I hunt at my family's farm along with my BIL. We have only been seeing three does, one spike, one legal buck (young), and one illegal buck. All of these deer seem fairly young and small. I know a lot of that has to do with being in a high pressure area and having "piney" deer. I'm a little worried that taking a doe during Thanksgiving will just hurt my chances with having a higher population in the future. Would you take a doe or give them a pass for the year? I plan on putting out protein after the season and keeping a food plot year round. Hopefully this will attract more to our area. We have about 118 acres.

I personally would hold off taking a deer then if they are young and work on raising yours numbers for the Future.

If you want more numbers in the future, I'd lay off the Does. My ratio here is right about 2 Does to every 1 Buck, just where I like it. We may take 1 Doe this year and I'm on 1000 acres.

I've been feeling the same way about laying off the does. I just don't know since it is already a high pressured area if they would survive the season anyway. They seem to not be afraid of people after my last encounter with them. They just looked at me and went back to eating. I know they knew I was there.

Where do you hunt? The reason I ask is they changed to doe regulations this year in many counties. It used to be 4 days after thanksgiving. They changed many counties to first 16 days of season.

So, today would be your last day to take a doe. Just a heads up.

Canton (Van Zandt co). I didn't hear about any changes. That would answer my dilemma.

I have a few deer like that, pretty tame that is. If you shoot one there is 0 percent of survival,,ya never know what your neighbors are going to do. I never try to manage my herd on the assumptions of what my neighbors might do.

I'm Henderson county, pretty sure Van Zandt is the same. I posted something a while back. Will look for it

http://tpwd.texas.gov/newsmedia/releases/?req=20160329a

Didn't see van Zandt listed. Dilemma back on...

I agree with you and others...let them live this year..but on 100 or so acres you aren't going to be able to impact much if your neighbors aren't also concerned with managing the herd.

I can only control what I do. Just sucks thinking about putting out expensive protein and a food plot for some other guy to reap the reward! Part of the game we play though. We have a game preserve right next to us which is nice. I don't need a trophy buck. Just want to put some food in the freezer. That spike is fair game! He might just be my sole target.

If your going to eat it then who cares about numbers. Your on 118 acres, I don't think you have many resident deer anyway. If you shoot one or two, others will move in off the preserve to take their place. Ask the preserve about their deer numbers and let that be your guide. If they tell you they have 1 per 100 acres then you might want to reconsider, but only if the numbers are low.