Shooting Does with Fawns??

[Lure Lightning]

I have always been very careful with trying to let does with fawns pass, however on Saturday morning I took a doe that was on a run and didnt see the fawn following. My questions to you are 1. do you pass them up too? 2. do you think the fawn will make it?

It is a heavily wooded area and no farm land near by and the fawn wasnt the smallest I have seen. To top it off there is no corn for about 50 miles and wouldnt ya guess it the doe's stomach was full of corn. It really gets frustrating when trying to get the youth interested in hunting like my two nephews, but they get frustrated because of not seeing deer due to the neighbors pouring corn.

[FLnick87]

I shot a doe with two fawns last night in wisconsin. they will make it unless another hunter gets to them.

[Mark Christianson]

If you were to harvest a doe with fawns on archery opener, the fawns can survive just fine regarding staying fed and such.

Now will they survive the battles and rigors of life in the wild?

They will be challenged due to not having momma giving them some guidance and to learn from her. But that fawn may hook up with another deer too. A lot of variables if ultimately they can survive.

The only doe I pass with fawns, is if the fawns have spots. And thats solely because I just don't "feel" right about it.

If we were to pass on all does with fawns, there wouldnt be many does shot.... And we would REALLY have a doe to buck ratio out of whack.

My 2 pennies...

[Lure Lightning]

Thanks alot for your comments.

[MUSKY18]

I passed on the biggest doe I have ever had in my sights this year because she had two "smaller" fawns with her. I don't know if they were late births or what, but they were smaller than the set that walked past me me 10 minutes before. Believe me, I had the safety off and the crosshairs on her, but couldn't do it because (1) as said above, it just didn't feel right and (2) with the lack of deer in our area, I wanted to make sure they had the best chance for me to shoot them next year. Had the fawns been bigger........

I think that fawns will make it through the winter even without mama. Once they start herding up for the winter, they will hook up with other deer to show them the ropes and get them through til the spring.

[Powerstroke]

The big doe I shot last week still had her two fawns with her. They will be just fine. She would've run them off soon anyways so that she can breed.

[maros91]

I agree with archery that if a fawn still has spots I pass. Otherwise no problem taking a doe with fawns. Fawns will make it. Someone posted on here earlier that tests shown that a 4 month old fawn can survive on its own. Someone can probably verify that.

[Surface Tension]

Fawns will stay with the doe all winter long. Shes taught them most of what they'll need to survive by now. She won't push them off till shes about to give birth. Sure they'll separate during breeding but they will reunite soon after. Why they separate for that breeding time is more likely because the doe is being run by a buck.

Those fawns will most likely follow another doe but she'll keep them at a distance.

If your to shoot does what other choice do you have but to take a doe with fawns? You'd be limited to 1.5 year old does.

Take a fawn and that might be a nubbin buck. No matter what, these days someone is going to find something to complain about.

Here is what I would suggest.

Its your deer season not anyone Else's.

[BLACKJACK]

In the past during slug hunting I always took the biggest doe in the group, more meat. Nowadays, with deer populations being down, if I have choice, I will take one of the smaller does. My thought is that the big old doe will have twins (or triplets) next year and she will also help the current years fawns survive. How many times after the gun season have you seen a pair of fawns just standing in an open field? If an adult doe was with them, they wouldn't be so dumb!

I still have an open archery tag and if I have the choice between a doe with fawns or a nice six point, I'll take the small buck, his job is done. But as I start getting closer to Xmas, that doe, fawn or no fawns, is fair game.

[Sorgy]

Good Question,

We do our rifle hunting near Angora- Just South of Cook. Here are some of my/our groups observations from this year.

With all of the clearcutting in our area. We have found quite a few wolf kills. I found 6 kills before the season opened. Of the kills that had bones most looked similar in size. On a couple of the sites we found skulls or partial skulls--- Guess what they were fawn skulls 2 were button bucks.

We have had a sizeable wolf pack in our area for quite a few years and even though our are is intensive harves I don't think the population is as high as it was 10 years ago.

With that said I belive in trying to take 3 1/2 year old bucks and mature does. I saw 2 spike bucks this year and one of our hunting party shot 1 - We call them "Fine" deer in our group. We implemented a loose QDM program where we pass on 1 1/2 year old bucks and fawns to take adult does and bucks. The biggest point we are trying to stress is to IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AND TAKE A CLEAN ETHICAL SHOT. With 2 young hunters in our group. They are doing a better job than some of the adults

I do belive that our chances at a large buck increase with letting the 1 1/2 year old bucks walk. This year was tough but we did manage to see 2 very good bucks over the last 2 days.

Our group took two 3 1/2 year old 8 pointers and 2 mature does by Tuesday of the first week. The loose triggers came out on the second weekend w/ 1 spike and 1 fawn.

Overall I think that our deer population is healthy. If deer numbers drop in our area the wolf pack will move over to a little higher density deer population. I think taking some adult does will not hurt our population.

I think the big mature does are as tough to get as a old buck after the first couple of days. Be proud of the oppourtunity to take a older deer.

Steve

[BuckKiller]

fawns will probably make it unless it is a bad winter like '91.

ive only ever shot one doe tho not much for seperating a mother from her kids until she is ready. much rather shoot bucks anyhow

[zepman]

Saturday afternoon I took a big mature doe that came walking into my stand with 3 other deer. One was another mature doe and two yearlings. Obviously, there is no way for me to tell who belonged to who in this group but once the doe fell the other three ran off together. I would have to believe that if one of the yearlings belonged to the doe I took that the other mature doe would get it through the winter into spring--if they make it through the hunting season. All the does I saw over the weekend were in groups of 4 or more (up to 12) so if the yearlings just play follow the leader they should be just fine as well.