I’ve hunted with folks over the years that wouldn’t shoot does.
Buck hunters.
Camp i was in joined the DMAP program. You was in contact with a state biologist. He’d / or maybe it was a she would send a report each spring after the checked all jawbones you sent it.
After killing more does, Deer body weights went up.
You only have X amount of food/ browse.
After a couple years it went from average 75# does to around 100# with 120# being killed.
Kill does. Eating machines.
20+ years ago I lived in NW PA. The county I lived in had 25,000 doe permits available. On average less then half were passed out to folks. And I knew folks who advocated applying for them to keep them from being used at all, just get it and toss it in the trash so you could keep the "breeders" alive and not in someone's freezer. Old thinking left over from Grandpa's day when the deer were trying to recover from being decimated. The old "don't shoot does where you hunt your buck" line of thought.
Funny thing was, some of them folks would shoot a button buck or a 2" spike just to say "I got my buck again this year. Haven't been skunked since '67 " and then they could shave their hunting season beard.
