Age old question does with fawns...
Connecticut
Tonight I had a doe and fawn under my stand with a buck closing in. Wanted the buck but would of been happy with the doe except the fawn still looked really small. I passed and the buck never got close enough. Now I sit here thinking was I just being soft and the small fawn would be fine or did I help it make the winter, Also thought if I shot the doe I would never get a shot on that nice buck again...
You did the right thing !
Does with young get passes. Until jan season for me, at that point they are no longer considered fawns and are 8 months old.
Been there and done that, not next time. Doe came in to my rattling with a buck in tow. Doe offered me some easy shots, buck stayed a little farther back and behind brush.
Fawns fend for themselves and will group up with others.
They were all born to be eaten.
I can't do it I let them go!
I'm wirh Silverado on this one. I will shoot one in January, specially if the freezer is empty.
I'd pass too. No reason to take out the ones that replenish next year's fawn crop.
I shot a lone button buck a few seasons ago and felt bad at first. I then figured no hurting on the population, he could have been winter or coyote kill. He also tasted damn good. I felt a lot better after that!
When deer are plentiful, I pass on fawns and their mama, but I've only seen 13 from my stand this season. I'm shooting (at) the next one that's close enough. Buck, doe or fawn. It's Nov. The fawns are plenty old enough to be on there own.
Fawns are with their mothers for a reason, to say the fawn would be fine with mother gone doesn't really know, especially with the spike in yotes the last couple years. Always a pass for me.
I feel a post like this comes up every season. For the bow hunters that haven't shot a deer, young archers or those with a crop damage permit, I can't see many other reasons to kill a doe. Everybody complains about the tagging system, lack of deer sightings, lower harvest numbers, coyotes, bear and bobcats killing fawns, but there are still lots of guys killing does. Many of them saying they "need" to fill their freezer. If you shoot a buck you can fill the freezer just as easily, and those does get to replenish the herd with more deer.
"Everybody complains"
Not everybody, mostly the elite deer management type that pride themselves on their chosen discipline that they want to impose on other legitimate hunters. And besides the annual rant, whats to be done about the situation?
"just as easily" for most hunters is the first deer of either sex that presents a shot. Nothing illegal or unethical, just hunting and happy, happy, happy.
Deer are herd animals...If you shot the doe the fawn would link up with other does and be fine....
No doe will ever get shot be me, don't care how old or if they have a fawn or not. No young bucks either.
BBB you shoot whatever you want
Funny how strong the feelings get around taking does and fawns... and the irony is that it sounds so much like the people who don’t want anybody to kill any deer for any reason, ever.
It’s like Bill said - they’re all going to get eaten; just a question of when and by whom. No need to get so wrapped up in ourselves about it.
Now, I’ve gotta say that if I got out enough to see a dozen deer a year, I’d probably be more selective, but mostly - if and when I do get out - I just hold out for a Gimme shot. In range, good angle, nice & calm, and preferably looking the other way so I can get drawn. Given the choice, I will take a larger-bodied animal rather than a smaller one, and yeah, based on my limited exposure to the NW corner, I’d take a chance on getting a shot at a buck if he was trailing a doe past my stand, but if she’s on her own I guess I’d take the bird in the hand.
Guess that comes from learning to hunt where we were allowed one deer/year (regardless of method(s) used) and were lucky to get a shot AT ALL, let alone dithering over whether this one is big enough to shoot...
Sounds like a real First-World Problem!
That said....
If I get permission to hunt a property and the owner wants a herd reduction, I’ll hold out for a big doe (assuming that I can find one!). If they’re happy with the numbers and want the does left alone, then them’s the rules!
But just a thought - shoot a fawn, starve a coyote.
