AMEN to that!!!

as soon as does are bred, they drive off their fawns. not shooting a does because it has a fawn with it is rediculous. the fawns are fully self suficient by fall.

if you have too many does, the only thing to do is shoot them. young, old, whatever. get your buck to doe ratio in check

I guess everybody has their own ideas, but we will definitely be taking does, as long as they are at least last year's. We won't take a fawn, or I guess by hunting season, 6 month olds. My father in law did that one year, and since my husband is the one who does the gutting and such, we thought it was a waste because their isn't much meat on them yet. Evidently my father in law didn't care since it's all cleaned and butchered - my husband and I do the butchering - so all he does is shoot, and it's not always an ethical decision. Not only the buck fawn, but he hit a bedded deer one time, he didn't know where he hit it, and he didn't care. He told my husband and me that he wasn't going to look for it the next day because he had things to do and it was "just a deer". His exact words, so we don't hunt with him anymore. He doesn't do the scent control thing either and we are fanatics about that. Now we hunt with each other and that's it:)

A deer is a fawn until it reaches it's first birthday.

There is nothing wrong with harvesting doe fawns in areas where you have too many deer.

Here is some information from retired Michigan DNR research biologist John Ozoga.


"Why harvest fawns?

1. Fawns generally represent the most numerous single age class in the population. More fawns typically survive to weaning age than are needed to replace adult mortality.

2. Fawns contribute little or nothing in the way of reproduction the following year. So their harvest has little impact on annual recruitment rates.

3. Fawns are always under-represented in the annual harvest. Given a choice, hunters generally harvest an antlered buck or a doe, instead of a small-bodied fawn.

4. Fawns are the most likely to die during harsh winters. Even during years of high reproductive success, there is no guarantee that a high proportion of the annual fawn crop will survive their first winter and be available for harvest as yearlings."

Okay, thanks, I will think differently when I see one pass and maybe I just might take a shot with my DXT. Better that than starving to death.