Aldeer.com Forums Alabama Deer Talk Serious Deer Talk Forum Attempting to stop the accidental shooting of button bucks!

Instead of a weight limit, use a cutoff date for shooting does.

Shoot them early and shoot them often. Fill the freezer, then hunt bucks.

Besides size alone. Broadside, a fawn's profile looks like a square and a doe looks more like a rectangle. Much easier to tell early season.

I will be honest? I have not seen tons of deer, killed even less. I can't tell the difference between a 100lb deer and a 50lb deer from a tree stand at 100 yards.

If you shoot a lone deer in a food plot right at dark you up the chances it will be a button buck or spike.

Everyone makes some great points. Having a reference of a mature deer really makes that 50 lb deer look really small.

But as I said... if someone brings in a 70 to 80 lb button buck... well, it happens and it's not a big deal. I hope the deer wasn't shot as a "lone doe" or the first deer that walks into a field.

Bring in a 50 or less lb button buck with a short snout and small head... that hunter just failed to take precaution and follow guideline and a fine is coming his way!! Unless the hunter is a young hunter, then I don't want that young hunter to feel bad but to be fair to all the members, without the young hunter knowing, dad will pay the fine and it's no big deal as long as the experience is used as a teaching moment. No hell, fire and damnation if an adult shooter is regretful. Cop an attitude and get defensive and that changes everything. Take it like a man and things will be all right.

Last but not least, if in doubt, then don't shoot. We're not overpopulated and killing does isn't that important.

Good reading posts with great advice from everyone. Thanks gentlemen.

This is our belief as well.

We simply made it a rule to only shoot does in the mornings away from food plots. Usually they are closer to you as you sit in a ladder stand or climber AND easier to ID in the broad daylight. And, as a general rule, are traveling in small family groups that make mature does more recognizable.

Gonna add a little something, 6 month olds are the quickest age class to replace. There will be a new crop of fawns born next summer and roughly half will be bucks. Folks get bent out of shape if a couple of buck fawns are shot. They protect them and then shoot the hell out of them at 2.5-3.5. The older the age class, the longer it takes to replace them. I used to get bent outta shape when a button head was shot, then I started looking at the big picture. Sure it would be fine if none are shot but I ain't loosing any sleep if a couple are shot in good faith off our place. Now those pretty little 8 and 10 pt 2.5 YOs , we gonna have a serious talk.

It's dumb IMO to make a major deal out of shooting a button head by mistake every now and then, only to blast them before they are ripe later.

This won't stop it 100% of the time but is the best way to keep it to a minimum if everyone will go by those rules before they pull the trigger.

If a club could get everyone on the same page, this sounds like a great way to handle the problem with minimal fuss (combined with the poster I linked). Shouldn't be any screw ups if people are shooting in daylight at woods ranges. The only problem I foresee is if a dad wants to get a child their first deer ... Greenfields are easier for that. Of course a woods kill will be more memorable anyway.

Hogwild and M48scout, those are great points! This year, we will not allow anything but mature bucks to be shot on food plots. If you want to shoot a doe, do it in the woods. Killing a doe ain't hard but a member has to shoot her in the woods or somewhere other than food plots. We don't have deer running out our ears... a good population but not one behind every tree per se and our weights are fine.

We allowed does to be shot on food plots last year and not only does were shot but rabbits (we had two young teenage hunters go together and sit in a shooting house together and they decided to shoot a rabbit. Yes, a rabbit with a 30-06! in a food plot), pigs, yotes and bobcats were shot and our deer sightings and especially, our bucks sightings on food plots went way down from the year before.

We're not pine plantation only so there are lots of thinned pines, hardwoods, cutover, swamps, etc... to hunt. Killing a doe other than a food plot is not too difficult but food plots will be protected this year.

M48scout, we do have a "first time buck" hunter rule. They're able to burn powder on any buck... anywhere including food plots. We make that exception.

if you cant tell a young 50 lb deer from a 80 lb doe then you should not shoot any does.

