Anyone ever had this happened? Shot a does this past weekend and found a fetus, that was a first, made me feel kinda bad. I'm all about good herd management but im questioning whether this was a good decision.

I bet over %90 of hunters have...

Its just part of it and will not do anything to hurt your population unless your just at the brink of loosing your herd.. in that case you shouldn't be shooting any deer at all.

best decision you could have made.....

Shoot them early in the season to avoid the likelihood of this happening if it is bothersome to you.

but then you shooting your bait for the bucks too!

actually the chances of them already being serviced by Nov.1st is quite possible here

Possible, but a lot less likely, depending on where you are hunting. Just giving him a chance to take some does with less chances of that happening. I figure anytime you are taking out a doe, you are taking 2-3 mouths out for every year that that particular doe is productive whether you see it or not.

Hunting in Kendall County most of the does we shot were bread already. We hunt in pretty far south texas now rut is tail end of December so most of the time we don't see any.

Don't look at it, don't touch it and poke it with your finger, don't show your wife get past it and on down the road. Its no different than if you had shot her before she was bread. They are not people they do not have souls. Shot one with one of my buddies that was bread early and he picked it up and started playing with it... that's just wrong.

Did you tag the fetus?

Pshhh you wouldn't like hangin around Cajuns.. that's a delicacy.. Pigs are better though.. like little skillets treats..

Prime example here of different thoughts for different people. My son shot andoe so my daughter could field dress it, she wanted to get her hands bloody and she didn't have the opportunity to shoot one that night due to us being sighted in the tree stand immediately (first time I ever got busted in that stand too). Anyway, doe was pregnant as it was late December/early January. Both my kids found it fascinating and we dissected the amniotic membrane and got the fetus out. I didn't think anything wrong with it, but it was a deer and not a human. Doesn't make us any more the freak animal abuser or anything, just means I have curious kids.

Now to do that to a human fetus or something would be a little wrong (more like a lot wrong) but don't tell that to Kermit grosnel...

Almost all late season does will be pregnant.

My dad shot an impala doe with a new born.

We've killed preggo fallow and axis doe but no WT that I know of.

curiosity is one thing hopping it around like a stuffed animal and chopping it with a machete are different to me.

Baby killer

I killed one on January 17, 2015. She had twins. From what I could tell, she likely would have given birth sometime in March or early April. I can post a pic if you guys can stomach it.

This was the second time it had happened that I noticed. Same thing, late doe hunt probably in 2009-2010.

Shoot the old does. Probability some of those old does can't get impregnated. Shooting impregnated does can't be avoided anyway, it will happen sometime.

I will be shooting most of my does during bow season next year. 1- for practice with my bow. 2- so I can duck hunt more in late season.

I haven't shot one in January that didn't have twin fetus.

Every Axis doe you gut seems to have a fetus.

I have pm'd you a couple of times asking if you have received my check but have not gotten an answer.

I agree with a post above, I guess everyone's got there own stance. I understand how someone could feel bad looking at the dead fetus. But at the same time you killed a potential mother. Even if a doe isn't pregnant or just not far enough along to see the fetus hunters typically don't feel bad about killing the doe.
If a hunter is upset they've removed a potential fawn from the next years herd you're doing the same thing killing the doe before she's breed.

Have shot many pregnant does.

The only shot I ever felt bad about was a straight up blast to the jewels of a big boar walking away. Sure, it's a pig and someone had told me if you damage their nuts but they still produce a little testosterone they'll keep other boars from breeding but can't breed themselves, but it just felt wrong. Man code violation.

^^^ It died anyway.

You killed a deer. If that doesn't bother you, neither should a second.

Yup....simple really....dead deer....next....

Thanks for the responses.

She was old, and mean. I was trying to decide whether to take her or not, when 3 other does showed up she chased them all off, even rearing up and trying to fight one.

It's pretty cool how by this time they look fully developed. Little hooves and all.

Most does killed during the general season have been bred and many miss an opportunity to collect beneficial information from the fetuses. If you measure the length of the fetus, you can backdate to find when the doe bred, usually within a few days of conception. By doing this for several does from a property or area, you can generate a graph of the rut in your specific hunting area.

Shoot doe fawns, better eating and not pregnant (very highly unlikely). I have heard of this practice used in deer management before. Any doe that lives past being a fawn gets to make it to an old age.
I have shot does in November that were pregnant, we had to look hard but we could find a small fetus. This is way more common than you think, most just don't notice.

I will respond. To the OP.
Manage your Herd. Maintain, decent Balance.
Hunt the weather conditions;
Late Season-Does?
Shooting a Pregnant-Mother.
NO. We don't do it. Ethics; with us.

January 17, 2015.

That's about the most developed I've ever seen. I always check the does I shoot. Yep, this year's was carrying twins.

Have seen a few like that, we always take advantage of the late doe season, just part of it.

I was watching her before the shot, and at one point I thought to myself 'She looks heavy/pregnant'. She had last year's fawns with her at the time, both were above average in size. I couldn't believe how developed the fetuses were. She had to have bred in September or very early October.

Second time I've ever killed three with one shot.

You should be killing does as part of your herd/population management. Pregnant or not, you are removing that doe so it does not reproduce. You did the right thing.

As for shooting doe fawns, sounds like a good idea, but the risk of mistaking a buck fawn as a doe fawn are too great to take the risk in my opinion. I've seen many a buck fawn mistaken as a doe or doe fawn.

I get it. You respect life. I'd probably be a little upset as well. But, you didn't know and thus you can't blame yourself. Sometimes hunting isn't pretty.

As far as shooting young does, I've heard that if you are culling bucks in hopes of improving genetics then you should target older does and let the younger ones mature. If through your culling plans, you expect to have better genetics in your younger age classes of bucks versus the older ones, the same will be true with your does. So, killing young does would mean you were targeting the "genetically improved" age classes of the herd.

yes

Twins too. Very interesting to examine the little guys.

Like already mentioned, 90 plus percent of doe killed in January will have the fetus. It is just the way of nature.

I think that I read every post and it surprises me that no one has mentioned the management value of the fetus. If you are not measuring the fetus you are missing out on information very specific to the rut for the location you are hunting. No matter when you think the rut is, the fetus is the only measure of when it actually takes place. The fetus is measured with a ruler and the date of conception determined from the calculation on the ruler.



After five to six years of collecting data, my hunters and myself had some very useful data. I also put together a simple form using Google docs that my hunters used to record buck sightings via their phone. The fetus measurements correlated with the buck sighting info makes a heck of a planning tool. Now, more than a dozen years since starting this the information it is still updated. Any annual swing from the norm is a cause for consideration but beyond this discussion.



If a doe is taken during a youth hunt, the purpose of recovering the fetus is explained and every young hunter has actively wanted to participate with the measurement and math for determining conception. The fetus shown in the picture in this topic is pretty big but they are measureable pretty quick after conception when they are still little bitty. There is no doubt that this registers with the kids and those who hunt here, just how quick there is a life present in the womb.

^ I was about to mention the same thing. I have seen it many times. You either are shooting a doe that will be pregnant or she already is. There is no difference.