I just read an interesting article in the April issue of Progressive Farmer www.progressivefarmer.com titled The Trouble With Deer. According to the article, whitetail deer cost farmers about $500 million a year in crop damage. In Michigan, they are spreading tuberculosis to cattle herds. The little "peanut eaters", as my neighbor used to call them, cause $1.1 billion in automobile damages. The problem, according to the article, is that hunters will not shoot does.
I suggested to my local game warden that he suggest to his superiors that hunters be required to show proof they had killed a doe before they could legally take a buck. According to this article, that is now the law in Wisconsin. I think maybe an "antlerless only" season for the first ten days would be a good idea. I know that will never fly, but SOMETHING needs to be done. There are about three times more deer in GA now than there were in the entire US 100 years ago.

I can only speak from my own experience, but I've seen a lot of guys who "only shoot bucks" with some awfully small anterless deer in the back of their pickups. If they do happen to shoot a nice buck, it rides around in the back of their truck for a couple of weeks. I'm not proud myself; I'll usually take does if I can't beat my current buck on the wall. Minnesota is making small steps towards a better management strategy and I hope to get at least 2 this year.

Here in Montana, I usually take a couple does first, and get them in the freezer. That leaves the last week of season open to hunt bucks. We've got dso many of them, they need a major thinning also. I'll rattle in a dozen to the same set up many days.

Shockingly, in this area we are not allowed to shoot does. This is why there are 60-70 deer in the field each day and why after three years we have fruit trees that are smaller than they were when we planted them. The damn things breed like rats and most does seem to have twins following them around. I sometimes think the head wildlife biologist here is more familiar with his own bowels than anything else since he seems to live with his head up his...well you get the picture. Regards, Bill.

I think one of the problems with high whitetail populations lies in the Private Landowners lap. Many do not allow access and many more allow access for a large fee. The high fee causes hunters to expect "more", i.e. a nice buck. Thus the average meat hunter never gets a chance at the deer and taking a doe.

We own a ranch here in Utah and do not have whitetails, but we do have the same problem with elk. Dang things breed like rabbits and they run through fences and eat anything. But it is hard to let someone you aren't familiar with on to shoot them.

MGC I will be pleased and proud to help you out with your problem. I am not an antler freak. I have a few on the wall but I have no more space for more. I sure like to eat wild game. Especially elk. Cow elk would suit my fancy just fine. I will respect your land and do not shoot without feeling pretty good about the shot and what is behind the target. I will keep your gates closed and will not litter. I don't know if Utah offers landowner tags. E-mail me if this sounds interesting. D Hunter

MGC,
My daughter is moving to Park City this August. I'd be interested in finding out about hunting in Utah. I would like to come visit my daughter and then hunt mule deer and possibly elk. I understand that it's permit style hunting?
As for the does. Pennsylvania is in the process of getting the herd in balance. Too many from the "old school" can't fathom killing the does and many of them own the land. It's a hard sell. My wife's uncle doesn't allow doe hunting. I watched 37 deer cross his field. Not a single buck in the group. Hopefully people will learn. I enjoy the meat too. A big buck would be nice, but sometimes shooting an old doe is just as hard to do!

Bob257

If my local game warden is correct, Knasas may be going in exactly the wrong direction. We have had an extended season that was antlerless in January for several years now and they are going to do away with it, or so I am told. I always shoot does. My landowner calls them field rats. The agreement I have with my landowner is that I will get every tag I can get and make every effort I can to fill them all. That is usually between 5 and 7 tags with only one of them being a buck tag. We do this instead of him charging me fees. I also do some minor fence work for him. I am free to do what I will with the meat and usually donate a good portion of it every year. In return, I and my kids have the run of his 1800 acres for hunting.

If you have never seen 60 acres of soybeans eaten off at the ground, you may not see the full reason for killing does.

I like hunting does, particularly in the South. There are enough of them that you can practice your spot and stalk skills and not worry too much if you blow the stalk. This is the best low-cost hunting practice that there is. From a management perspective, it just makes sense to hunt does as well as bucks.

JohnTheGreek

MGC,

I have a nice bull opn the wall and I have no need for another one. In fact, the last elk I shot was a cow. I would not mind helping you out with the overpopulation problem.

