. Fawns (button heads) would have to be tagged as bucks when an either sex tag is no longer avaliable.
I've messed up and done it myself a couple times and it's gonna happen to anybody........ But if the state had some way to protect button heads and educate people to think it over before they shoot a single "doe" wandering thru the woods I think it would help the state's deer hunting as much as any single thing we could do. At least make people count them as a buck for their season harvest. The way it is now Lonnie Sixpack has a free pass to shoot every one of the poor little ignorant creatures he wants to
And I gotta get back to work so I'll go ahead and respond to any negative comments I'm about to get ....... There ain't no reason for anybody but a kid or a brand new hunter to EVER shoot a buck fawn on purpose. Legal or not it don't matter. That's the dumbest animal in the woods and he'd just about let you stand there and throw rocks at him til you hit him in the head with one. Let him go and odds are good that he will probably stay around your place for the rest of his life. I know they taste good, but I'm sure 6lb fryer sized Jennies are delicious too. That don't mean it's ok to be greedy enough to shoot one of them.
I had rather you shoot a spike than a doe. If you want meat shoot a buck. If you want to shoot a trophy, shoot a buck. Does are protected on my place, so are spikes for that matter. But if you have to pull the trigger, shoot a buck.
I agree from a management stand point at least in the area I hunt it's would be way better to shoot a young buck or any buck for that matter than a doe until our deer population is back where it needs to be.....
I thought the reason we had to start killing so many does was because everybody was shooting little bucks and getting the buck:doe ratio and herd age dynamics all out of kilter?
As for shooting button heads, I haven't killed one in about 30 years. My son has killed a couple where we didn't take the time to fully ID which deer was what in a group, but I don't think it is the end of the world if some are killed. I think folks need to account for them in their overall buck kill totals if they are tracking that kind of stuff. If the doe (antlerless) killing opportunities are reduced either by limits or reduced season opportunities it will or should also protect the button heads and teeny-tiny spike bucks that are often "oops" deer.
"Any way you look at it, most of the problems facing baboons can be expressed in two words: other baboons" - D.L. Cheney and R.M. Seyfarth
