does????

[bowhunt101]

What are your takes on shooting does???? Or your opinions I should say.... I think it is good to shoot a doe every now and again and when I do shoot a doe I try to make it a smaller one so the meat is good and tender know what I mean???? It helps the herd and makes for some good eating as well because them big ol bucks can be tough no dought about it....-tim

PS:other than every now and again for the meat I concentrate on big bucks only and wont shoot small bucks....

[wtnhunt]

Re: does????

We try to kill a couple does for the freezer every year. Try to pass on the younger bucks.

[Texan_Til_I_Die]

Re: does????

Doe shooting is an absolute essential for a healthy whitetail herd. I've seen the results of "don't shoot the does" and it's not pretty. I recall hunting in Texas during the late 60's and early 70's. Almost no one shot does, and those that did were scorned by the rest of the hunters. The results? You would go hunting and see 30 - 40 deer every day, all of them does. You would be lucky to see 2 bucks during an entire 2 month season. Now it's different. I usualy see 4 or 5 different bucks each day and during the pre rut it's not unusual to see more bucks than does.

[JoshM]

Re: does????

I shot 1 or 2 a year for meat....I dont shoot younger bucks (Or atleast i try not to) I perfer going for the big boys

[BuckNrut]

Re: does????

I would shoot as many does as possible to get the correct ratio, then use the 1/3 approach focusing on younger does as mature does tend to produce more buck fawns than yearling does.

[rockefeller66]

Re: does????

I agree, we will shoot about any age class of does, but nothing too little, don't want to make any mistakes on being a button buck.

[kidd]

Re: does????

it is a huge part of our QDM

i try to shoot atleast 2 a year and let the little bucks grow

JMHO

[Guest MarylandQDMA]

Re: does????

First and formost, what ever you shoot so be it, you are the one responsible for pulling the trigger or releasing the string (or chooesing not to).

I just picked up a book by Dr. Grant Woods titled "Deer Management 101 - Manageing your way to better deer hunting" in the book he ducesses the 3 management aproches. well worth picking up his book. any how, i'll go into more detail latter on why an adaquit doe harvest is neccary.

here is a quick rundown...

by shooting does, it lowers the buck to doe ratio more to 1 to 1 (or your own target ratio). in doing that and letting young bucks go, you improve the buck age structure thus having a more balanced native herd.

when targarting does, one must strive to harvest adult does (1.5 years or older). why? well, by harvesting the older does, you decrease your chances of harvesting a button buck (remember these guys are the bucks that you will be hunting in 3 or 4 years from now, the more that make it now will mean more then). adult does will kick out (runoff) their buck offspring, in doing so run off your future bucks, this process is known as Buck Dispersal. by shooting the older does, you thus keep your buck fawns and 1.5 year old bucks in the area. this is important cause more then likely the buck population is low, and the age structure is low and keeping bucks in the area will bring the ration and age up to par faster. a 3ed reasion is adult does can a will educate ther young a pressured doe some would concider harder to hunt then old wise bucks. so be shooting the older does, the young need to learn on ther own. making it easer to harvest them during the next years season (or when ever)

from what I have read and seen, adult does don't produce more buck fawns then any other doe in other age groups.

in a well managed habatat a doe will produce 2 fawns, (twins) one buck and a doe. 50/50.

this is it in a nut shell on why does need to be harvested.

as for the approate number, only you can figure this out, by colecting data on your herd dianmincs (sp) you can start seeing trends thus alowing you to make proper decasions on how many does to harvest. this is going to take at least 2 years, of data colection in order to see trends from year to year.

my sugustion, would be harvest any adult doe you see and record good data and you will see a trend startign to appair.

i'll go more indepth latter if any one is interested.

Frank

[Tom2008]

Re: does????

Yeah in MN we have to many does. The bucks dont' really have to compete for does at all. This last weekend we saw 3 bucks. 1 had 3 with him one had 2, and the last one with 3. There are wayyy to many. We'll be taking out as many does as we can this year to try and manage the deer. We each can take up to 4 does and 1 buck a season.

[hoss]

Re: does????

the boys and i take 5 or 6 doe a yr just like lastnite i got a yearling doe 90 to 100 lbs i dont realy want to shoot any smaller then that but it was the first good shot i had this yr so it is meet on the tablei try not to shoot any bucks unless its a wallhanger depending on time of season late into it with no deer ill take any round the 100lb mark but like i said i rather take does but but wont pass a good buck i cant eat the rack thts just me and mine we let most bucks walk were init for the sport and the meat and good time the boys and i get to spend togeather

[Hillbilly]

Re: does????

I'm hunting my uncles land for bucks, because thats all I see there, great place to rattle. Now on my parents property I'm gonna start shooting at least 2 does for the next 3 years and the let bucks unstress themselves.

[QDMAworks4me]

Re: does????

I have been to a lot of seminars on different things involving deer and deer habitat and what I have picked up is that there are a lot of advantages to shooting does. Here in New York we have a large number of does and on our farm we have a management program that is working out great. On our 500 acres we take an average of 5 to 7 does a year. There has been a few years were we have not taken all the does and it ends up the next few years there is not enough food to support the hole heard the way it should be. We have not had a hard winter around here in awhile but if we do with our numbers being as large as they are we are going to loose a lot of deer because they have eaten all the food during the summer and fall. It is important in my opinion to take the does for meat and take only the large bucks and you will see that the deer heard will be much healthier and that the bucks will be much bigger.

[VtBowhunter]

Re: does????

If you want to practice good QDM, then you have to have some sort of doe hunting set up for your land.......you can't have QDM without shooting a few does now and then.