need help to decide
05-23-2003, 07:54 AM
#1
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2,175
need help to decide
sitting home today i had a question and figured if i searched for a board i could finally get some opinions on the right thing to do.i have asked many but no one seems to really know so here it is. i hunt whitetail mostly in the pine barrens of new jersey. in the early bow season usually late september when im hunting. 9 times out of 10 i see mostly does with one or two fawns.very rarely do i see any bucks till it starts getting cooler out. i have hunted the same general areas for years and this is the norm. over the years i have passed on many deer because of not wanting to shoot the doe because i dont believe the fawns will do as good. once in a while i will get a doe without fawns and some button bucks that look like a doe but after killing a couple of them i have learned that the buttons look darker and act very different than a lone doe. i believe people who spend enough time in the woods could learn to tell the difference between a doe and a button so the button could grow up to be the next state record but thats another story. my question is if i shoot a doe with fawns is this a good idea. we have a big deer problem in our state but its not as bad where i hunt. in new jersey we have check in stations and all i see in the early season mostly does are being taken because of our harvest system .im wondering how many of them had fawns.
05-23-2003, 08:02 AM
#2
Giant Nontypical
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 7,571
RE: need help to decide
Some people will and some won' t shoot does with young ones. Personally, I will shoot a doe with or without young if a good shot presents itself. As far as the button bucks, I look for the short snout. A lot of times around here a button will be as big as a decent doe, but the shortness of the snout will give away the deer as being young.
05-23-2003, 08:07 AM
#4
Nontypical Buck
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 2,175
RE: need help to decide
just like to add does anyone know what percentage of does dont have fawns from year to year. i love venison so i usually try to harvest a doe first for the freezer and then i can let all the small racks go through the season and try for a nice mature buck. if you have ever hunted the new jersey pine barrens you know a nice buck is like hunting a cues deer out west and when you get a buck its a real hard earned trophy. the deer here in the jersey pine barrens are as spooky and weary as they come just for the record i have only one nice 8 point in 27 years and have passed on many small racks.my buddies who hunt private farms in the center of the state want me to go with them as they have harvested some monsters but i love my hunting routine passed down from my grandfather and fish in the barrel isint what im looking for. i just dont like hunting over green fields with house stands on each corner of it.
05-23-2003, 03:04 PM
#5
Join Date: May 2003
Location: Southeast Alabama
Posts: 191
RE: need help to decide
by this time they are able to live on their own. here in Alabama the doe/buck ratio is so high that every day of the season you can kill 2 does or 1 buck and 1 doe.. by the time the winter months have arrived the yearlings are able to take care of themselves.
05-23-2003, 09:25 PM
#7
Join Date: Feb 2003
Location: Stillwater, Oklahoma USA
Posts: 254
RE: need help to decide
The fawns will be fine and are able to survive on their own.
I have seen fawns in the fall that were still in spots. I once asked a game ranger about this and he said they were probably the offspring of does that mated during the second or even the third breeding cycle.
I have seen fawns in the fall that were still in spots. I once asked a game ranger about this and he said they were probably the offspring of does that mated during the second or even the third breeding cycle.
