I shoot does early and often. I'd rather shoot 5 does in a season than onlyone buck.

gonzoo... he is an oldtimer thats watmy dad and bigrax uncle said

My lease used to be ran by a bunch of old timers and to them shooting your does was shooting your breeders. They came from a cattle background and didn't really get it.
Times have changed and now we take out the does as the law allows.

To fully understand the reasoning it helps to have studied the history of wildlife management. Back in the teens, twenties and thirties market hunting had severely depleted populations of many game animals. In fact many were depleted to the point of huntable populations not even existing for long periods of time. Through game laws (harvest regulations) and transplatation efforts nearly all of these species have recovered and are thriving, and in fact in many areas now have reached nuisance levels.

Alot of these feelings on doe harvest come from older gentlemen who learned to hunt back in the days when game populations were still on the mend and there wasn't a deer behind every bush. Kind of like how people who grew up in the depression feel about saving money. You have to remember this was the same era also. Fathers also teach their sons, and if thats what dad said it must be true. The main problem is that many people with this belief do not realize you can't stockpile deer and save them for a rainy day.

At any rate this is a very interesting post and to fully discuss it would be space prohibitive, but I like interesting subjects!

Because they are clueless[&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:][&:]!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I think most of it is old timers that were raised in an atmosphere AND LAWS of bucks only. In my early days, only the criminals and poachers shot does. Everyone knew who they were and treated them like dirt. It's hard to break old habits. Also, a lot of people only want or need a deer a year. They don't have a convenient way of disposing of their extra meat. So as long as they're only shooting one...it might as well be a big one or a buck or anything but a doe. To them a doe is a critter of last resort. Many of us think of it as the critter of first resort and get some meat, then you can go hunting. Different strokes, backgrounds, educationetc.

I agree with what both you and crittr are saying. Old info based on what has always been done. Hard to get new ideas implemented sometimes even if biologically proven.

On the western end of the U.P where i hunt the doe to buck ratio is about 50 to 1 does taste great and there less filling too!!!!!

Just because you stayed at a Holiday Inn Express last night, doesn't mean you know more about the land than some one that spends their life there.Some of you might be smart to spend some time with one of these ole timers you might learn something.

You people that are lucky enough to have an abundent deer herd are lucker than you know .Here in PA we had a problem in some areas with to many deer .So me we payed a man to convince the hunters that if we killed all the big doe we could , all our deer problems would be solved.So we did .Now the areas that had to many deer still have to many deer because of land access,but the areas that did not have to many deer now have none.The jerk that started this plan has of course now quit.

So be carefull what you wish for you just might get it!