Not opposed to shooting does.

My plan is to shoot mature bucks and shoot does after the rut.

That’s easy for me because I love to watch deer and I’ve killed plenty.

We watched two 6’s push each other around last week. We didn’t kill anything but, he learned a lot. I was perfectly fine with what we had accomplished but have had a few people give me grief over it. Plus the 14 has a very itchy trigger finger. I did to at one time but have learned there is more to it than killing. With that said, I’m not sure how much they will continue to hunt if they never pull the trigger.

I’ll be honest, the only deer above that I personally won’t shoot is 4. If he walks out I will let him go unless the boys are with me. Once they shoot something that big we will let those walk.

That’s the plan I started the season with.

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Posted by Warrior Poet

Living Rent-Free in Baton Rouge

Member since Sep 2011

7956 posts

Posted on 10/23/18 at 7:55 am to Farmtiger

quote:
I’ll be honest, the only deer above that I personally won’t shoot is 4. If he walks out I will let him go unless the boys are with me. Once they shoot something that big we will let those walk.

That's the plan I started the season with.

Nothing wrong that that plan. I only posted about the management program because I interpreted your original post to be asking about whether you should let a 150 inch deer walk because you wanted to grow bigger deer.

But a big buck for an area is still a big buck and will get any hunter excited about it, even if deer in other regions would score more. The biggest, most mature deer on your land is going to be just as tough to hunt as that deer's equivalent in Iowa (or wherever) and just as rewarding if you or your kids have success.

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Posted by celltech1981

Member since Jul 2014

8139 posts

Posted on 10/23/18 at 8:10 am to Farmtiger

quote:
Not opposed to shooting does.

My plan is to shoot mature bucks and shoot does after the rut.

I'm kind of jealous that you dont have neighbors killing everything that walks. We decided 4 years ago not to shoot anything under 3.5 years old. We have seen some really nice 2.5 year olds and then never see them on camera or in the stand again. I haven't shot a buck in 4 years but I've passed on some decent (120 or so) deer due to their age. The neighbors run dogs on us when we aren't there and shoot anything that is brown.

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Posted by fillmoregandt