So am I a sap or what?

Armored farmer said:

Nobody wants to shoot a spring fawn.
Sportsman.
Feeding the deer and birds is part of farming. The landowner better get used to it. Hunting has little ir no effect.

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Yeah around here if the deer become a problem they have nuisance tags then it’s kill’em all not hunting.

Pennsylvania does have agriculture deer management programs, and additional permits can be made available to hunters. I'm pretty sure that one stipulation is that the farm must be open to public hunting. Maybe not all landowners are comfortable with that.

I would have done the same thing. Many WMU's have limited doe tags that are not easy to get. If I was using my tag I'd want to shoot a mature doe rather than a yearling. That meat is pretty tasty too. Besides, a mature doe is probably carrying 2 fawns. A yearling isn't always bred, and there is a 50-50 chance that it is a button buck.

Atavar said:

Fawns are yummy. One year I stalked a nice doe to a shelter belt, she ducked in to the trees so I sat and looked through my new scope to see if I could spot her.
A deer stuck it’s head out and I shot. When I walked up it was a fawn that probably lost its spots yesterday.
I felt bad but didn’t want to waste it so I carried it back for camp meat and of course the guys gave me a deserved hard time. Needless to say every meal time what I kept hearing was “Is there any of that Bambi left?” It was some of the best venison ever.

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I call the young ones "vealison".

If i take a doe i try to pick out the biggest one, that's me that's my ethic everyone needs a hunting ethic and stick to it !!!

I sometimes forget that other states don’t get to shoot 12 deer (2 bucks, 10 does) with one deer license like we can here in GA.

Two hunters can do some serious culling down here but very few hunters shoot more than a few deer each. Seems like mostly bucks too. Never have I seen such resistance to shooting does than I do down here.

Armored farmer said:

Understood.
He had permission to hunt the property.
Imho, that's a different situation…
I dont like shooting fawns.

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I understand that, I prefer to watch deer more than shoot them, even big ones, with lots of pointy things that many would kill in a hear beat if given the chance.

I was going off the first two sentences in the OP, surmised as, farmers invitation because of crop depredation. “Helping out” a land owner for free hunting should be something more than not throwing trash down while you are on their property. That said, the part you didn’t quote is the important one to take away.

jmorris said:

A simple “didn’t get anything” would have been a better thing to say, to me at least.

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That would not be admitting that you did not do what was asked, rather the simple fact than you had not, yet, completed the mission. “Foot in the door”, as they say, vs disregarding wishes. Semantics, I suppose but you can follow your ethics in killing things and not disappoint others.

If you have ever answered a question like, “How does this dress look?” And you didn’t speak 100% of what was on your mind, for your own good, you understand the concept.

I see a distinct difference between cull/eradication shooting and "hunting"

Ive done both.

IMO if you were invited to "hunt" the property it was an invitation to hunt, if you were invited specifically to remove animals then your NOT wearing your sportsmans hat that day, your there to do a job.

Just my opinion of course, and everyone has to make those sort of decisions for themselves.

Sportsman, just like taking a mature buck. A mature doe is all I will take. A Yearling is not worth my time cleaning and processing. As far as thinning herds you are not going to make a dent with one or 2 deer. Might as well make it worthwhile especially if your getting it processed...

earlthegoat2 said:

I sometimes forget that other states don’t get to shoot 12 deer (2 bucks, 10 does) with one deer license like we can here in GA.

Two hunters can do some serious culling down here but very few hunters shoot more than a few deer each. Seems like mostly bucks too. Never have I seen such resistance to shooting does than I do down here.

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In my zone we only get one "Any Deer white tail" tag, ($42.50) and then we are allowed one "Antlerless" tag for 22.50.
You have to buy the expensive one before you can by the "cheaper" one.

Shanghai McCoy said:

In my zone we only get one "Any Deer white tail" tag, ($42.50) and then we are allowed one "Antlerless" tag for 22.50.
You have to buy the expensive one before you can by the "cheaper" one.

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Wow thats crazy. Over $60 just to be able to kill 2 deer. If many states are like that no wonder people hunting has been on the decline for years.

Here in Alabama our large game hunting license is like $28 and we get 3 bucks (one must have 4 points or more on one side) and 1 doe a day for the entire season. If you see a doe every day for a month you can kill 30 does and not have to pay anymore that the original $28. I LOVE ALABAMA

earlthegoat2 said:

I sometimes forget that other states don’t get to shoot 12 deer (2 bucks, 10 does) with one deer license like we can here in GA.

