Ive always had this thought, but have never asked anyone’s opinion about it 
Do you avoid shooting does late season due to the fact that they might have been bred by a buck w/ good genes? Do you only shoot does up until November? 
At that point in the season it depends on how many deer I have in the freezer..
Deer management in your area is up to you but you cannot control gene pool. You can always shoot a lesser buck to knock that out of the gene pool. As far as a doe I don’t think it is possible. Survival of the fittest will take over at some point. Cars hit them, coyote/wolf kills, and weather play roles you cannot keep a the doe you want alive because she is the biggest and best mother.
I am not sure that I can judge which doe has the better gene pool or pregnant. Unless they have the chronic!(which i have never seen)
Depending on the size of the herd in your area it can be a real challenge to shoot one. In my area hunting pressure after rifle season sometimes can turn every animal into a ghost.
The choice is yours but I think those are a few factors to think about.
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I am not sure that I can judge which doe has the better gene pool or pregnant. Unless they have the chronic!(which i have never seen)
That’s part of the dilemma, you’ll NEVER know, so do you take the chance?
Think of it this way,
If you shot a doe earlier in the season, she would have never been bred in the first place. This also would create more competition do breed the remaining does that are still in the herd come rut.
My thought has always been to take a few does for freezer meat early or late in the season and leave those does alone during the rut.
We manage the doe population all season. If it gets to the late season and we still need to take does off the farm and we have tags available we fill them. The chances of you killing a doe with a future booner are a million to one.
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Ive always had this thought, but have never asked anyone’s opinion about it
Tests have shown that 70% of a buck fwns traits are derived from the mother, yes the mother and father split the genes but there are a ton of factors involved with the doe that can have AMAZING effectson a bucks overall development in life.
for me I use doe tags of a means of eliminating mouths on my farms in attempt to reach even a 3to 1 Doe to Buck ratio and bring the population down below the carring compacity of my property. I want those mouths GONE asap so I shoot my does in september. If you slim the nuumber of does before the rut without disturbing your buck population you can possibly intensify your rut because the bucks will be forced to cruise a bit more rather than laying low and letting the plethera of does stream by them.
Also when selecting does for harvest I will leav my mature does alone and take yealings every time. The odds are that the quality of fawn a yearling will output will be less than that of a mature does with an established place in the herd.
All that said, kinda hard to manage [censored] with 1 effing tag 
I may have to wait til the last week on muzzleloader this year to smoke one after the buck hunt is over
I’m after my number one buck two times a year, as soon as season opens for a couple weeks and during the rut. In the mean time I go for doe I have no problem not killing a buck as I do making sure there is plenty around. 
Kill every Doe that comes off of your neighbors property to eat your food plots in the early season 
(1st 2 weeks)This will leave more does on your propery during the Rut during this time evaluate how many resident does that you have living on your property. from oct 1st to december just leave the does alone. and then move in and do your doe management 
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Kill every Doe that comes off of your neighbors property to eat your food plots in the early season
X2 but this will be hard for us Bob, did you see our area is one deer only no matter the sex. No management tags for our neck of the woods this year. 
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Kill every Doe that comes off of your neighbors property to eat your food plots in the early season
X2 but this will be hard for us Bob, did you see our area is one deer only no matter the sex. No management tags for our neck of the woods this year.
I’m talking more about Buffalo co. than here. our deer #s have been on the decline for several years in our zone 
we have only taken 1 doe per year off of my farm in Cannon Falls for the last 3 years. we do have some hunters close by that remove more than thier fair share
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X2 but this will be hard for us Bob, did you see our area is one deer only no matter the sex. No management tags for our neck of the woods this year.
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Kill every Doe that comes off of your neighbors property to eat your food plots in the early season
X2 but this will be hard for us Bob, did you see our area is one deer only no matter the sex. No management tags for our neck of the woods this year.
I’m talking more about Buffalo co. than here. our deer #s have been on the decline for several years in our zone
True, the last I shot from that section was a few years back, now some other properties not far away still are out of balance.
Whether you shoot it in Sept, Oct, Nov or Dec, you take a doe and possibly the next BIG BUCK …. there is just no way to know. If I am getting low on sticks, I whack a doe !!!
Stack em up during late t-zone (WI)….easy pickings…alot of deer coming to the fields this time of year, so you see alot of what is left and know what you’ve already taken…gives a better idea of how many should be shot yet.
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