too kill huge old does or not

[backstraphunter]

well as some of you know I hunt southeast ohio for the last 3 hunting seasons. and as of today 2015 me and the kids have yet too kill a doe on our hunting lease. and I must say I,m sure we have 4 to 7 year old does running around. my question is am I making a mistake not shooting them ? somewhere in the back of mine mind I feel like there way too smart at times and for better words keep other deer from showing up during daylight hours. I got too tell you guys this has been a hard season since gun season started with all deer moveing after dark .I just went down this past weekend too bow hunt and once agin no deer during daylight hours looked at trail cams and anywhere from 6;30 or 9 pm they show up in the food plot and I must tell you I got 2 realy good hi 140 to 150 class bucks and a 3rd runner up. I have not seen this yet in ohio the nite only movement, I rember in 2010 here in Michigan it was that way the hole week of gun season I hunted and the only common thing was the MOON FAZE comeing off full moon. I did see a few monster does hit and miss during nov 30th to dec 6th in ohio but gave them a pass. any thoughts any body ?

[matt1336]

Choot em for sure. Those old nannys ruin a lot of hunts. They're quick to figure out your patterns. I consider that old of a deer a trophy! They taste just fine too

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[DEERSLAYER]

Any time you are managing a property you want to do your best to have a balanced age structure for your does and you don't want too many doe's or to have the doe groups too large either. Ideally no less than two adult doe's per group going into the season and no more than four adult doe's per group. Try to never leave any fawns without an adult doe in the group if possible. Too many old does can be a problem. Especially if you are over hunting or hunting the property wrong, but those old doe's can also be very valuable because they often come into estrous earlier than the younger doe's and can give you some of the best early rut activity in the area. Especially if your neighbors are shooting up the old doe's.

[backstraphunter]

yea I,m on same track but here is the other thing I would have too say I have 4 too 6 donkey sized old gals and I see 5 to 6 bucks per doe don,t get me wrong the kids and my sons frend shot 4 bucks so far this year 1 bow 3 gun 2 during youth and 1 gun season. I kinda of looked at as I have good buck numbers to doe so I did leave them alone but like were all saying I think there is 2 to 3 to many smart ones we got the doe tags too do it were a 2 deer county either 2 does or 1 buck 1 doe there is 4 of us that never use the doe tags we hold for the buck that we like. that's another thing this year I have so many freak racked bucks half rack with drop beam on other side with hockey puck end on it. got one buck with a bull horn on one side and the nice bucks too. well if there on there feet this Monday and Tuesday and any big girls show there sucking DIRT my daughter and me are shooting them may have too wate too blackpower to get my buck

[JoeRE]

In general I agree its a good idea to take some older does...I always look for old does when looking for one...one thing to think about though, specific old does often tie doe family groups together. I have killed an old granny doe before and had doe family groups sort of disintegrate (and more importantly, their routine bedding areas change which I wanted them to keep for me hunting bucks in the rut. That is sort of a specific circumstance but I thought I would mention it.

Edit - Reading your last post....if you think you have more bucks than does around on your property I am not sure I would be killing does? You need them to make replacement bucks.