer I typically see during a day of hunting in Ohio? Maybe 4-5 if I am lucky. Some days I don't see any. (I hunt 200+ acres of agricultural land.) Which state produces more trophy bucks? 2. I remember the days when I lived in PA in the 1980's and I could not believe how many deer there were and how small they were. 3. While backpacking through central PA, I've seen first hand the browse lines and how the forest understory in some areas is stripped of vegetation. 4. About 8 or so years ago, I heard Dr. Alt talk. I was amazed to hear about areas of PA where 1 1/2 year old does had not achieved enough body weight to come into estrus. All due to poor habitat. That is crazy! Heck in farm country a good portion of fawn (6 month old) does will breed. That alone should point to big problems with the deer herd in those areas. 5. In 1995, Ohio held a 2 week gun season. The deer population was DRAMATICALLY reduced where I hunt. Everyone was so mad and there were meetings all over the county about what had occured. Ohio went back to a one week gun season the next year. Do you know how long it took until I was seeing just as many deer as I did prior to 1995? Two years. Yep, with good habitat, deer populations will rebound VERY quickly. If the population doesn't come back, there is something wrong with the habitat and that can't always be fixed so quickly. So from an outsider's perspective, I think HR is LONG overdue. Will it be a perfect system? No. Will it need tweaking from time to time? Yes. But it needs to happen. I think some hunters in PA need to come to grips that seeing 20, 30 or even 50 deer when they go hunting is not "normal" or healthy for the deer herd. It might be fun, but in my not so humble opinion, we need to care about the health of the deer herd.

90% of the time I just "plop" down on the ground against a tree. I do take some time to choose a tree that keeps me in the shadows. If there is some brush in front of me or dead limbs around, so much the better, but I rarely go to the effort (during the season) to really build a blind. Snugging myself up against a huge downed tree is a favorite too. It's nice to be mobile and be able to quickly move if needed. Take this for what it is worth as I've only been hunting a short time and I've only shot three deer. All my shots have been under 60 yards and none of the deer knew I was there. I pay attention to the wind and regularly see deer in the 15-30 yard range that don't seem to know or care that I am there. This is on private land that gets a fair amount of hunting pressure. Hunted an early public land antlerless muzzleloader hunt this past October. Had a 6 point stay 15-20y in front of me for 20 minutes before wandering off. Had a HUGE 10 point putzing around in front of me at 20-30 yards for about 5-10 minutes before wandering off. Maybe it's just that the woods around here kind of lend themselves to hunting from the ground. I'm sure it wouldn't work everywhere. I should add that I only hunt shotgun and muzzleloader season. I hope to get into bowhunting at some point and for that I will surely be in a tree.

So what do you think about this guy? I figure he was a late "hatch" from last year? (Is my turkey hunting addiction showing now? ) Pretty unusual to see a yearling buck this small around here. Most are at least 6 points. A few will just be 4 points and some are small 8 points. Still, a button buck surely wouldn't have antlers like this, correct????

What a GORGEOUS animal (as long as it isn't in my chicken coop, LOL!) Thanks for sharing those pictures.

Yep, it does pertain to the far northern part of their range. Still thought it was an interesting read. I've read some other articles that "suggest" that a certain percentage of the doe kill should be fawns to keep the age structure balanced. Of course what is being recommended now is based on current information. What was true 20 years ago, is not true now and what is true now, will surely be different in the future. And thanks for the welcome! I've been lurking here for a couple of years and finally decided to join. LOL!

Here is some interesting food for thought about harvesting fawn does from the QDMA folks: http://www.qdma.com/articles/details.asp?id=46 And to answer the question, yes, I shoot fawns (but not exclusively) and for several different reasons. I have limited time available to hunt so I may only get one opportunity to shoot a deer per season. The only deer that I let walk are the small bucks because 1) I love to see big mature bucks in the woods and 2) I totally respect other hunters who yearn for big antlers even though I am not one of them. Any other deer is fair game. On my farm, we really need to thin the deer herd and while it would make sense to choose the older doe to decrease population, sometimes the best shot is the younger doe. Last season was a perfect example. I was sitting in the woods on the last day of the season and hadn't seen a deer all afternoon. At 10 minutes before the end of legal shooting time, I saw two deer step into the field in front of me. It was obvious it was a doe and a fawn. From my angle, the fawn was further out in the field and presented a good shot. The mature doe was in the field, but partially obscured by some brush along the edge of the field. I waited until 1 minute before the end of legal shooting time and the mature doe presented no shot. I took the fawn. I'd do the same thing again in a heartbeat.