If you want a challenge take up golf or Japanese calligraphy.

Hunting purely for the challenge of it is unethical in my opinion... so if thats the reason you hunt... perhaps you ought to check yourself. You can enjoy the challenge of it, we all do.... but taking the life of an animal just because its a challenge....

The whole reason I deer hunt.... is because they are made out of meat. And I will smack a doe fawn as often as I can. If you eat veal... then you'd eat a fawn too. And yes in the places I hunt... we need to shoot all the deer we can to keep the populations in control. VA has been VERY lucky when it comes to some of the more serious diseases... and I think a lot of that is because we take a fair number of deer out every year. Our carrying capacities are pretty high anyway in most places.... but they can explode out of control very quickly.



As to fawns being able to survive: In general I think that there should be little if any concern in our minds about shooting a doe with fawns during the states general archery seasons. Special season will have special rules. Our license dollars pay biologists to figure this stuff out for us. They are not going to give an antlerless blessing if the fawns cannot survive on their own. During the peak breeding of the rut is when you'll see groups of fawns roaming around together...because they have been run off... especially button bucks.... if you see a small deer/fawn all by itself in late October/early November.... 95% chance its probably a button buck.