Should You Shoot Does Early In Bow Season?
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). [...]