Bukmastr

Started out this morning around 9AM. I went out with my hunting buddy Dave to see if there were any good deer tracks in the fresh snow in the marsh. 1st we walked a large section along a transition where marsh met woods and there was standing corn on the other side of the woods. We never cut a single deer track and after about a mile we turned around and walked all the way back. We went into another section where we found fresh big buck tracks going in from the road. A snowmobile passed us and kicked the big buck out of its bed about 100 yards past us. He ran right to private land. We never got to see him, just saw the bed and tracks... Because we were actually seeing sign we went in farther and snuck up on a known bedding area that if there in they really cant escape without one of us getting a crack... Well, we found two doe beds and running tracks leaving them. The snowmobile had gone within 50 yards of those beds too
So we hit the cattails in a very remote area and jumped one lone fawn. I did not have the heart to kill the poor thing.
So, we called it quits and decided to go sit stands on Daves 70 acre farm. On the way over there I passed thru Rome and there was a nice buck at registration.
When we got to Daves he said he was going to take a doe if the chance came so he could get a buck tag for next year in case we have to continue this DNR Earn A Buck Crap. He made a comment about a very large doe that both me and him had seen on the farm this year. I told him to make sure and take a good look cause some of the bucks will likely be shed already...
He took the best position overlooking some great bedding in the center of the farm and I slipped over the ridge and set up where some very large buck tracks went into a large swamp.
Just before dark I heard Daves rifle bark twice. The second shot concerned me, cause usually one shot is a dead deer.
I waited about 15 minutes then got down and headed to Dave.
He said he looked up to see a large doe trotting away about 80 yards into the bedding area. It must of either seen him in his tree or got his wind. He said the shot felt good, but the deer never flinched. As the deer hit about 100 yards he said he took a shot right up its rear and it looked like the deer went down. I said, big doe? You SURE it wasn't a buck?
He gave me strange look and said pretty sure.
20 minutes later we were standing over a 2 1/2 year old buck that had shed its antlers... Hard lesson. But in hindsight the population is so low over there it might be better that he shot a buck than a pregnant doe... Either way it counts as an antlerless deer and he gets a buck sticker.

Bocajnala

Lesson learned. My sister took a HUGE antlerless this year that came out on a drive. When we got up to it it was a buck that had been hit by a car, both horns had been knocked off. LEg was broken, and it had a nasty puss sack along it's back. Good thing she shot it I suppose, cause I doubt it would have lasted the winter.
-Jake