Shooting A Doe With Fawns? (Should/Shouldn't I)

I'd have no issue shooting the doe. I'd pass on the fawns because it's a waste of a tag as one guy 2 years ago in my group found out.
Meat is meat and where I live we shoot the controlled hunt to thin the heards and fill the freezer.

If I was bow hunting and had the whole of fall to hunt I'd likely only shoot a doe if I was getting toward the end of the season with no bow luck.

To each his own but don't go telling the next guy that he is wrong or bad for hunting however he or she feels when it is perfectly legal.
 
Good to see I'm not alone IMO.
Not saying I'd have shot the doe, getting kinda soft that way in my advancing years. But logically and ethically it's a valid harvest. Not right or wrong because it brings a tear to your eye...let her go, sure. But realize that it's emotions at play, not sound game management.
 
LambeauLeap said:
Hey guys, I was hunting this morning and a good sized doe with 2 clear fawns came up and decided to start eating in the soy field. I had a 35 yard, easy broadside shot on the doe, but I decided not to take it because she had 2 fawns with her.

Did I do the right thing? Would those fawns most likely die if their mother had been killed by me?

Another reason I didn't shoot was because of the rut in a few weeks. My party and I have seen a TON of does (taken a good sized one) and we all know when there is does, the bucks will come. So I am hoping to take a big boy down during shotgun week.

Would you have taken the shot? I feel like it was the right call, but my buddy says he would have and other hunters I know say they wouldn't have.

What do you think?

Thanks.
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You did the right thing,IMHO. Now,you can hunt with a clear conscience. You've also established a clear personal ethic that will serve you well for however long you're in the sport.
 
Personally I think Disney has had a little too much influence on people, I think everyone should stop with the Anthropomorphism. If you want to shoot the doe, go ahead, the fawns are old enough to be on their own. If you choose not to for whatever reason that is fine too.
There is no biological or ethical reason not to in a healthy population, now if they were the last three deer in the area then that wouldn't be good if you want to continue to have deer. If you want to make a decision for a reason, look what you have for herd structure/dynamics in your area and harvest based on that, whether it is a doe, fawn or buck of whatever age class. Good hunting.
 
blauber said:
Uhhh...no, deer generally over winter in herds. Never ever read, seen or heard of deer expending calories running each other off. Shortage of what, grass? They're ruminants and last time I checked grass grows pretty much everywhere.
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Well here when the snow is deep, the temp is cold for 3 months that doe will compete with her fawns for food. She will let them starve to survive herself. This idea of fawns not surviving without a doe after hunting season is bunk. In the deer world, it is every animal for themselves.
 
I've passed on 4 early season does this year for this reason. It's getting late enough now that I don't think I'll pass on another. A buck would be preferable, but I'll fill the freezer with whatever I can get.
 
verminaard said:
Ethical can be a subjective term, depending on the circumstances.

If the population in the area is low and you are looking to rebuild it, not shooting is more 'ethical'.
If the population in the area is too high and you are trying to thin the herd, shooting is more ethical.

We have controlled shotgun where I hunt and last year I passed on a doe and her fawn who wandered by each day for 6 days for one and one reason only... I wanted a buck with a nice rack for a European mount. Last day of the controlled hunt... if it's brown it's down. If I have no motive other than meat in the freezer... if it's brown it's down.

My ethics deer hunting where I do are limited to 'is it legal' and 'will it be clean'.

Where my moose camp is located is a complete different story. If I happen to get a cow tag, I will pass on any shot if there is any sign of a calf in the area.
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Why would youpass up a shot at a cow with a calf? Calves have very low survival rates in the first place. That's why, until the last couple of years, you could always shoot a calf, whether you got a tag for a bull or a cow. Calves and fawns are fully independent by the fall. Bears aren't until their second spring/summer.

As far as ethics goes, yes, it is a highly personal choice. I would not waste a doe tag on a fawn, but it has nothing to do with ethics. However, I will pass up any shot where there is any doubt at all of a clean kill. I passed up a shot at a huge buck a few years ago. Dec. 31, buck is about 30 yds. from me, I had my crossbow, but he was in a stand of maple saplings. I was 90% sure of a clean shot, but... To this day, I am satisfied with my choice. I passed up many shots at moose that were too far and walking. I knew the gun would make it, I knew I could make the shot, but travel time of the bullet is what made me pass the shot. I could not lead and be comfortable with the shot. Bears at the same distance, eating in a berry patch, I would have taken the shot. Do I consider myself an ethical hunter? Yes I do, but I don't consider it unethical for another hunter to take those shots, if they are certain of making the shot.
 
magz said:
I've passed on 4 early season does this year for this reason. It's getting late enough now that I don't think I'll pass on another. A buck would be preferable, but I'll fill the freezer with whatever I can get.
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after spending 2 weekends looking for a buck I|'ve decided to go for a doe. In the end I don't eat antlers.
 
Papaclaude said:
Why would youpass up a shot at a cow with a calf? Calves have very low survival rates in the first place. That's why, until the last couple of years, you could always shoot a calf, whether you got a tag for a bull or a cow. Calves and fawns are fully independent by the fall. Bears aren't until their second spring/summer.
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Weaned yes, but not independent. They'll stay with the mother until the following spring when the next calf/fawn is born.
 
A lot of the selection process is wishful thinking. A doe shot certainly won't be having fawns the next year, but the fawn survival is less clear-cut. Many of them won't make it anyway. Coyotes and wolves have to eat too, and if they didn't find that motherless fawn of the year that you created they will just kill the next one they see anyway. Therefore, although that individual fawn's chances went down without the old doe to lead it the overall herd health might be in exactly the same spot.
 
I won't shoot a fawn and I won't shoot a doe with one, even if it's the last day of the season and the pole is empty. Neither 'filling a tag' or 'meat in the freezer' is that important to me. I enjoy hunting but I would rather see some deer and not shoot one than not see any at all....

Btw, I hate Disney and I've never seen Bambi...
 
rkr said:
after spending 2 weekends looking for a buck I|'ve decided to go for a doe. In the end I don't eat antlers.
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I hunt late season muzzeloader where there are high concentrations of deer. Hunters there are encouraged to take any deer. I personally have seen a doe with 2 fawns which were hard to distinguish from the mother. Like it or not those fawns are legal. Plenty of coyotes around also...to take care of the fawns during the winter. Antlers are nice but you have to boil them a long time.
 
Leave em for next year. If one doe has two fawns taking the weaker looking one maybe be arguably humaine as 8ts unlikely two will survive the winter.
 
philhut said:
Leave em for next year. If one doe has two fawns taking the weaker looking one maybe be arguably humaine as 8ts unlikely two will survive the winter.
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Huh?

These aren't baby birds in a nest, being forced to fight for the food that is brought to them by the adults. Those fawns are eating the same food as adult deer; they aren't being fed by anyone or anything. If your crystal ball tells you that we are heading for a harsh winter, and if one of the fawns is noticeably smaller, scrawnier or "weaker", then it may be possible that its chances of survival are less than those of a larger fawn...but to say that only one fawn out of a pair of twins is unlikely to survive doesn't really make sense.
 
I almost always opt for a fawn if I encounter a doe with fawn. I am a farmer and the offspring of butchers, who would also "almost always" choose to eat a nice tender calf rather than kill the tough prime breeding cow that can produce many more of them. If the deer hunting situation is a herd reduction control hunt, shoot the doe. You will have maximum effect on the population and maximize your meat yield. If populations are thin, decline to shoot either. If hungry, shoot what you need. It's kinda simple, really.
 
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