Sport 2

Without a doubt. I'm in.

Legacy357

glassing hard not to drop any bb.....will still drop does though (5C & 5D only)

Piebalddoe

I wish I could stop killing button bucks.....whenever I see a "doe" and I shoot it, it's always a button buck. Never once in my 3 years of hunting so far have I harvested a doe. I know there's a way to tell whether it's a button buck or mature doe by looking at the face and body, what are the hints?

BTBowhunter

No method is foolproof as some have shown us here but there are a few things you can check for to improve your odds. Firts of all when an unditurbed family group appears which is especially common in bow season, the BB will be larger than his sister. A BB generally is more muscular and most of all will have a thicker neck than a doe fawn or sometimes even an adult doe.When yousee a lone antlerless deerthe oddsgo up that it could be a BB. This is especilaay true as the rut nears. Does tend to stay in family groups sometimes spanning several generations. Other than looking down at the top of their head from close range, I think the next best method is too look at the neck. Does have a decidedly skinny neck at all ages. Those are the clues I look for but maybe someone else has some other, and maybe better, methods that would help us all to keep the little guys alive.

Sylvan

I wouldn't try to tell someone not to shoot a fawn of either sex if that's what they really want to do. I'd give you that the meat from a fawn is pretty tender but they're just so small that I can't see wasting the tag. I just don't understand why (other than mistake) somebody would do it. Oh well, to each his own. I know it might be a bit of a manly man thing but I'd personally feel a little bit sheepish if I had to tell my friends I killed a fawn. They'd be all over me. Now don't anybody misinterpret what I just said. I'm not making fun I'm just saying that the guys I know and hunt with would indeed make fun of me if I came home with a bb.

DougE

I'm with you.I see it as a complete waste of a tag to shoot any fawn.I generally don't think it's hard to look at a lone deer and figure outif it's a fawn or not.

If the deer is close and you glass it's head from above,you can sometimes see buttons.However,more often than not,especially from the ground,it's almost impossible to distinguish a bb from a female fawn.If you see a small deerwith a short stubby muzzle you're most likely looking at a fawn.

With that said,I don't think it's any benefit to pass on a bb and then turn around and shoot a mature doe if you're after more future bucks.Most mature does will have twinsif they have good nutrition.Most likely,one of them will be a button buck so in reality,you accomplish nothing by passing on thatdeer.

Sylvan

You got that right! In the long run you eliminate a lot more bucks from your hunting area by klling a doe than you do by killing a bb.

gobbleblaster

I wont be shooting any button bucks, matter of fact i havent even shot a doe in the past two years, i can never find a large mature one.

livbucks

Materially false statement. With buck dispersal, you eliminate them from someone elses hunting area either way. If you pass on the BB, he will live to grow a set of horns and be treated as a buck wherever he goes. If you shoot the BB's routinely, passing on a doe and shooting the BB only makes more BB's that you eventually kill anyway. So, by saving the does and shooting BB's, you only end up shooting yet more BB's, and the herd grows to such an unbalanced immature structure. Sounds like a half baked strategy or maybe just an excuse for a poor use of the resource. I can't understand why some think it is wise to pick a crop before it produces. But that is just my opinion I guess. As long as it is inside the confines of the law, you have the right to make the choice for yourself.

BTBowhunter

Well said Greg!