America’s Wild Deer Problem - There's a Problem?

#21

Yep, but a lot of areas are actually finally getting on board with ‘suburban hunts’ which is mostly done with Archery equipment. And this works, but they also seem to go with ‘Hunt Clubs’ over or instead of opening to individualized hunters who may not belong to any themselves. (I’m not myself) But in some areas, these Deer are so humanized, there really isn’t much in the way of being wild anymore for them, and are pretty much like squirrels that are fed in a park. So sadly, the hunter needs to understand this, and realize this act is more to cull the deer to keep or get numbers back in check, over getting an actual hunting experience from it. … AND, they need to shoot Does! Sure, there will be some nice and aged Bucks too, but personally I would like to see restrictions to these folks, that they have to take two Does before each Buck taken. Because some do use this style of hunting to simply shoot ‘their’ trophies.

If it’s too much meat for them, they could always just donate the Doe meat from the required harvest, providing food for the needy and still provide a great service to both community and the unfortunate.

#22

yea I hear you but around our area and we are very rural and hunt happy, even that ‘donated’ deer is subject to ‘processing control’ and more and it is NOT even an EASY way to donate for food banks, which around here a fine deer stew would top any other meat. The law blocks so much which is insanity in a way but with some effort could open up great opportunity for charity help and more.

oh yea my mom’s deer are pets literally in the neighborhood…heck I go out to water her flower planters and right beside it are deer tracks…suckers just walk thru the yards and don’t spook no more or anything…which like you say is ‘not fair game’ in a way but also in a way it has to be fair game on a hunt.

but laws are so tight on hunts close to neighborhoods etc.
they just aren’t doing anything around here to open any of that up at all.

what they need is that more ‘take way more’ this year and let the hunters have at it and offer more tags in tighter states to literally cull more and then ‘legally allow’ donation meat and more thru some controls, but I think when ya talk total bureaucracy…(and get this…bureau…craZy…right?) then I swear they can’t put a darn plan together to ever get it right LOL

I hear you on the hunting issues out there. Many will never hunt and have no idea of ‘this part of their state’ ya know…worst is seeing all those dead deer on the side of the roads just doing their thing but they are on masse in so many areas that it becomes a true human issue to prevent wrecks and more.

I am right there with you and I get it :slight_smile:

(Doug) #23

Deer killed our birch tree back in 1999. :rage:

#24

:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye::crazy_face::100::clown_face::skull_and_crossbones::face_with_raised_eyebrow:

I know…they are a PIA, not the fun backyard pet everyone loves :wink: but they can be ever so cute!

#25

Yeah, they can damage and destroy trees, especially when Bucks are marking territories and creating Rub Lines. Most times, folks around here will place wiring to help keep them off, and if done properly, it can/does help. … But that’s one of the main issues residential folks who think they are cute & adorable animals, seem to flip from "don’t shoot them poor animals’… to 'you need to kill them damn things. Look what they did to me shrubs, trees and flowers! :smile: They are simply doing just what they do naturally, browsing for food. … Well, you just happen to live in ‘their’ would. So who’s the real visitor’s here?

#26

Nature in the raw as it was meant is gone.
never to come back except thru extreme measures, but nature sure as heck finds a way for survival most times.

humans…progress…need anyone say more truly? nope…we all get it :slight_smile: but can’t truly do anything about what life is all about and how humans control/destroy/manipulate it all now.

Kinda sad really but it is all we got to work with ya know…so we keep on trying I guess :slight_smile:

(Doug) #27

For sure, Dave. I used to live in eastern Ohio, enough south to be beyond the southern extent of glaciation, so hilly ground, tending toward the Appalachian Mountains as one goes further east. That part of Ohio and western Pennsylvania is heavily wooded, and has a huge amount of deer.

I put electric fence around our garden for a couple years, but even it has its limits. The fence was 8 feet or 2.44 meters high at the top wire. But one deer managed to jump over it - never would have believed it.

#28

Oh yeah, Deer have been said to jump as high as 11 or 12 feet, if I recall correctly. So a 6 - 8 foot fence doesn’t give them too much of a challenge. I’ve only had 1 Deer in all my time spent in the woods, who showed me just how easily they can jump, and it was roughly 7.5 foot leap from a standing position. … I was hunting the edge of a strip of woods, with a road on one side, and a field on the other. And another field directly behind me, since I was sitting facing into the woods. - About 30 minutes after shooting light
started, I decided to rattle some and not 20 seconds into it happened to noticed a 10 point Buck coming from behind me, from a neighboring Farm on the other side of the main road. Couple vehicles started hitting brakes and I think this is what made me look back. … He came in to the field behind me without stopping, until he reached the center of the field, which was about 400 yards. At the same time a farmer on a tractor had just turned onto Corn-Field Harbor Road, (where the public land is) and revved up his tractor to quickly get down the road. He latter told me he was just trying to get a better look at the Buck because he saw it run from across the way. (So I told him to just look behind my truck. :wink:)

