RP8

LRB arms M14sa.

I don't know how much it will dress out too in meat. I just gutted it and had it in the processor's freezer within the hour. They estimated that they could get the backstrap and somewhere around 80 half pound links of sausage out of it. Granted the sausage is only 50% or so venison by weight (I picked boudin and some kind of jalapeno cheese). So yeah, somewhere between 20-30lbs of venison I suppose. Maybe the doe was closer to 60 or 70 lbs when alive, hard to say for sure without a scale, but she was pretty small. I needed both hands to pick her up after the kill, but I wasn't exactly straining (granted I'm a large, 250 lb individual).

RP8

Well, this one had the 6 point buck chasing her around so I considered that possibility since bucks seem to like to run together when they're feeding. Granted this is the rut but I still scoped her out pretty well with binoculars before pulling the trigger, checking for antler nubs. She and another doe were fighting over food right before I shot (the other doe was rearing up and hitting the one I shot with her front hooves); the attacking doe was probably 10% smaller. I saw about 8 different doe on my two days out there and I wouldn't say any of them were over 80 lbs or so. Maybe I'm underestimating size/weight, like I said I don't have much experience.

MNwhitetail.270

Just dont waste meat and younger does are very tasty smaller but tasty.

Tundra10

He can eat venison. Your turkey store bought?


Congrats RP8, enjoy the meat!!

bmgillum

Contrary to popular belief not everything in Texas is bigger...a 50 pound doe down there is respectable...here in Kentucky it would be called a fawn...

Cheers/bg

Cypress32

Venison Veal!

Honestly when it comes to does I always end up shooting small ones because I just cant tell how big they are even looking at them through my 12x50 Nikons. With a buck its easy to tell if you wanna shoot him or not. If hes got 6 points or less he walks if hes got more than 6 hes getting dropped. When you have 3-4 does that come out together they are all probably going to be in similar size so its hard to tell, at least for me, how big they are. So I just shoot the biggest one. Oh well they always seem to taste a lot better than some 175+ pound buck.

Which brings me back to why do people kill bucks with small racks when meat hunting. Shoot little does they taste better. Hell thats why veal is so damn good.

cubfan56

what you kill is your decision .......never ask for opinion on your decision. If you made a good shot the deer isnt going to be wasted no problem. Your choice ! I recently heard of a adult railing at a young boy for killing a button buck, the boy dosnt want to hunt anymore.

dpv

Well done. You accomplished exactly what the owner wanted you to do.

MZS

Up by us, a fawn is my preferred antlerless deer for a tag. These very small deer are the first to perish in a hard winter since they can not reach browse as high and are bullied by larger deer. Seen plenty of them wasting away in the snow in a hard year.

For you, if you are obeying the law, it is good as far as I am concerned.

OhioNovice

I didnt have any luck last year and the young man I hunt with still had an archery tag so I told him to shoot the first thing he saw so I could have some meat.

Apparently this doe was only around 60lbs but it was the best meat Ive had. The only downside was that it didn't last long. Still have any empty freezer that Im not real happy about.