The last three whitetails I've taken have been does. As a group, we hunters claim to love the animals we hunt. If that's true, we ought to take does as part of that caring. A few years ago I started joking about a trophy doe I took. These day I don't think it's such a joke. One thing that changed my mind is consitantly being outsmarted by older does. I know bucks are wiley, but there are feww of them and that magnifies their ability to escape and evade, but hunting does has taught me that a wiley old doe can put a wiley old buck to shame. So we ought to start a record book of some sort for does.

During most of the 24 years we've lived on our little 80 acres north of Charleston I've not had the time to hunt very much.

The deer population has gotten very large. At first my wife thought they were cute. She did begin to get aggravated as they ate from the garden and then the flower beds.

She commented when they ate the tulips. She bought me rifle shells when they ate her Chrysler Imperial Roses!

In the last three seasons I had the time to hunt, and have taken 15 deer here.

To be fair, there was very little mast in the woods this winter so I put out food for the freezer fodder. We have had 10 or more deer in the yard at dinner time.

I do find it interesting that hunting doe is not widely done here even though the DNR is attempting to make it VERY attractive. If you fill our your ticket with all weapons (bow, gun, ML) you put 9 in the freezer. (More than we can eat all year!)

Here in Maryland where I hunt, there is NO limit on does. They are becoming such a problem that homeowner associations are tring to figure out how to manage the deer populations, the problem is that they are pretty aprehensive of bowhunting, due to the fact that Animal Rights loosers are telling them lies about how children and pets would be hurt.

The two problems that we have here are limited access to private land and subdivisions. Either you pay a bunch of money to hunt property or you get to hunt with everyone and their dog.

People here have the same problem with shooting a "buck", they figure if you don't shoot it then someone else will, I only see a couple 2 1/2 yo bucks each year, but see a lot of yearling bucks. I would much rather pass on a little buck and shoot a doe...

In fairfield county in CT you can a replacement tag for every bow killed doe( it may include some bucks, but not sure) and get a new tag....and apprently it can go on the whole season...theoretically taking a doe every day...In addition they have opened the season for the whole month of january as well as the other seasons......in lower ny and ct in the more prestigous towns, you can drive down the road and every home has deer netting all over their shrubbery....LOTS of it....In the last 10 years all the animals lovers disapeared!!!!!!!!!!! they HATE deer now..ha ha ha...bob

The 2002 Pennsylvania deer harvest was 165,416 antlered deer and 352,113 antlerless deer for a total of 517,529 deer harvested.

That's one big load of deer.

This doesn't even count all the poached/unreported kills nor the vehicle kills, and many parts of the state are still over-run with deer.
Our camp alone, which consists of 4 fat out of shape middle aged guys, tagged 13 deer last year, including 3 decent 7 pointers, and the place is still crawling with deer.(It was a really fun year)At least 4 of the deer were donated to the state's "Share the harvest" program. To see it right now, you would swear it wasn't hunted in the last 5 years.

I can't wait till October

Kentucky too is run over. In one recent year, car collisions with deer accounted for 11% of the total auto insurance losses. I commute 18 miles on the Interstate to work and have seen as high as 10 deer/day dead on that stretch of road. We have a lot of high quality bucks in the Ohio river counties. (For several years we always ran number two to Missouri every year for B&C entries). However, statewide the bucks are only average due to their age. Its only in the last few years that doe hunting has been encouraged. It's incredible still to see the number of people that will proudly drag a 100 pound forkhorn out of the woods after passing up ten 175 pound does. If you are going to trophy hunt, do that. If not, take a doe. With the number of deer, you can always bail out within a half day of the end of your hunting and still fill a tag.

This seems to me to be more of an eastern thing (I Love My Horns). I have noticed in western states that the people in camp who refuse to shoot a doe even when going home empty or who gladly take a spike instead of a doe are almost exclusively from the east. Western states generally seem to have better managed herds and more true meat hunters.

UP HERE in Northern michigan, the "spring " season causes the deer to start moving from their winter hold up area.
This means LOTS of car deer accidents.

I have killed 5 over the last 4 days of work. All of them yearlings.
car/deer accidents are a 3-4 a week happening.

Over the year I will wind up killing at least 60-70, minimum, that survive the impact. Good thing the dept supplies the ammo.