Those little ones are " Veal of the woods "

Here in Washington Co Va the early ML season is 14 days and day 7 of 14 is the only either sex day. Early ML is followed by 14 days of firearm season, the last 7 of which are either sex. Late ML is 22 days ending in early Jan, the last 5 of which is either sex. Clearly VDWR has no problem with hunters shooting the crap out of small bucks. Consequently we have very few bucks of any size, but there is little point in trying to fight the management strategy of the VDWR. Shoot what comes along and be happy with a freezer full of good meat That said, I will pass small bucks for a while if I have one with a decent rack on trailcam, but eventually I am likely to end up shooting the spike or forky.

Right!
We always say “shoot the one you can put in your pocket!”

Hard to compare state to state. Heck even regions in the same state. In Ky eastern part bag limits are tight. 1 doe 1 buck. As you move west the limit increases. Most counties in western Ky are unlimited doe. I think that may play a part in one’s decision on shooting or waiting. If crop tags are involved I don’t look at age Only if it has a slick head. Button bucks are fair game. Easier for my draggers! Lol

I am not above wiping the milk off their mouth after shooting them

Ed my philosophy is your tag your choice. But if legal there why not shoot a doe and let that fork horn walk ? I used to think I had to fill my buck tag or the world would end. But that was years ago and we couldn’t shoot does.

I hunt different properties differently. I have a small 20 acre tract that I hunt that normally has a bunch of does. No matter how many I killed they would be back in the full number the following year. On the years when I was killing does the bucks would stay away for the most part. Now, I decided to let the does do their thing and to only shoot bucks off of it. I have been trying to get a buddy his second deer and I would much rather have him shoot a small buck than doe out there. I hunt some places where I would pass a lot of deer that I would kill on other places. Hunt however makes you happy.

God will make more deer. Shoot whatever you want/need.

Im with you there.Trophy blue cats take decades to get that big.

Same reason a guy wants to shoot a spike moose, they eat way better

Hahaha Thumper

I think it is all about where you live. At my place, taking a small buck is harvesting meat - you dont really have to do much hunting. However, we dont shoot many does because all the neighbors think of them as freezer fillers and seem to forget that is where future deer come from. Again, it is relative to where you live

Always the first legal moose. Antlers are pretty, but they don’t cook up very well.

I agree. Good number of people in Michigan dont recall that whitetails were virtually non-existent in southern part of the state not that long ago. My grandparents and great grandparents use to tell stories of the very few locations where there might be deer yarded in winter, etc. Before the Mackinaw bridge was built in the late 50's they'd cross into the UP by ferry just for a chance to shoot a deer. Even as the herd expanded across the south, the deer hunting culture of years past continued. Does tags were hard to come by and shooting one was often frowned upon. Any buck was a trophy and food for the table. Things have change alot. Now the herd in the southern part of the state is so big that hunting likely will never be able to slow down its expansion

As I'm sitting here typing this I see that the state just emailed us what the harvest is year to date. 112k antlered and 58k anterless. I see some of the southern counties with huge populations that I am familiar with are running about double buck harvest to does.

Grandpa was a Yooper. He always said leave the does and small bucks alone. He move up here in the mid 1930’s and held on to the deer management he grew up with.

I settled on the theory that you cannot simply groom a herd by hunting harvest, or lack of. You could pass on dozens of smaller deer only to have winter wipe out 80% of the herd.

I would shoot a big buck if I saw one. But, I'm a meat hunter and for eating a doe or younger deer is better eating than a big buck.

That is my preference. My point was that, although we can shoot up to 5 does, the either sex days are rather severely restricted during the ML and firearms seasons. Not so for archery where there is a total of 75 days of season and you can take a doe any day. For that reason I got a crossbow a few years ago so I had a much better chance of taking does and could fill my freezer w/o having to take dink bucks.

Great post! Spot on.

Although, it isn’t trophy hunting, that isn’t legal. They still have to utilize the meat. They are just hunters who really like big hard objects (antlers) in their hands.

My only point about shooting a doe instead of a spike is what have you got if you kill the spike? Knife handles? That applies to different areas of course. If trying to increase the herd and want meat of course shoot the dink.
Deer harvest is never a one size fits all