Hunters lament lack of deer, but farmers beg to differ

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette ^ | Sunday, January 16, 2005 | Don Hopey

[MarkL]

The liberals deserve to live in the world they are creating. I have in-laws who live near a seasonal creek. The job-averse people [called "homeless" by liberals] leave garbage along the creek. My in-laws now have a problem with rats.

MO did a study on trying to relocate deer from suburban to rural areas. They found that the stress of the relocation had terrible results. Nearly 80% of the deer that were relocated were dead within just a few months.

Mark

[ChefKeith]

At Canyon Lake when reading water meters they would walk right up to the car in the middle of the day and shove their face in the window begging for corn chips.

I thought about spreading out a tarp and just slitting their throat and pulling 'em in the window but the women and residents watering the yards would have freaked out.

They are so inbred around the lake that they would easily fit in the window.

[cherry]

my husband actually got his first bow deer kill last fall....right behind out house......

the trouble with wildlife is this:....when we think we are being kind and good stewards and good conservationists by setting aside wild lands and parks and "green belts" and making it nice and pretty for the wildlife, they florish....which means they survive, and thrive and then produce multiple offspring, and guess what......they need more land so they move into neighborhoods, and towns, and busy human areas....

unless they fear human activity, or dogs, they will naturally keep expanding their territory.....

just like bears and cougars and coyotes, deer will keep going to where there is more food ( fewer deer to compete)....

prime example:...remember how quaint a picture of a Canadian goose used to be?......now, they are nussances and stay around for the entire year....

[Redcloak]

I was thinking the same thing. The hunters would see more deer, and the farmers less, if more private land were opened to hunting.

[FITZ]

Yes --- it was the Canyon Lake area --- I couldn't believe how aggressive the deer were --- and it was there that they practically ran down someone taking out some garbage --- and they're very bold when they're eating up the golf course in broad daylight --- in areas where hunting is done the deer are far more shy of humans.

[IrishCatholic]

You are right about farmers not wanting yahoos shooting everything in sight. Some absentee landlord type bought the neighboring farm. I came home one day and they had put up a permanent deer stand on telephone poles six feet from my upper pasture fence line pointed into my woods. I was hot under the collar when I went up there. The door was facing their property and the windows mine. They looked over my pasture into a section of black walnuts at the border to my lake(In Kansas that means 20 acres of water. It means a pond to some of you folks that have more of the stuff). They claimed they would only come on to my property to get wounded deer. The only way to wound them is to shoot them on my property. Well, I have a walking path through the woods that my family takes and I walk it on the way to another pasture. I had no trespassing signs on the fence the next day.
I still allow hunting on the property, just about everyone I know supplements their freezer with venison. But not the people who belong next door. Never allowed them on the property again.

[o_zarkman44]

We had a record kill in Missouri with new regulations last season (2004).
There was no limit on numbers of antlerless deer killed as long as you had a tag for each one. There was a antler minimum size of 6 points (2x3 or 1x6) for bucks that protected younger bucks. Unlimited any deer permits for antlerless deer.
And the season was extended a few days with muzzle loading, youth hunts age 15 and under, and archery season.

Mo. Dept of Conservation has been under fire by auto insurers because of the high number of deer -car collisions caused by large deer populations. I was not real happy with the new regulations as our hunting party was unable to harvest several nice bucks we would have had easily last year. We had to settle for smaller antlerless deer, with one exception of an 11 pointer. But now I think the program will increase the size of bucks and might actually work better for hunters and reduction of the car/deer collisions. We will wait and see.

I have noticed a trend to urban people buying into rural farmland and forming hunting clubs so they have guaranteed places to hunt. I can see this might make less land available for some hunters, including our party, but overall it has not hurt our hunt since fewer hunters are on adjoining tracks. Although one tract of land has been bought by a self proclaimed environmental wacko that is completely off limits to hunting. This trend is the danger to hunters in the future.

[dr_pat]

... deer actually will lay down and nap within 25 yds of the house...

To my spouse's way of gardening, that is a sign you're doing something right! Natural gardens attract wildlife, make them feel comfortable.

We have two severely-fenced-off beds to grow anything that won't be open to the deer (roses, grapes, catnip, runner beans...). The only other things we fence off are the baby trees. Once they have a couple years' growth, they have to fend for themselves. [grin]

...voracious, deer are, but they're pikers compared to the wild turkeys...

[E. Pluribus Unum]

But the farmers don't like hunters shooting their cows, horses, dogs, kids by mistake.

Just like the city slicker don't like people marrying their sisters and cousins.

(This opinion offerred in the spirit of "One bogus stereotype deserves another.')