Two hunters can do some serious culling down here but very few hunters shoot more than a few deer each. Seems like mostly bucks too. Never have I seen such resistance to shooting does than I do down here.

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Texas is the same way. So many refuse to a doe. Many of those will shoot the first "horn" they see, regardless of size.

Many years back, I was on a large lease. License had 3 anterless tags and 2 "either" tags. We could only shoot a doe during bow, muzzleloader and the first 2 weekends of rifle season. Rifle season was 2 1/2 months long.

We hunted this lease for 7 years. Every season, son and i would each take a mature doe or 2, on opening weekend. The first 3 years, others around camp would talk about your shooting does.

One guy was mouthing off about shooting does and I said, " I have meat in the freezer and 2 1/2 months to hunt a good buck. "

The next year, 14 does were taken those first 2 weekends.

You made your choice and stuck to it. Nothing at all wrong with that. At the end of the day, there are only two people you need to concern yourself with in this situation and those people are yourself and the land owner. He’s not upset. You aren’t upset. That’s all that matters. Next time you hunt that place, your mindset may be different and you may choose to kill whatever legal deer walks out. In the mean time, you aren’t a sap. You are a human being making quick decisions and trying to decide what you think is best. That’s hunting. It’s a very personal undertaking. You did no wrong.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Wow thats crazy. Over $60 just to be able to kill 2 deer. If many states are like that no wonder people hunting has been on the decline for years.

Here in Alabama our large game hunting license is like $28 and we get 3 bucks (one must have 4 points or more on one side) and 1 doe a day for the entire season. If you see a doe every day for a month you can kill 30 does and not have to pay anymore that the original $28. I LOVE ALABAMA

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I forgot to add that the Resident hunting license costs 27.50...

It sounds as if the only reason you got permission to "hunt" was to thin the herd. In this case "hunt" means "shoot".

I let a teen hunt turkeys on my land. He didn't kill one but he did kill a coyote. He can hunt my land til I die AFAIC.

Neither deer was what you wanted. You held off waiting on better.

That makes you similar to thousands of other hunters.

In Ohio it cost me $52 for a hunting license and a deer permit. Depending on the county the bag limit can be as low as one deer for the year (and if you shoot a doe first that's it). Many counties are 2 deer counties, and the 2nd deer is another $32 permit (and only one buck per year). The only farmer that ever told me not to let anything walk, also had depredation permits we could use. If I shot a yearling and then had to pay a processor it would cost more per pound than beef.

There has to be some middle ground somewhere. If the place is truly over run with deer, there shouldn't be any trouble finding a bigger one to shoot.

Several years ago I worked as an electrical lineman. One of the guys in the crew had a brother in law that farmed for a living. He raised summer corn and winter wheat. Deer was costing him a small fortune on his wheat crop. The farmer had been issued 100 doe tags to help with the problem. We were asked to come help rid the property of some does. We were also told we could shoot any buck that scored 125 or better. At the end of the weekend I had 9 does and the other 3 had all tried to get the 125 or better. I got invited back several times after that, the others didn’t.

CarJunkieLS1 said:

Wow thats crazy. Over $60 just to be able to kill 2 deer. If many states are like that no wonder people hunting has been on the decline for years.

Here in Alabama our large game hunting license is like $28 and we get 3 bucks (one must have 4 points or more on one side) and 1 doe a day for the entire season. If you see a doe every day for a month you can kill 30 does and not have to pay anymore that the original $28. I LOVE ALABAMA

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A friend and I sat down and figured the total a body could legally kill in Alabama 4 or 5 years ago. If you took advantage of the muzzle loader, bow, and gun seasons you could kill 178 legally.
That number is some smaller now after some game law changes. At that time you could kill a buck a day now we’re limited to 3 bucks but still a doe a day for the entire season.

I'm now working on keeping my landowner happy (my neighbor), I've tagged out and don't want another deer, but we're still shy of what he wants killed. He called me this morning and let me know that the other guys that have permission to hunt his place have also tagged out and the entire farm is "open".

We've gotten 14 off his place so far (12 bucks) so now I'm playing "guide" and bringing in other hunters for our remaining 4 days. I've promised him I'll bring in some more guys during the late does season to hopefully make his "quota". Luckily we've got what seems like an endless source of Army guys from the fort looking for places to hunt, so finding hunters isn't that hard. Managing who's where when and helping to recover deer can be a PITA though.