Thing was, the Buck came into the rattling I was doing for sure. But I do think it was actually the Farmer flying down the road to see him that made him turn and run directly toward the wood-line… where I just happened to be sitting. :slight_smile: But he stopped, standing in the ditch-line directly behind me, which was about 3.5 feet deep, and there was also a 4 foot fence made of wire where the wood line started. He stood there for a few seconds, and when he turned and just jumped from that standing position, I drew, and he cleared the fence with ease. I also grunted at the same time, so he stopped right where he landed and I sent the arrow a second or so later. …He didn’t go 30 yards. So when the farmer came back down the road a short while later, I had field dressed and pulled him back to the truck. So I was able to let him get that closer look he was wanting. :slight_smile:

It’s an older pic for sure, being these three fella’s were actually taken back in the mid 90’s. (via Polaroid) But the 11 pointer was taken in 94, and the 8 and 10 pointers in 96) But he’s the one on the Right. 6x4 The eight point was taken just a week later out of the same patch of woods, but further up and coming down along the other field I mentioned. And the 11 pointer from a field further down the road on the same property. But this was all while this particular public land was bow hunting only. It went down hill fast when it was opened for black Powder and then Shotgun few years after that.

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And before anyone ask about me not being a Trophy hunter, I’ve taken more Doe’s than Bucks, and I also wasn’t the one who wanted these guys mounted. That would be the Wife. But I am glad she had me do it thinking back on it now. But any that followed these, have all been skull mounts since. :+1:

#29

Funny your wife is the mount’ee
My hubby is the mount’ee and I say NO…too much money to mount HA

for ‘all our free meat’ with mounts and the cost of his hunt/cabin lease and cost of his tons of guns and bows and muskets etc…it never turns out to be ‘all that free’ LOL I kid him all the time on that…free meat, yea, real free :slight_smile:

This is part of his hunts but we got alot of antlers in the garage cause I am ‘so over mounting’ cause I truly wanna hit the road, sell off this farm and RV travel and I am like, NO more, we can’t take it with us.

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this wall is in his hunt room. He loved mounting that turkey :slight_smile:

Real nice pic of you and your hunts!

#30

Thanks, Fangs. Those are actually the only 3 Deer I’ve ever mounted. It was around $275 to $350 each back then, and that was 25+ years ago! So they are much higher to have done now. - But I too have a ton of antlers in the basement, and like I said, I’m not a Trophy Hunter. I just find the more time I spend in the woods, allowing younger bucks to grow up some, the more bigger bucks I see. Plus, taking any mature Does that provide an opportunity for a shot helps keep the ratio of Does to Bucks closer to the recommended 50/50, which provides much better Rutting action too. Too many Does, and the Rut can be slow and uneventful. So you will see and have less chances of mature animals. … And I have loads of Turkey’s all around me too, but I have never hunted them myself. Their season timeframe it too hot for me, and I don’t find it enjoyable sitting in 100°+ temps, along with all the insects we have here.

I’m actually surrounded by open waters on most sides, not to mention the low-lying areas that also stay swampy year around. So we have a gazillion insects to deal with, which makes things horrible at times.

#31

oh yea the horror story on the skeeters and more.
hubby had his ATV out going to his stand and he said if he stopped for clearing the trail he got ate up, he said it was horrifying, like being Alaska with ‘the hoards’ of no’seeums and skeeters but he said as long as he kept moving on that ATV he was alive to live…lol

His group of hunters made boxes…so they ain’t totally out in a stand, they are more in a stand blind kinda thing…they built those thru the years and love them :slight_smile: omg the work he puts into his hunting! but when ya love, it ya love it.

Luckily we got ‘local people’ who mount in this area so we get away cheaper than a full on taxidermy company ya know so that helps…but ya can’t mount them all? but hubby says to me ya can :crazy_face:

Yea he doesn’t trophy hunt, he is like you, puts conservation foremost on best hunt for what is going down in the area after talking to the wildlife guys and hunts accordingly as they chat the area. One year it was take ALL the bucks as many as ya can and one time it was leave the bucks alone if you can and take all the does ya can etc…and he is just enough of that person that listens to what is needed in that hunt region ya know.

I SO want him to hunt duck…but he has no interest. I am like DUCK hunt for ME please and he is like, nope…I got other stuff I wanna hunt, duck holds no interest but darn I love duck!

He is a monster surf fisherman also. he loves catching sharks, stingrays and more like the trout, sea bass, and whatever else more and while I fish and love it I am no where near how he loves it but darn while I metal detect the beach for spanish gold, he fishes :slight_smile: works well for us.

Nice thing about the beach times is air moves, breeze, in the woods that wind ain’t there and those bugs attack! I so hear you on that! Hubby got that thermo-battery operated thingy you hang at your side for bugs and he says they work ok, anything helps…he sure won’t spray on anything…he is all NO scent wash his camo and all that…oh boy he is so the hunter!

#32

My county was just designated a CWD management area last year.

I hunt further north so out of the zone for the time being. It hasn’t crossed over to humans that we know about but in theory it could maybe be possible if you eat the brain or maybe spinal fluid.

In the affected areas PA is asking hunters to donate the heads of the deer for testing and they are giving out some extra tags and they have prohibited people from feeding deer b/c the congregate and lick off of the same feeder and spread germs