i just went check my trail cam and i was wondering if you think these deer are? im concerned about the littler ones. the season starts this weekend and i need some meat in the freezer , but i was wondering how old do deer have to be before they can survive on there own? i don't want to shoot the bigger one and the littler ones desn't make it.

Top photo This years deer and a 1 1/2 year old--Bottom photo both this years deer.

I would let them all walk

This equates to about 15 +/- extra heads over the next 5 years

I would agree that the top photo the smaller is this years deer. It will survive if you hammer momma. It's tough to tell on the bigger doe. I think she's older than 1 1/2 but it's pretty tough to tell without really studying her in person. I think the deer are the same in both pics.

Where are you from? Around here they can be born really late. I have seen spots in November before. Supposedly we have too many does and the rut is going through February.

I might let it walk now, but by January, it would be down.

I agree with the first two guys, the little one is this years and momma looks like a 1 1/2 to 2 1/2 but it's hard to be for sure without the teeth. You can make educated guesses from physical appearances and probably from behaviour. I always shoot the first legal animal with the exceptions of spikes and yearlings although I screwed up one year and took a yearling doe. The little one should be fine although still a novice at dealing with predators if they are a concern but all in all she'll probably be fine.

Statistics generally show that yearlings have the highest mortality rate during the first winter. But whether you shoot it or not, the stats won't improve or worsen.

I agree that the yearling will probably survive (how bad are your winters, where are you from?) But, understanding the poor economy, etc. and of course a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, if you need the meat, and are mentally OK with it, shoot her and enjoy the steaks!

It's probly silly, but I've never been able to shoot a doe with a fawn along.
Nothing wrong with it at all, and they would both be GREAT eating deer.
Just can't bring myself to shoot.

I did shoot a fawn by accident one year with my 629. Looked like a regular sized doe all alone, but when I walked up to it, it was about the size of a german shepard.

Best deer I ever tasted.....

MN

a 9 degree jump in 20 minutes is huge.

I have a moultrie that always says its 60 degrees

I too, normally would pass on these two. I'd take a young buck if he had an ugly rack cause, it's never going to improve with age, and I have too many bucks on my property. If I need meat badly then, I'd take a mature doe. Yearlings usually have about a 50% survival rate without Mom down here. These are some hard times for alot of folks now. If you need the meat take her and enjoy.

i live in louisiana and the winters are not bad. we get below freezing only a couple of times during the winter. i would like to pass it up but i know other hunters in my club shoot anyhting without spots. i ussually pass deer like this up and wait for a bigger one to come

Where in LA I see the Palmetos and Cypress Knees????

I shot a first year doe on accident a couple years ago, she was in a logged out clear cut uphill and I guessed the range at 200 yds. It looked like a full grown deer but without another deer to compare it to or horns to evaluate you couldn't tell. I shot with my 7-30 and made a perfect heart shot. Because of my injuries I couldn't get up the hill where she was so my wife brought her down and when I saw the deer being dragged by my wife I was sick. I took a range after the fact and it was actually only 125yds.

I shot many nice bucks in Ohio that nothing short of a bottle genie could make edible. I quit wasting animals that I could not eat long ago.
We have too many deer here with no winter kills and every year there are more and more. We have to worry about disease moving in.
I hate those shows where a guy shoots a big buck in the afternoon and they go the next day to find it. I know for sure the meat was wasted just for a rack.
Shoot the big doe, the little one will be fine. You have no idea of a deer's age unless you shoot it and check teeth. Another bunch of bull from the shows where they say "he is only 3, let him grow." Or "that one is 4-1/2 years old"---can any of them get REAL?
People go buy veal, lamb or a piglet but feel bad with a yearling deer, get over it, there is nothing better on the table.
Ethics is a good clean, fast kill and nothing wasted.
I really like the one where they say they shot a "dry" doe, are they NUTS? Not a single one would butcher an old milk cow beyond her prime. I have never seen a "dry" doe, they do not live long enough.
Do you want good meat or wait 5 years so you can toss it or give it away?
When you see a buck with a doe and shoot the doe, you have more ethics and better meat. If you shoot the big buck for the rack and waste the meat, you are not a hunter. Trophy hunters irritate me.

430man - how did that "Irish" coffee taste this morning?

If I processed my own meat I would probably shoot 1st year deer but $60 for 12 pounds of meat just isn't worth it.

I would agree with the above stated stuff if you are not excited to shoot a doe of any size than you probably should save your self the sore ass and buy a big buck hunt at a game farm anyway. One thing to keep in mind though when you shoot either doe is what is the quota on does in relation to population where you hunt? Cuzz if you shoot the older doe you you just killed the potential for not one butt 6 deer if the little one does not make it the winter.What i mean by that is every doe usualy has two fawns so if you kill the one and the other dies then you over harvested the potential for more deer. That could be a good thing or a bed thing depending on population. either way any deer with a handgun is a trophy no matter how you look at! good luck and happy hunting.

If your buck to doe ratio is anything like many of the places I hunt here in NC I would have no problem shooting the large one. The young one will definately survive. The deer population is increasing in most southern states and the need for the heard to be thinned is pretty big. Good luck and enjoy the steaks!

I agree with cfish! But, if you have issues with shoot'n a momma with a little one; shoot the little one.....

They eat much better anyway.

That is what is going on here, too many deer---WAY too many and that CD disease might be moving in. It has reached the point where it is no longer hunting, just go kill one. It is better to stop the twins born.
Some places can sustain buck kills or trophy hunting only but not here. The amount of female deer allowed and the extended seasons for them has increased with no affect at all. See a deer, shoot it, it needs done.
I have been here in the eastern panhandle of WV for 25 years and never seen so many deer. They breed like rats.
I had to go to the store the other day and all I seen was blood on the roads with dead deer on the side.
Soon it will be like pigs, rack and stack!
So many deer has also reduced the rack and body size. When I first came here I killed many doe over 200#, no more. I could sit on my deck or just stand in the yard and kill so many deer it would make you sick.
You fear driving anymore.

h20 i hunt on lake verret in assumption parish.

I am in North St. Tammany Parish