How do you do it?

[PapaBear]

So my question is:

How do you decide when to take a deer? I am having a hard time making the decision to shoot. Once the decision is made to take the shot, when to shoot is easy i.e. relaxed head down slightly quartering away or broadside=money ball opportunity. My question is you go to the stand wanting to kill a deer, and know you have several potential buck targets that could come in and you also don't want to leave empty handed and there is a group of does coming in early but will leave before what some may call "prime time". Problem is you are not guaranteed anything to come in at "prime time". So, to my question, How do you decide when to take a deer?

Clear as mud, Great.

[coker737]

Take the Slick Head. Then the buck

[tex4k]

It's philosophical thing, just live by the old saying, "if it's brown-it's down". Maybe that way by the time the Bucks that are worth shooting are out and about you'll have a couple of meat deer already put away.

[stickemhard3]

I like taking a doe early and getting the freezer filled first.

[Bowen Aero]

How much meat do I see?

Antlers make a very thin soup.

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[miket]

Depends on season/rut timing for me. At my lease outside of Victoria they are in rut or prerut on opening weekend so I try to hold out. We usually shoot does near the end. BUT dont ever EXPECT me to pass on a doe cuz you just never know, I hunt for food

[twosixteens]

We eat a lot of meat at my house so the first mature doe that presents a shot gets shot.

[PapaBear]

I guess I need to be more intentional when I go hunting. I will go to sit and watch the nature and then I want to shoot a deer but tend to over think the situation and by the time I decide to shoot everything has walked off. Just need to make up my mind before hand if I want meat or if I am after horns. Thanks for talking me through it green screen.


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[Slick8]

Depends on season/rut timing for me. At my lease outside of Victoria they are in rut or prerut on opening weekend so I try to hold out. We usually shoot does near the end. BUT dont ever EXPECT me to pass on a doe cuz you just never know, I hunt for food

Agreed.

It depends on your location and schedule.

IMO-it's a long season and I have lots of time to hunt with a lease that's 1.5 hours away. Plus other opportunities to take a doe.

My rut is in late October so I almost never kill a doe in till mid to late November. I don't have a large doe herd so I prefer to keep them in the area and happy during October.

[BarBBar]

Depends on the individual. Some hunt a one buck tag county, some two. Some already have shot lots of bucks, and hold out for only a mature buck. For me, a great hunt does not require a dead deer. Except during the rut, the bigger buck is usually the last to walk out to let the others clear the mine field for him. If you have to ask is he big enough, then he isn't. You will know. Relax and enjoy observing deer. You can shoot a doe anytime, even in the January doe-spike period if you still haven't gotten one by then. Leaving empty-handed does not make me feel empty at all. I have drunk in the tonic of the deer woods.

[skeeter]

i continue to see people saying they wait for a older, mature doe to shoot for meat. Why? why not shoot younger, more tender does or a younger spike? younger deer taste better. just like veal, nobody ever butchers an old mature range cow. they butcher younger, more tender calves. just something I've noticed.

[TheHammer]

How much meat do I see?

Antlers make a very thin soup.

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How much does doe scalp make? Can't eat the horns is a bad, bad argument... Can't eat doe head either

[dphillips62]

I try to fill my doe permits as soon as possible maybe a cull also as I generally don't have any real trophy bucks yet anyway.

[rjtkdplus]

How much does doe scalp make? Can't eat the horns is a bad, bad argument... Can't eat doe head either

And a mature buck will weigh 50% more. I'm pretty sure alot of that is meat.

[Ronnie41]

If you are hunting land where the deer can roam to other peoples lands then take the deer you like best. Someone else may get the buck you think you are saving. As for meat, I would rather eat a doe than a mature buck.