Forum | I believe I'm done...

Shooting deer for the season.  Well, unless a GOOD buck walks out anyway…

Last night, at about 4:45, a doe walked out into the soybean field, accompanied by one of this year's fawns.  The fawn itself was so small it was barely taller than the soybeans it was walking through!  The doe showed all the signs of being a fully mature deer, but it was pretty darned small as well.  So with one shot from my rifle, I took it out of the gene pool.

If I'm going to start managing the land, I have to be aware of the amount of deer on the property and it's my goal to get the buck to doe ratio as close as I can to 1 : 1.  That way, there'll be more competition for breeding and only the biggest and toughest bucks will get the chance.  And by doing that, I'll also be getting fawns with the best possible genetics on the farm.

In order to do that though, small deer like this one needed to be taken out, so now I have to go skin, cut and wrap the last doe of the season…