Buck Hollow Sporting Goods - click or touch to visit their website Midwest Habitat Company

Antlerless hunting question

H

homerj

Member
For those of you that hold antlerless tags (Bow). Do you have stands or locations that you will not take a Doe, for fear of messing up the area for a buck? What factors do you consider in your decision making?
 
I have 7 or 8 good stand sites. I have set one of them expressly for the purpose of taking does without disturbing the timber at all. The site is only 75 yards from the buildings and about 100 yards off the road. I built a small food plot on the back side of a pond dam to put them right on the "X". Deer already come up the back side of the dam for a drink, so I just gave them a handy snack. My sense is that they will move into this area just before dark and will feel pretty safe until they get a big surprise. It just so happens that there is a huge oak tree right there that works as a great stand tree. I expect a few does to meet their demise right there. Now if I can just get them to run up hill towards the buildings after the shot...
smile.gif


Some of my other "buck" stands I really do not even hunt until about the 1st of November. For the most part I stay out of the prime areas until I am ready to get serious.
 
I do have stands I won't hunt until things start picking up in the timber, but I'll fill any doe tag, any stand. Don't worry about the small stuff, have fun.
 
I have stands set up just for doe harvest. The one is only 100 yards of the road and 100 yards from a farmers house. Last year I harvested one on the only opening day of bow season. Hope to do the samething this year.
 
i'll shoot a doe, anytime. drag her out after dark, and gut her somewhere else, far away from my hunting areas
 
I do the same thing as what Troy said. I have a stand that I usually hunt in early October where does are all over the place. We drag them out, then load them into the truck and gut them behind the farm house. The yotes clean up by the next morning (it's my inlaws place) and they don't care. I've gone back in a day or two later and deer are still hanging around.
 
Tag the does early in October and then get serious with the big boys late in the month and into November. I really don't have "Doe only" stands.
 
I guess I have never felt that harvesting a doe out of a prime area is a huge deal. I can recall 2 different instances where I have had a gut pile on the ground and had deer come in. During the IL gun season about 5 years back my dad shot a nice buck, dressed it, I hunted the stand that evening and had deer all over me, including one that made its way to the gut pile and gave it a big wif. Didn't seem to bother them at all. However, I don't like to stink an area up with the human scent if it is really warm out trying to drag one out and such.
 
i had a buddy shoot a doe, behind my house a couple years ago. he shot a bit too far back, and called me to come help track her. at first, he tried to just let her lay. he saw where she went down, and wanted to hunt a while longer. a little buck came along, headed right for where he shot the doe. he figured the buck would bolt when it smelled blood. the buck hit the doe's blood trail, found the doe, and smacked her with his rack until she got up. he rousted her out of 2-3 beds before getting bored with her.

then theres the buck i got last year. nerves had me freaked, and i missed the first shot...right under his chest. he jumped to the side, and started sniffing around in the grass, trying to find my arrow, which was coated in blood from a doe i had shot the night before.

i really don't think a little blood makes any difference. now, a huge, old, skittish monster, that has been around the block a few years, might behave different, but i plan to shoot does as often as i can
 
On one of the Drury video they harvest a doe and then put the live eye on the gut pile hoping to get some video of a bobcat or coyote and the first thing that walked into the gut pile was a pretty nice buck. He didn't act spooked or anything, just walked in took a little sniff and walked away. I found it pretty interesting.
 
I nailed a doe two years ago and watched her drop about a 100 yards away. I followed the blood trail like I always do just to see what it looked like. Ran smack into a 130'ish 8 point that had just walked past her, he didnt seem bothered at all until he ran into me.

My buddy went on a doe killing rampage last year, shot 8 of them. Killed 5 does and one buck, all from the same stand, and gutted them all where they fell. One doe must have been in heat because shortly after she dropped the area was covered with bucks trying to get her up including a couple shooters. He said they just wouldnt leave despite all the blood. I went to the same stand in late ML season and shot a 143" buck. That is one sweet spot!

I wouldnt worry about the blood or gut pile, just minimize the disturbance getting her out.
 
I guess here's another vote saying that a gut pile won't mess up a hunt. I've shot numerous deer out of the same stand where there was a fresh gut pile around. I don't think deer equate blood and guts as a source of danger and therefore don't care about it. Now if your one the lights up a cigar, does some type of war dance or whatever else around your kill.....then you might be leaving too much human scent around and then the deer won't like it.
yay.gif
LOL
 
During peak rut one year, I had to literally shoo a young buck off a doe that I had shot. I don't think that you need to worry so much about the gut pile, but I am always a little concerned that the tracking and dragging may take me through bedding areas that I don't like to disturb. That being said, I still shoot does whenever I can.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom