Thread: do you shoot hinds???

In areas I hunt often enough to know or observe that numbers are high I shot a hind every time to try do my bit for population control. Usually i shoot them last day and shoot the one with the easiest recovery.

I've not had too much issue finding deer in the last few years so my trips would be short and boring if I just killed the first deer I saw. That's why I'm usually looking for a mature stag and work on the basis of only shooting females (better to eat and realistically when solo in the alps most of the time you cant get all the meat of a stag out anyway so less wasted with a hind) unless its a PB, a clearly mature animal, or an obvious cull (like seriously obvious not just short or missing a few points).

My view is everyone CAN do what they want but general courtesy dictates that if you have the choice and truly only care about meat why shoot a young stag that could be a trophy for someone who does care some day. Like if you leave that stag and look a bit longer chances are you will find a hind thats better for meat and population control and doesn't take away from the opportunity of the guy that does want to chase a big old stag one day. Its not to dissimilar to in life I think if there's something you can do that takes 5 extra minutes and saves someone hours then you should do it and visa versa.

Plus I never really saw the point of having 50 young heads in the rafters when you could have a few old buggers on the wall.

Also should probably say that this really only applies during the roar and for hunting open tops where opportunity's are pretty common, the guys bush stalking in the harder months that dont get the chance to see many I say take what you can.