ORIGINAL: iamyourhuckleberry
If you want meat, shoot a doe!! just about every state would love to see doe kills go up
Crenshaw,
Hypothetically, if your in a region which has a shortage of deer, wouldn't it be better to shoot a small buck and allow the does to remain for propagation? If you shoot the boss buck, isn't that counterproductive? We do not have a whole lot of White-tailed deer around the front range of Colorado. They are coming though. What would be your strategy here?
Doc,
I know the presence of whitetails is growing in your state and its easy for someone like me to say shoot doe's when i come from a state that has well over a million animals. But this it when it comes down to knowing your herd and knowing the species.
The are alot of people that will tell young bucks dont breed doe's and all spikes have bad genetics. Well every biologist i have talked says otherwise. Young bucks can and will breed and spikes 99% of the time will grow up to be good healthy shooter bucks. The best way to make that call in your herd is to count the animals on the property you hunt. If your seeing 10 does and 3 small bucks and 1 mature buck, then shoot a doe!. If you dont see does and only small bucks then thats your call. Another thing to look into is your state regs. In my state and in my county I can shoot doe's from September to March and as many as I want. You think the state wants us to shoot doe's or what? But we can only shoot three bucks, which is still more then most states.
Most mid west states only give you one to two buck tags to promote shooting mature deer. And if you are under the mind set that you want to a healthy herd then you need to let the youngins grow up, and trust me mature whitetails arent stupid, you might see one or two here or there but your missing a few others that dont show there faces. Your state is a tricky spot right now and it ultimatly comes down to the property you hunt.