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Post by duff on Sept 30, 2016 4:30:30 GMT -5
I asked one how old it was, but he just didn't desire to share that personal information with me ...so I shot him. If it makes me happy to pull the trigger, I don't care what anyone else thinks. so i shot him....lol! I don't guess age of deer or inches of antlers. If it feels good (and legal) do it. I am much pickier these days. I don't want to gut and drag every deer i see so I wait for one I want. Somewhat of a moving target based on how much time I can hunt. Physical condition of myself, weather, if i can get my tractor back there etc. I don't eat deer like I used to so freezer meat isn't a consideration.
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Post by nfalls116 on Sept 30, 2016 8:10:30 GMT -5
I kill does and fawns because that's what I enjoy killing and processing.
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Post by chewbacca on Sept 30, 2016 9:16:57 GMT -5
I haven't killed any with spots on them. While I assume your response was somewhat "tongue in cheek", whenever these threads inevitably come up before every season I always want to add this, and this year I'm going to. Normally, I'm the first guy who says "take what is legal if that's what you want to do", but on this subject, I can't say that. Indiana hunters kill on average approximately 13,000 button bucks every year. That's 13,000 bucks every year that will never grow a set of antlers. 13,000 per year. And while I know that QDMA finds those numbers acceptable, I frankly can't understand why. It's pretty easy to tell which deer is the fawn. It's the small one, sometimes with buttons on their heads, and if the goal is to improve the age structure of the herd and hope to have more mature bucks to hunt, it would seem to me that with fawns having such a tough time surviving that first year anyway, it would behoove hunters to try and ease up on killing them. Unfortunately, it's not always as simple as you make it sound. Last season my then 10 yr old shot a button buck that he and I stalked. He was with his mother and they both came running up to us and stopped at about 50 yds. Once they stopped, I told my son to shoot the one on the left because it appeared to be a little bigger (assuming it was the adult of the two). Well, he shot and it dropped after running about 30 yds. At this point, I thought my son had just shot a 1-1/2yr old doe. To my surprise, it turned out to be a button buck. A few years ago, my buddies son shot a BB that field dressed right at 110lbs. Once again, he thought he was shooting a doe. When a BB gets that big (obviously an extremely rare situation) a guy would never think to check for nubs. At 80 yds away, you'd never be able to tell it had nubs. I guess what I am saying is although most yearlings are easy to distinguish from other mature specimens this isn't always the case and not as simple as you are implying.
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Post by chewbacca on Sept 30, 2016 9:18:30 GMT -5
I kill does and fawns because that's what I enjoy killing and processing. And they taste good
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Post by MuzzleLoader on Sept 30, 2016 9:49:34 GMT -5
I agree somewhat, although I've killed a couple of button bucks through the years. Another way of looking at it, though, is harvesting a button buck removes only 1 set of antlers, while removing a breeding age doe likely removes several future sets of antlers. I don't really have a strong opinion, I'm just not sure which is really better for increasing buck numbers. I know there are people that will disagree with me and say that fawns taste great, etc, etc...but you'd have to kill what two to three fawns or buttons to equal the amount of meat from a mature doe or a 1 1/2 year old buck? In the end, if someone wants to kill a button or a doe fawn, it's legal and it's certainly their choice. My point was, is and always will be, that if you kill a button (or doe fawn) you are killing a 4-6 month old animal that represents zero challenge to kill, will provide very little meat for the table and has a hard enough time surviving as it is. Still in awe over this statement.
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Post by esshup on Sept 30, 2016 10:01:11 GMT -5
I've shot a button buck that I thought was a doe, turns out that it probably was a button buck and his sister standing there, and not a doe/fawn. Stuff happens. I have learned to look at how long the face is now, to try and take an adult doe. BUT, if it's getting late in the season and the freezer ain't full yet, anything brown is fair game.
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Post by jjas on Sept 30, 2016 10:43:39 GMT -5
While I assume your response was somewhat "tongue in cheek", whenever these threads inevitably come up before every season I always want to add this, and this year I'm going to. Normally, I'm the first guy who says "take what is legal if that's what you want to do", but on this subject, I can't say that. Indiana hunters kill on average approximately 13,000 button bucks every year. That's 13,000 bucks every year that will never grow a set of antlers. 13,000 per year. And while I know that QDMA finds those numbers acceptable, I frankly can't understand why. It's pretty easy to tell which deer is the fawn. It's the small one, sometimes with buttons on their heads, and if the goal is to improve the age structure of the herd and hope to have more mature bucks to hunt, it would seem to me that with fawns having such a tough time surviving that first year anyway, it would behoove hunters to try and ease up on killing them. Unfortunately, it's not always as simple as you make it sound. Last season my then 10 yr old shot a button buck that he and I stalked. He was with his mother and they both came running up to us and stopped at about 50 yds. Once they stopped, I told my son to shoot the one on the left because it appeared to be a little bigger (assuming it was the adult of the two). Well, he shot and it dropped after running about 30 yds. At this point, I thought my son had just shot a 1-1/2yr old doe. To my surprise, it turned out to be a button buck. A few years ago, my buddies son shot a BB that field dressed right at 110lbs. Once again, he thought he was shooting a doe. When a BB gets that big (obviously an extremely rare situation) a guy would never think to check for nubs. At 80 yds away, you'd never be able to tell it had nubs. I guess what I am saying is although most yearlings are easy to distinguish from other mature specimens this isn't always the case and not as simple as you are implying. While I stand by my opinion, I also understand stuff happens when trying to identify deer, and this portion of my position seems to be getting lost in the thread....
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Post by dadfsr on Sept 30, 2016 11:31:05 GMT -5
I've also taken a large BB that I thought was a doe-it easily dressed out close to #120. It did make me wonder what it might have looked like the next year- if beginning body size would be any indicator of antler size...which I'm pretty sure has been kind of debunked.
I do know that I've taken my share of what my family always called "Doug bucks" because if I saw a mature buck with nothing but twisted little 2-4 points that I was pretty sure had been in the woods the year before I would take it out. I would much rather get rid of sub-standard racks running through my woods than take out a beautiful 10-12 pointer....I would much rather find the sheds of those big bucks than have them hanging on my wall-but again that's me and my humble two cents worth!! BTW-I don't see nearly as many "Doug bucks" as I used too...wonder why???
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