1sgLunde
It is a fair question and one that is asked often.
I don't feel that it is my place to manage the deer herd in WI; I leave that to the WI DNR biologists.
The three folks in our hunting party had 16 tags total 3 of which were for antlered.
We shot 50% of the deer the WI DNR authorized us to shoot.
Each deer will be eaten, none go to waste. Four deer were given to folks that could not hunt for themselves due to advanced age or infirmity.
The question of "why shoot does" is not uncommon from hunters. I have been a regular crop damage deer shooter for more than a decade and am asked that question a lot. The answer is, I shoot what is authorized and leave the management to folks that are the experts.
In the area I live the deer eat a percentage of the farmers' crops, some farmers find it difficult to share an ever increasing percentage of their crops with deer. The hunters that hunt the farm land enjoy a large deer herd; it makes for easier hunting and a perceived higher quality of antlers. Many of these hunters (here locally) have no desire to decrease the herd size, the loss the farmers suffer is not of their concern and in fact many will admit if the loss is too great the farmer should fold up and sell but leave the deer alone.
Note also that we hunted public land, exclusively. I saw what I believed to be far fewer hunters this year than in years past; I don't know the reason for this apparent decline.
