When do you shoot does?

Howdy,

I was curious as to how early in the season y'all shoot does?

I went hunting with my brother yesterday. We hunted from the same stand and I let him have the first shot on opening day. He made a great shot on a doe at 200 yards and the deer didn't take a step. I was pumped! We had shot a lot in the off season and I enjoyed helping him get ready.

We hunt on his father-in-laws land. The father-in-law kept giving him crap saying you don't shoot does right now because does bring in bucks. What do y'all think? This has been eating at my brother a bit.

opinions from the peanut gallery

I have no problem with it. I look forward to the meat in the freezer and we have had a lot of does on the cams this year. I told my wife if she sees a good one take it.

anytime I want.

I usually wait till after the rut and have for the last 25 yrs now. If you have to shoot a lot of doe then I start after Thanksgiving so the fawns are old enough to do well on their own.

I'm all for shooting them as soon as it is legal. But then I have no more interest in shooting antlers. 2 does feed me and Mama for the year so I'm not picky when it comes to meat hitting the ground.

I wait till late December. One of those doe u kill may have been the one that would bring in a big boy. Plus lots of young fawns still sucking milk right now.

When they first show up. Mind you, if a nice buck and a doe come in together- BUCK DOWN!

I see 3 schools of thought.

1) Anytime - take does out whenever you can early, rut, or late.

2) Late - want as many does around until after hunting bucks in rut.

3) Early - don't want to take a bred doe.

Everyone has a different opinion. We kill them early, middle, and late. We try and make sure they don't have fawn(s) with them early in the season.

Sounds to me like FIL should have made his wishes known beforehand if he had a preference-instead of raining on your brother's parade.

Here in camp county we can't shoot does right now. Only in bow season thanksgiving and muzzleloader.

Aoparently whenever my 7 year old's blood lust annoys me to the point I cave. This year, roughly 3 hours.

now this is the correct answer!

Shoot early; if you shoot late, especially with a young kid around, you might just see one inside the doe, which could be upsetting.

Killing them before the rut can do a couple of things for you. One, thinning the doe makes the bucks move more to search for hot ones thus exposing them for you to shoot. Two, since there aren't as many to breed your bucks may not get quite so run down and survive winter better allowing them to get a better jump on antler growth the next spring.

I shoot them as early as possible, after they have been bred you are killing at least 2 deer, maybe 3. You could be killing a potential trophy.

I'm not disagreeing with your conclusion to shoot them early, but your logic is flawed. Let me explain, if you kill her before she gets pregnant, you are killing ALL potential offspring. In this case, whether she is pregnant or not will clearly result in her not baring a future trophy buck.

the trophy buck thing isn't exactly a reason to shoot early, but completely possible, and yes, it will certainly take away any future offspring, but the buck will likely just breed another doe, then you don't run the risk.. all the same, just your way of thinking vs mine

Now that IS a good reason to shoot them early!

certainly agree with the first part of this. I will pass however when a doe has yearlings and wait until later in season

Your FIL opinion is very flawed but he can believe what he wants... Better to just go along with it. Don't you think a buck might cruise more with less does around... All bucks I have shoot were not with does. I have never shot a buck with an actual does at foot but seen plenty. Just not big enough for my liking.

It doesn't matter. All does get bred. Not all does will bring in trophy bucks. Shoot them anytime. I wait until I have a kid with me. We saw 12 bucks to 3 does this weekend. Hardly a doe on cam in Oct. We know they didn't all die and have no control over that. So trying to manage a place on shooting does is not easy when they don't show up.

You will hear all arguments like above... They will bring in bucks, they might have fawns, they might have twin inside them with trophy genetics, etc... It is hunting, shoot one if your county allows it. Some states make you shoot a doe before a buck.

I usually wait for colder weather. I like ta hang um and chill um out good before I process them..

Usually if I shoot a doe, she's old enough that she's past the point of coming into heat so it won't affect the rut. But I would rather shoot a doe earlier in the season, I don't think anyone wants to clean a pregnant doe.

I have cleaned plenty of them. On the record I kept on each deer it was noted if the doe was lactating or pregnant. If so how long was she bred, using a fetal chart to attain length of the fetus(s). If she has as single, twins or triplets inside(yes I have found triplets a few times). That length will tell you fairly close to the day she was bred. Shot a doe in Kendall County that would have been bred around Oct 5th that year after measuring the fetus.

Your Father in Law is Right ,

Does draw bucks obviousy in the Rut . Shoot an old gray back doe when she shows up at the feeder without a fawn or yearling later in the season !

In east Texas (Nacogdoches County), the only option is to shoot early. If you don't hunt with a muzzle-loader the does are only legal during the first 16 days of the season. Since I can't hunt next week, I shot a doe yesterday.

I also shot a nice (for east Texas) 10-point buck. Not trying to hijack the thread, but since I mentioned it, here is the photo of the buck-- shot today. The only thing I measured is the inside spread. That was 17 3/4". The shot was as the buck was crossing a gas pipeline right of way. For scale, I am 6'7" and 260 pounds... I make any whitetail look small.