Hogwild wrote, "But, I think that in general, they are extremely over-harvested on most properties."
I'm not arguing with you at all. However, I find it interesting that this is true because of all the hype about bucks across the entire industry, from magazines to websites to marketing of products -- how to shoot the biggest bucks, hunt does to find big bucks, don't shoot does before/after a certain date so you can get the biggest bucks, use this product to get the biggest bucks... on and on. I also see a lot of buck fever on forums like this one. Again, I'm sure you're right. I'm just finding it fascinating that with all the hype and talk of shooting the biggest buck around, does are still over-harvested. Could be because they're daredevils; they're always the first ones out of cover, and seem to be the ones most likely to be hit by a car.
I'm unabashedly out here specifically for does; I'm not interested in paying to have a deer mounted, and if I did it probably wouldn't get displayed. I'm here for the venison, but mostly for the excuse to get outside and enjoy nature.
Nobody's saying you shouldn't be able to kill a doe or two for meat. What most people have thankfully realized is that if you have a total of 5 deer on 500 acres, killing 3-4 does for the purpose of trying to increase your deer herd makes no sense at all. Not even a little.
