There is a debate on when to take doe's on our lease. If you take them before the rut, you risk that, that doe could of been the one to bring the big one in when she goes into heat. Or if you wait til after the rut, you might kill a doe that was breed by a big buck? What is yalls opinion on this?

Taking them early increases the intensity of the chase phase, will also increasing the browse that will be left behind for the remaining deer.

We shoot ours after the Rut.

Shoot your neighbors does pre rut, so then the buck will be attracted to your place since it will be the only one with the ladies. Also it provides more food for the remaining deer for the remainder of the season.

we had this debate at a my old lease a few years ago so two if us took does before the rut and two took them after. i went ahead i popped my does opening weekend.

If you take your does early, you bring down the doe population before the rut. This gives your mature bucks a better chance of breeding more does.

Here's a previous thread that hit on this subject a little bit.

I agree with pre-rut. It makes the rut more intense and competitive for the mature bucks in your area, which opens up more opportunities to take a mature buck..

I'm a pre rut believer but the reality is my son usually kills them for me later in the season.

i shoot one before the rut and after the rut. it seems to even everything out.

I shoot when they turn broadside. I don't think about pre or post rut.

i like to shoot them early, because it sees to be easier to shoot them when they aren't being chased. We had a hard time seeing and keeping does around long enough last year, I still killed a Doe in December but it was hard hunting and you really have to be careful of nubbers....JMO shoot them the second weekend, during the rut, then buck hunt the season out....I like to reserve Opening weekend to surprise a big boy still coming to the feeder if possible and like to watch all the deer, but given the right opp i will pop a doe on the opener

Any good deer management plan will tell you to take the does early. Reduces the overall populous of deer, you don't run your bucks to death, and food resources last longer.

I shoot mature does whenever they show up.

I was on a MLD lease in Mills County for 3 years, and each year we tried to take early does.

It seemed that nearly every late season doe we took was pregnant with twin fawns!

So, I've tried to continue to take an early season doe as my first deer....good eating for the rest of the season too!

Me Too

Ditto. Don't get to hunt enough days to pass on a shooter.

If you have an unbalanced herd, take as many does as you can when ever you can. The past 3 years we've been on MLD and we shoot our does throughout the season but usually kill 6 or 7 the last week of the season. It won't hurt your rut, it won't hurt you big buck genetics...

Think of how hard it is to get a deer mature enough to be a "trophy" now think of the chances of THAT doe having THAT fawn, and he somehow makes it to maturity.

My whole point is, don't worry about it, unless you have a high fence your not going to be able to "manage from conception" <<<I just made that up

Prerut- People make the mistake of thinking deer are like cattle and a buch will breed all he can. the average buck breeds 4-5 doe a season. So nock the does out early and the big bucks will have to move more to find one thats ready to breed

To better answer your question, you have to state what your goal is;

Do you want more bucks moving duing the rut as "deewayne2003" stated or do you have a wacked out buck to doe ratio and population issues that will take years to correct?????

1. eary slaying will "help" get bucks moving during the rut. So take them early.
2. As mentioned does killed late will "mostly" be pregers with twins so taking one will net you three deer out to of the herd next year. This helps with carring capacity and buck doe ratio.
3. What we do is determine how many to kill (100) last year. I wanted 60 killed by December 1 and the remaining killed by the end of the extended season. Best of both

trying to control if the big boy has nailed a few does or not is as easy as trying to control genetics........you CAN'T. Don't worry nature will ensure the big boys are doing there thing. You will just as likly kill a doe pregers with a crappy buck to, so....

It will equal out in the end.

kt

I used to take my doe before Dec 1st.... but that was b/c I didnt want to pay a fine on the lease I was on. We have gotten away from shooting does and it makes for some fun hunting.

I take one whenever I see a mature one and I have a tag left.

One standing broadside is worth two in the bush. I like to take does and get the freezer filled earlier in the season, which also makes it easier to hold out for that good buck. If I haven't got meat in the freezer, a marginal buck might be a lot more tempting than if it's full. I also like to shoot my does from stands located other than my best buck stands. I save my rut stands for buck hunting until the rut. It seems like deer activity is usually the highest when a stand has not been sat in several times.

If you kill them pre- or post-rut you're still taking a chance of killing a doe that hypothetically could have been bred later(pre-rut), or one that might have already been bred (post-rut) so to me its a case of six one way, half-dozen of the other. On our lease we like to shoot them early so there's less does to go around and the bucks have to troll around more, in theory giving us better odds of seeing them in daylight. Seems to be working so far...

i agree with taking them early it not only gets the bucks moving more with fewer does to chose from, but it also makes less does for your inferior bucks to breed insureing better chances of your "trophies" breeding the remaining does

haha, i beleive what Al Brothers says(auther of "producing quality whitetails), shoot does whenever they stand still long enough to get a shot