RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

First and always a meat hunter. Don`t care about horns. I hunt both buck and doe with rifle, shotgun and muzzleloader.
To each his own.

Ron:D

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

I try to take the first legal deer that has a little size to it. In a perfect world I'd get a nice, fat, 2 1/2 yr old farm doe every year. The next deer would again be the first legal deer with decent size. The top pick for a second deer would be the same ... a younger fat farm doe. And if it had young I'd much prefer they were early drops that were fending on their own.

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

Same here, besides, where I live if they still have spots you'd be hunting out of season anyway. Never saw a spotted one in October around here.

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

I dont consider myself a trophy hunter at all, but i am not a 'meat hunter' either. I hunt in a club with a very high deer population, and anything with a forked horn is legal to take. Between my dad, myself, and my brother we have put 15 bucks in the freezer and it still would be cheaper to buy beef or other meat. We spend thousands of dollars and alot of time not because we are hungary, but of our love of the outdoors and hunting. My dad hunts in two clubs, one is trophy management club and all thoseguys are obsessed with giant racks. Kinda foolishto me to pay $1600per year to POSSIBILY killone good buck, when for $650 i can kill5 bucks on average every year. just my opinion

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

It's all about management. Around here, we have too many deer. With the record rains, record foilage, and mild summer, the deer numbers are higher this year than in any other recent year.

We're lucky in Texas that we get 5 tags. I always take my three does/antlerless and typically keep the smallest one for myself while donating the rest of the meat to Hunters for the Hungry or a similar organization. But, big racks are what I really like and I really look for. Shooting the does is something I could go do at any time and I don't really consider it hunting as it doesn't take much effort.

The problem with alot of national magazines is that conditions are different all over the country. The fact is, if proper management practices are used, the biggest deer on your place should also be the deer with the shortest life expectancy since the life-span of a deer isn't very long. With that in mind, I try to shoot bucks that are at least 5 years old and have shot some that have been as old as 9 (rare around here to find one that old).

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

Well here season opens in September.But I had a neighbor shoot a Buck that for some reason still had spots.Some of the guys was giving her a rough time for shooting a Fawn,but this was a full grown WhitetailBuck,with a Rackin November.

big rockpile

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

If you are hunting just for the meat then I say it would be cheaper to buy beef.

I would hate to figure how much my venison cost per pound :eek:

Where I hunt, if it has spots in November, it shore ain't no white tail!

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

If I really sat down and figured up what my venison cost per pound Id probably be too sick to eat it...:D

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

spotted fawn are not illegal in my state, i have killed them but chose to pass on them now after the freezer is full

dr kill

RE: Shoot the ones with the spots
 

I'm stuck hunting public land where I don't see much more than a handful of deer a season, so I shoot whenever I get the chance.
My primary goal is to fill my tag each year whether it with a buck or doe. That said, the first and only deer I saw this year was a 9 pt 3-4yr old buck, and 2 years ago I took a 13 pter.

My biggest gripe about people saying "if you're just out for meat, then shoot a doe" is that bucks have more meat! If you're out for meat, you shoot the biggest animal you can get and short of comparing a 6yr old doe and a yearling buck, 90%+ of the time the buck will be bigger.

Just my thoughts.