InstinctiveArcher wrote:Gas echoes my thoughts pretty well. With all the time and work I put into getting a deer, I don't think that I would be able to shoot a small deer and make it worth it.
That's the difference between a public land tag system and a territorial management system like we have it here in Germany (and other European countries).
If I'd only have a tag to fill, I would also choose my target animal by size and amount of meat.
But if you manage a population and a healthy age structure with it, then taking fawns is an integral part of it. We have to take a certain number of deer per assigned hunting ground -or a shoot as the Brits call it- and those have to be certain numbers (normally ~50%) within the juvenile age class (1 year olds and fawns). And waiting for the fawns to get one year doesn't make much of a difference. Next spring they won't be any heavier than at the beginning of winter and afterwards when the adults start to defend their territories, it's often hard to get the weaker younglings, as they're hiding out or wandering off to the bad habitats not defended by the old ones.
And many even end up as road kill in the process.
In out shoot for example, we aim to take only fawns and weak yearlings and then let the strong ones grow old and take the mature bucks at 4-5 years minimum. Does are being taken along as double takedowns with their weak fawns, whenever possible.
This kind of management helps to maintain a healthy population with a healthy age structure in which bucks can find and defend a territory in which they can mature and grow old. Roe are extremely territorial.
This type of management has lead to Germany having one of the highest densities of wild game in Europe despite of it being one of the most densely populated countries, too.
Yes, that means taking down animals that offer very little meat, but there's a reason Roe deer are traditionally classified as small game, I guess.
Mature roes come in at normally somewhere between 12-18kg (25-40 lbs), in perfect habitats and in the northern countries they can be a bit heavier.
gas56 wrote:
@Knut
it's been awhile since I've seen you around this forum again, welcome back.
Thanks, mate!
Yeah, I've been fed up with the game for a while. Still, a hunter's blood is pumping through my veins