To all of the bowhunters of the cyber wilderness I ask this question.
Do you feel that shooting a Doe marks you as less than a hunter?
Years ago when I first entertained the notion of bow hunting my father went through the roof, in his words bow hunters "wound to many deer". Now that was some twenty odd years ago and dispite his remarks and dislike of bowhunters I am a bow hunter. It was during those beginning years that I told my father I was going to shoot the first large deer I could, be it a Doe or a Buck. My father was lets say less than thrilled, his family didn't shoot Does and he made mention that you were less than others who shot only Bucks for doing so. What is your take? I shoot deer, be they Does or Bucks, they are still very tough to hunt either way.
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Hunt hard, and pray harder, both offer great rewards.
First of all, and responsible hunter is also a conservationist--you have the responsibility of trying to keep the herd in balance. When all you kill are bucks, there is the possibility of really hurting your deer population. If there are way too many does for the bucks to breed in the first rut, they will come in season again. You probably already know that a buck hardley eats or sleeps during the rut, and looses a lot of weight. When this happens two or three times a season, he might not be able to make it through the winter because of malnourishment.
Second, I have been "busted" a lot more times by does than by bucks--I believe in general they are actually harder to hunt. The does, especially during the rut, seem to be a lot more wary.
Lastly, when it's on the plate, who cares if it was a buck or a doe? Lol!
A big part of hunting, to me anyway, is about personal satisfaction. Don't worry about what somebody else's idea of a "trophy" is, as long as you are true to yourself.
Chad
Long Bows Rule!
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"We can have no '50-50' allegiance in this country. Either a man is an American and nothing else, or he is not an American at all."-- Theodore Roosevelt
A wise man's heart is at his right hand; but a fool's heart at his left. Ecclesiasties 10:2
The last four letters in American..........I Can
The last four letters in Republican........I Can
The last four letters in Democrats.........Rats
Like LBR said, Does need to be hunted to keep a balanced and healthy herd, they are just as wary if not more wary than the average Buck and in my personal opinion, the Does meat tastes better than a Bucks.
Make em sharp and shoot em straight, or leave em home.
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Make em sharp and shoot em straight, or leave em home.
See, this is funny. I was raised the exact opposite way.
In our family...no one gun hunted. We bow hunted. Gun hunting was an oxymoron. Now, I don't begrudge gun hunters. As a matter of fact, I like small game and birds with guns. For big game though, I just never saw the "challenge".
Anyway, we were also meat hunters. My grandfather, God rest his soul, shot a number of bucks through the years, but only one "trophy".
Me? I shoot big does. I shoot little does. I try to shoot big bucks. And I've shot button bucks. When it's in the freezer, the gender doesn't mean a thing.
If I could shoot Ewe Dall sheep (does of the sheep world up here) I would as you'd NEVER find anything better eating!
If I have a doe tag in my pocket, so be it. If I have an either tag I usually hold off and many of my begining years where animal less due to not shooting a doe. Thinking it was dumb to shoot a doe with all the bruisers I'd see in a season but never be in position to shoot. We always had wild game and fish in my house, no one ever asked what was on its head, or what it scored!!!
I enjoy venison, actually one of my favorite meats. My first
kill for the season was a nice sized doe that my family and
I are enjoying at the dinner table. I still have another doe
and buck. If I'm lucky and God willing I'll take a buck before
the season is out. But if I get the opportunity to kill another
doe for the freezer I won't hesitate. I don't think enough
hunters are concious about managing the deer herds. The does
in my area definately need to be taken.
Let me ask you a question? What difference does it make what you're marked as? Is the hunt about you or the deer?
If you're a subsistance hunter, you take anything you can, just like any other predator. If you're a sport hunter, you follow the rules. If the rules say you can take a doe, you can take a doe. They are usually better eating anyway because they're not stressed during the season.
I'm not sure where some of these family hunting traditions come from, but I suppose it might be a good thing to honor them, even if they're only a generation or two old, however, unless somebody knows why "we don't kill does", maybe they ought find out and decide if it still makes sense.
Hunters, even sloppy ones, don't have near the impact on game populations that ski resorts or ranches do. When you add to that the 35 acre "ranchettes" that are springing up all over the place, it's a wonder the game managment people can accomplish anything productive.
Game wardens usually do a pretty good job, unless you consider how in the past they were more likely to bust an indian for poaching than a white, and still do in some areas until traditional hunting rights are finally recognized. But that aside, their game management skills are pretty impressive given the obstacles posed by development or other encroachments on winter ranges or even summer ranges for that matter. Still their science isn't hard and fast and they're constantly revising things to try to keep the conservative balance mentioned above. Sometimes the science works and sometimes it doesn't.
All which doesn't mean too much if you're out in the field in order to get "marked" as a great hunter. I think that's the wrong reason to be there in the first place.
The fact remains that the reason you can kill a deer is more because he or she lets you than any intrinsic skills you might bring to the "arena". I know that's probably going ruffle a few feathers but so what? This isn't about somebody's ego and the egomaniacs, just like everybody else, usually miss all the deer that eluded them successfully while they are relentlessly pursuing their trophy or whatever. They didn't even see those deer, no matter how great their estimates of their hunting skills might be.
So maybe a little more humility is in order, not to mention more respect for the animals? If you've clear on that, the question of who is or isn't marked as less of a hunter will hardly arise, and if it does, you can blow it off without remorse or recrimination.
If you subscribe to "Traditional Bowhunter" mag, Don Thomas wrote an excellent piece this month on just this subject.
With all due respect, your Grandfather was wrong.
Your life is made of time, not money.
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Your life is made of time, not money.
Buck,Doe as long as I can get a good quick clean kill,antler's are just a bonus,all though I do hunt buck only the first week or two.
Draw the line on if it has spot's
Doe vs. Buck
