Dumb question.

Back open for business - next round of editing will be time off!

JW

My first will always be a "meat deer", usually a mature or young doe. Im a bit more selective with my antlered deer tag. I can shoot a lot more does if i go to another zone about a mile away but we only get one buck. Button bucks here can be shot with a "doe tag" but i try to avoid shooting them.

They sure are tasty though :D

I shoot adults, but that's me.

Aw JW. You're an old stick in the mud. :D I really didn't see anything wrong with that discussion.

I'm sure he was worried about where it was headed. :wink:

Maybe so. And I didn't even have my hand basket out. :s2:

With my antlered tag, i always shoot spikes or fork horns, unless the freezer is full. If the freezer is full i look for a big necked buck, and it is made into sausage. The last one i shot, we aged the tenderloins for a week; had them for breakfast, and it was like chewing a boot.

With a doe tag i try for a lone dry doe, but if a shot presents itself, on a doe with fawn, i don't hesitate to shoot.

Years ago, the ranchers on the high line in Montana figured there were too many deer, so the fish and game let us hunt with handguns in January, and February for antler less. We could get as many as 5 tags each. My 629 Classic DX put a lot of deer to sleep over 3 winters. By choice i shot only fawns, because it seemed the does would survive better on their own, than fawns could, and because we gave all the meat away to poor people, and i didn't care if they were small.

In the years since, i no longer worry about fawns surviving without their mother, and so as much as possible i avoid killing fawns, and try to kill big does. We have noticed orphans usually are with yearlings, or get adopted by families. However, once in a great while, we have noticed fawns that seem shunned, and were on their own.