Bingo

I try and get our members to not shoot does in the food plots but they only hunt food plots so its impossible to stop it. and as far as judging a button buck, its not hard... If its low light and you can't tell.. don't shoot... if its a single deer that comes out in the field and its tiny don't shoot it, almost all the time its a button buck. I mean does have long snouts and bucks have shorter stockier snouts.. most button bucks I see are darker colored to.

My club I was in for the past 4 years had a simple rule:

Paraphrase: We have always had an abundance of button bucks, therefor make sure before you shoot. Mistakes do happen, just try to avoid them. 1st button buck: $100 fine with no hard feelings. 2nd: $200 fine. 3rd: out of club no refund.

To my knowledge we didn't have a problem with shooting button bucks as a club. A couple were on the sign out board as "oops". a couple a year is almost automatic.

I realize button bucks are going to get shot by accident. What really bothers me is at our club the same guys kill 2 or three every year. I have killed 1 in the past 15 years and shoot 3 to 5 does a year. It seems like its more about attitude than anything else. If you really don't want to kill them you probably wont. Just sayin !

Bucktrot, to answer your question, we have no rules in place for shooting button bucks. If kids shoot a few, oh well, i can guarantee you the earth wont stop turning. The sky wont fall. IMO, too many rules. I've shot some young doe's, or so i thought and they turned out to be knot heads. We don't like to do it, but if it happens, it happens. We don't shoot that many does anyway. We may kill a couple of knot heads each year. A careful hunter can eliminate shooting them, buy not shooting blocky headed young deer. Does have longer more slender heads. A knothead and spike are the dumbest, and usually first ones on plots. Never shoot a lone deer, if your not sure, unless you can tell its a grown doe.

Then they're just ignoring the club's rules, if there are any, because no one says or does anything to them.

Yep

I would go at it in a different manner.

The big question is how many doe do you need to remove from the property. You need to set a goal based on good information and research if that is possible. Is Trey doing his study again?????

Anyway, once you have that number, then you can make a plan. I wouldn't think killing up to 40 doe would be a problem on that property at all. If so, tell the members NOT to take chances. Wait until you see several deer together at the same time...in the woods or on a food plot. That way you have others to view to aid you in picking out a doe. Get the guys and gals to hammer the doe early when the young ones are still super small and easy to identify. Try to hit the goal early and quit.

If you can't set a goal, then you are just playing anyway so why worry about it. And on a property that large make sure they spread out the kills. Divide the club into sections and try to take a doe or two from each one until you reach your goal. You don't want to kill 10 in one spot and none in another.

I'm not making a big deal over it and I don't get bent out of shape if a BB is killed. HOWEVER, I refuse to accept that EVERYONE can't abide by a few general rules to lessen BB kills. It requires very little time to read and even less intelligence to abide by these guidelines: <They've been mentioned already>

A little trigger restraint and a little intelligence application and education and there... BB kills are reduced. Problem solved and little inconvenience is exalted on the paying member! If a member isn't willing to put forth such a small effort, then I really don't want him in my club. It's not that complicated and sometimes, educating yourself should be adopted by all.

I'll say this... one of our guest's daughter last year shot, at her father's urging, a very very small doe. Acutally, it was NOT a doe. It was a fawn! I mean a small fawn. The poor daughter wasn't feeling good about herself as it was clear to even the youngest of hunters that the poor girl shot a female fawn... SMALL. The girl was trying to be excited but had watery eyes.

I think the father did his daughter wrong. Very wrong. From my perspective, when you need to shoot does... a doe mouth is a doe mouth. But I would never ask or urge my 8 yr old daughter to shoot such a young fawn for her first deer.

Having a rule such as "no does <60 lbs" may have saved this little girl some sorrow. She wasn't happy and I don't blame her. I attempted to make her feel better by talking about conservation and lowering the deer herd, etc... but it was just a bad experience for her. I bet that little fawn hadn't lost its spots more than a week or so. And I bet that little girl has a bad taste for hunting.