Shooting the lead cow ends up removing that learned behavior of where and when to go and typically is a little older which leads to tougher meat. Better for the herd to let the old gal go She didn't get there being meek and stupid.
We used to never shoot cows, but a few guys in our group started picking off cows every year. We must have whacked some lead cows since we seldom have large groups of cow elk coming on our spot with regularity like before. Perhaps the old ways were lost to the meat pole?
