How many of you shoot does?

[BP in ME]

Its insane to me the number of deer in some places. The growing season is about a month long here, soil is mostly rock, so extremely low overall numbers compared to what many of you are used to. But we still have too high a population in most of the state to the point that the deer are browsing certain tree apecies so much that the species composition of the forest is changing. And still too many does relative to bucks. I considernit a good year if I can take any deer, and if thats a doe thats great too.

Come up to Maine. I can show you parts of eastern and northern Maine where a skilled hunter can hunt for a week straight and not see a deer. Southern and central parts have a lot of areas with 15-20 deer per square mile

[fishnfool38]

Live decoys for me!

[Sparkkky]

Me!

[mrlawler1]

It is work, but the benefits for the land and the people it feeds is worth it. We donate to hunters for the hungry and my Dads church group hauled over 4,000lbs of ground venison to an orphanage in Mexico last week (it's a yearly deal).

I wondered what you did with all that deer..that's a lot of meat y'all put in the coolers....that's a hell of a thing taking to an orphanage like that...kudos to you sir...

[MacIntosh]

Come up to Maine. I can show you parts of eastern and northern Maine where a skilled hunter can hunt for a week straight and not see a deer. Southern and central parts have a lot of areas with 15-20 deer per square mile

About 5 per sq mile around me. Grew up in the central adirondacks, some big deer there but same deal as you, hunt a week and pull the short straw and you might never see one. We make up for it by having millions of acres of public land to hunt, but its different for sure.

[Babe Winkleworm]

About 5 per sq mile around me. Grew up in the central adirondacks, some big deer there but same deal as you, hunt a week and pull the short straw and you might never see one. We make up for it by having millions of acres of public land to hunt, but its different for sure.

I hear farmers say all the time about the high deer numbers. I can say we have pockets of deer as they are plains deer. Might go one place and have 15 psm the next might have 1-2. The farm I shoot all my big ones off has 25 deer on it plus or minus a couple. Every year it cranks out a 160". I think it has to do with mother nature and the carrying capacity of the land. Some habitat is better while others might have one element like food without cover.

[Whitebeard]

Absolutely will take a doe.
I live in a zone 4, limited to 1 doe and 1 buck.
Have not filled my buck tag this year, season ends Monday.

[Parnell]

I finished up on last weekend. First time in 5 years I never had a shooter buck show up and get patterned. They just showed up 1 day and not come back 1 day the next week on camera. Tons of little bucks and 115-120” bucks. But I used my final deer tag on another old mature doe. I got 4 does with my bow in freezer for salami and summer sausage.

[Parnell]

I finished up on last weekend. First time in 5 years I never had a shooter buck show up and get patterned. They just showed up 1 day and not come back 1 day the next week on camera. Tons of little bucks and 115-120” bucks. But I used my final deer tag on another old mature doe. I got 4 does with my bow in freezer for salami and summer sausage.

[RANGER487]

I usually shoot one in West Virginia because that's all the out of state gun hunters are allowed and let me tell you there are plenty of them there. In Ohio me and my boy or daughter try to shoot 2 and we eat every piece of meat we get. I only shot 2 deer last year and the wife has been cooking the meat and I told her to save some so we don't run out she said you should shoot more deer We had a rougher year in Ohio than we normally do I think the deer heard is down some but the ODNR will argue.