By Eric Fowler
Not long ago, I wondered if there should be a support group for people like me. Call it Doe Shooters Anonymous. We probably would’ve met around a campfire in some secluded woodlot.
“Hi, my name is Eric, and I shoot does.”
“Hi Eric,” the others would reply.
It was a small group, partly because for years most Nebraska hunters were only allowed to shoot bucks, and partly because that early management strategy, designed to build the herd, evolved into a social trend. No one wanted to shoot a doe.
I’m sure my younger brother, Mike, would’ve joined my little group after taking a doe on his first deer hunt, for which I happily served as his guide. My nephew, Sam, then just six years old, was thrilled when we returned to my sister Pam’s home … until he saw the deer: “Aw, it’s just a doe,” he said. My brother-in-law, Tim, is a horn hunter and took me deer hunting for the first time when I was 16. His penchant for big deer rubbed off on me and, more recently, his son.
Tim and I have harvested a few trophies, but we’ve also taken quite a few young bucks, which Sammy likes to call “pencil horns.” One year we made a long stalk on a herd of mulies. When a forkhorn and a doe stood up, I shot the buck. After I did, it hit me – why didn’t I shoot the doe and let the buck grow up? I’d read about the Quality Deer Management craze that was sweeping the south – let the little ones walk, shoot some does to keep the herd in check and you will be rewarded with more trophy bucks.
My approach to the rifle season had been to hunt hard all week hoping to find a trophy, and at season’s end I would take any deer. But after the state’s deer herd grew to the point that I was able to get two permits, my strategy changed. My first priority was to shoot a whitetail doe for the freezer. My second permit was reserved for a trophy. If I didn’t fill it, I didn’t care.
These days, I’ll usually shoot a doe or two every year. One of my favorite hunts each year is a two-day muzzleloader doe hunt at DeSoto National Wildlife Refuge. Go figure. For some hunters, it’s a trophy or nothing, and I have no problem with that. They are in it for recreation and the challenge. But I don’t shoot pencil horns anymore, and I don’t understand the hunters checking in deer at 9 a.m. on opening day with forkhorn or basket-rack bucks stacked like cordwood in the back of their truck and saying, “Man, we’re just not seeing any big deer.”
I wonder why? Could it be: (A) That young buck you shot three years ago didn’t have a chance to grow up; (B) You didn’t hunt long and hard enough; or (C) All of the above? Some hunters justify their actions by saying, “If I don’t shoot it, someone else will.” I tell them that since they did, we’ll never know.
Season Choice and bonus tags are making it easier for hunters to shoot does, and with whitetail numbers as they are in some parts of Nebraska, more doe shooters are needed. If hunters don’t step up to the plate, they may someday be forced to shoot a doe before they shoot a buck, a strategy that has been deployed in other states. So go shoot a doe. They taste the same as bucks. And I, for one, won’t make fun of you. If someone does, you can make fun of them for shooting a pencil horn.