If a big fat doe walks 30 yards under your stand during opening week, should you shoot it? This QDMA article makes some solid biological points about why you should, but the first comment that follows the article makes, I feel, an even better point about why you shouldn’t:
ELPzee wrote: I’m still waiting until December to fill my freezers. Here’s why. Pressure! If you shoot does early in the season you’re pressuring your herd before the rut, reducing your chances of killing that monster buck.
In regions where (hunter) densities are high and tracts of land are small…waiting to harvest does makes your land become a sanctuary, especially if you are surrounded by trigger happy hunters (on neighboring lands). That’s why I see more deer as the season goes on while everyone else is scratching their heads wondering why they only saw deer the first two weeks of the season. They aren’t seeing deer because they tagged 7 does in the first 2 weeks, while I let my spot become a sanctuary.
When you shoot a doe with your bow, you climb out of your stand and track it a ways, sometimes a long way…then you gut and drag it out, or bring in an ATV to haul it out. All this pressure creates movement, noise and scent in the woods that mature bucks react to.
Will the pressure of shooting one doe during the first weeks of bow season make a big buck in the area change his pattern and/or turn him nocturnal? Maybe, maybe not. But why take the chance?
Now if you hunt a huge tract of land with many stand options for hunting multiple bucks, it probably would not hurt to shoot a doe or 2 in September or early October. You kill the deer, get it out and rest the stand for a week or so while you hunt other spots. This will not put too much direct pressure on the deer.
Also, if you hunt public ground with other hunters, and do not have any bucks patterned or on camera, it makes sense to shoot the first big doe that walks by. This is especially true if you have only a few days to hunt this season.
But as ELPzee noted above, if your goal is a big buck, do not shoot a doe early if you hunt a small tract of private land, like millions of you do. Especially don’t do it you know a shooter buck is working the immediate area, and double especially don’t do it if you have a recent trail-camera image of a big deer lurking. To shoot a doe and possibly mess that opportunity up makes absolutely no sense.
Here are some more thoughts on doe-shooting in a blog I wrote awhile ago.
Do you think you’ll whack a doe early, or wait until later in December or January to fill the freezer?
Here in VA, in the county we hunt in, we only get 6 doe days during regular firearms season, 4 of which are between Christmas and New year. We try to establish a policy of “Shoot a doe – Shoot a buck”… it keeps our buck to doe ratio in order. We do have certain areas we have already determined are off limits (for all hunting) until early November to keep scent / pressure out of the prime areas. Our Shoot a doe / shoot a buck works for us, because we establish hunting areas and off limit areas.. I think each hunter and their land have different scenarios so it is difficult in my opinion to rule out taking a doe early?
I however (even amongst our group) do not shoot does during rut times, as I’d hate to ruin the chance at a shooter for a doe. Bottom line to me is, as long as it’s legal and you are happy with your kill, then enjoy it!! Safe hunting to all KCLAP
We always wait until later in the season for those exact reasons. We are surrounded by trigger happy neighbors. The deer flock to our land as a sanctuary around Thanksgiving. It is also beneficial for the younger generation of hunters. During rifle season we are seeing around 10-15 deer every sit (Young bucks and does), and it keeps the kids interest a lot longer than not seeing anything. If they decide to not take a small buck we go ahead and take some does. (Better eating anyways).