Fair enough–my apologies for the hijack!
Wait, I think I saw a TV Special about that once… 
There’s nothing wrong with shooting a fawn. It’s meat in the freezer.
I think most hunters let them pass due to potential ridicule from their friends. No one wants to brag that they’ve “bagged a fawn.”
I’m not a hunter, but from having idly perused a 1930 California PC, I notice that taking any other deer than a buck was always illegal, and I assume it’s still the case. I’d also be surprised if it isn’t the same in the other states too. With regard to maintaining the population, the loss of a doe or fawn is more problematic, because of the gestation time involved for the doe, and the it the time it takes for a fawn to grow to adulthood, assuming it doesn’t get eaten by a wild predator first.
Shooting a fawn seems like a dickhead move not only from the perspective of animal lovers, but also from that of one’s fellow hunters, who presumably take an interest in maintaining the populations and habitats that their activity requires.
Deer season in Georgia is 4 months. Be sure not to hike for 1/4 of the year, everyone!
Just where in Calif. is this shortage of deer to hunt a problem?
I do not know anything about CA hunting laws but every state that I do know about has a doe season and many states want a lot of deer taken, especially does and there are way to many deer.
CA may be different but it is CA so keep that in mind.
Georgian years have sixteen months? 
Ha! Firearm is only 3, so ny brain must have betrayed me. Yeah, that’s it.
Every state I’ve live in has a surplus of white tailed deer, and has political discussions about how to control the population. I’m pretty sure they’ve all had a doe season as part of that population control.
The white-tailed deer population in the US has increased by a factor of about 100 since 1930.
White-tailed deer are severely overpopulated in much of the US, and in fact seem to be causing major changes in forest regeneration through overbrowsing saplings of many tree species. Large scale culling regardless of age or sex is really needed in many areas to maintain forest health, but this is unpalatable to many people.
e.g.: Chronic over browsing and biodiversity collapse in a forest understory in Pennsylvania
Right now this area is over run with deer. (If anyone wants to bag a few, they’re welcome to come over to my place! I live in the suburbs, but they’re all over my yard, and we’re not even near the freaking woods!)
DrDeth, you’re from San Jose. This is Pittsburgh. I can assure, that the climate at this time isn’t exactly reptile friendly.
But whoever shot this one just left it there to rot. If you’re gonna shoot something, don’t just leave it on the ground – that’s a complete waste.
Well… no, actually (assuming anything like normal biodiversity) nature’s scavengers will be along to take care of the remains. The coyotes, raccoons, crows, ravens, etc. will thank you. Not to mention various forms of insect and arthropod life.
Amen. My 09 Jeep Patriot has met three deer in under 5 years. Rattlesnakes, on the other hand are exceedingly rare in Southwestern PA. I’m 56 and have never seen one in the wild. I’ve seen garter snakes, black snakes, hognosed, rat, etc. No rattlers.
Now if I drive (or hike) 300 miles northeast from here, rattlers are not uncommon.
Hit one (rattlesnake) with that vehicle of yours, and then get back to me as to just how dangerous they are!
2 of my cars have died of snake poisoning.
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There are a couple of good reasons to shoot a fawn:
As Crafter_man said, it’s meat in the freezer. I won’t shoot a small deer on opening day. But if I’ve been out hunting for ten or fifteen days and the season is almost over I’ll take what I can get.
There’s another factor for people who are actively managing the deer herd on their land. Does kick out male children around the first winter. Most does have twins. If the fawns are does they stay with the mother longer. If they are young bucks they need to be kicked out so they don’t breed with their sisters since they will be going into heat in the second rut in late fall/early winter. This is bad for the gene pool.
So, in this situation, even if you are hunting for a big buck the smart move can be to shoot the doe. This way the skippers still with her will stay in the area, even if they are male. This means more bucks for you to hunt long term.
The skippers will live without their mom. They are smart enough by their first fall to survive on their own. Plus they will herd up with other does for the winter, even if their mom is gone.
The young bucks that get kicked out by the does have a hard time. They are alone. They won’t get help from other bucks. The rut is on and they’re fighting over does. They can’t stay in their home area, mom will kick them out. They tend to get shot or hit by cars more often. This, in addition to hunting, is why you see so many more does than bucks in the woods.
For the OP: What size was this “fawn”? By the fall it’s not some tiny deer with spots. They are old enough to breed. Old enough to not have spots. They probably weigh 60 pounds or so. By this time people usually refer to them as a “fawn of the year”, meaning they were fawns this year but aren’t anymore. Or sometimes people call them a “skipper” or a “button buck” since the bucks don’t have a rack yet but have little buttons for antlers.
Agreed with this. You should haul out what you kill and eat it. Even a first year skipper has enough meat that it’s worth butchering. Vealison. Delicious.
I suspect that this deer was shot and the hunter couldn’t find it. Even if the lungs were hit, they can often run a couple hundred yards. If it was dark or raining it can be tough to track them.
Sometimes, if it’s hit high, it doesn’t leave a blood trail to follow.
Another possibility is that the hunter was giving it a while to bleed. If you’re not sure it’s a good hit, you can wait a while to give it time. He might have been having lunch and planning on looking for it later that day. Was it fresh?
In any case, leaving an animal in the woods isn’t desirable, but it’s not a waste. The various creatures in the woods will make short work of it. I usually check on my gut piles a couple days later and they are always gone. The coyotes and birds clean them right up.
Tiny with spots, likely some aberration.
Also, if you shot a fawn for meat, are you going to butcher it yourself? The deer people give me are skinned and butchered professionally.
Still has spots, yes, that’s unusual. Most deer are born in the spring and grow up all summer and autumn. They usually lose their spots by August. Very, very unusual to see a spotted fawn this time of year. It must have been born very late, an aberration like you said. Likely, it wouldn’t have lasted through the winter.
My family (starting with my grandad, father and uncles and now me, my brother and our hunting party) butcher our own deer. It’s not hard once you’ve done it a couple of times. We de-bone all of the meat and never use saws. All of the meat gets cut up and vacuum sealed, and then frozen. I believe we do a better job than the professional butchers, though I can’t say because we’ve never taken a deer to a butcher shop.
Oh jeez, that reminds me. After reading this thread, I got some venison out of the freezer to make jerky. I need to go mix up my jerky marinade and get it soaking.