How I love Whitetails...

...NOT!!

I was on my way home from a job, and in broad afternoon daylight I either slowed down, stopped, or blew my horn 10 different times for Bambi clones.

During the colonial era up to the 1950's, there wouldn't be this many deer in Maryland or PA - because hunters were allowed to hunt.

But noooo... A few whack jobs would change that:

And now my father has no corn or carrots in the garden because of a certain deer, and my cousin has a nice big 'ol dent in the side of his truck from where Bambi decided to kiss the door at 40 mph.

Oh yes, I would shoot the deer that's eating our garden, but it's either a dead deer or Jail time.

Get this: Just a month ago, I saw a whole bunch of people alongside the road, out of their cars with their flashers on. A car had hit a deer and there were people putting blankets on it while it was laying there in pain. I go back to get my hunting knife to kill it when a woman and a man say "stop, don't kill it!"

Sorry for the rant but I do not like pansies and their deer.

In a recent year, Wisconsin hunters (gun and archers) tagged and registered 635,876 deer and I'm not sure that set any records. Our DNR constantly encourages people to go out and enjoy the hunt. 675,000 gun hunters took to the woods during the 9 day gun hunt last year. Let's see, how many troops do we have in Iraq? 130,000 or so?

Deer ain't bad if they are cooked right......

Dave

On my place last year 5 of us got 12 deer. Hunting and conservation go hand in hand. Kill to many its bad kill to few its bad. Its a balance that we need to keep up or they will be where they should not be or they will get sick and thats not good either because then they die a sad death and who knows may take some of us with them because of what they die from
Hobby farm

I can't speak to MD, but in Michigan, the DNR quite accurately calls the states deer herd a "crop". The size of the deer herd here has nothing to do with anti hunters ( I hunt myself ) It has everything to do with the state growing a crop, (deer) on private property. And it gets down to money. Last number I saw, if you divided the amount of money spent deer hunting by the number of deer harvested, it comes out to $200+ per lb. It's cheaper to buy the best cut of beef than to go shoot bambi.

I quit hunting years ago. If you choose to hunt, I have no problem with that as long as you do it legally and in a safe manner (no idiots or rambo types please). If I catch you poaching, I will report you in a heart beat.

We must take responsibility for managing the wildlife and habitat wisely. Wise management requires the wildlife population be maintained at levels that are healthy for both the wildlife and the habitat. Generally, the simplest and most effective means of achieving this is through hunting.

I have often thought it would be interesting to compile some statistics on how much money hunters spend to ensure the wildlife populations are maintained at levels that are healthy for both the wildlife and the habitat versus what the anti-hunters spend to achieve the same goal. My guess, and it is just a guess, would be that the money spent by hunters would far outweigh what the anti-hunters spend. I think that boils down to putting your money where your mouth is.

I hit one in the police car last Saturday night. The command staff said its bound to happen working nights and some were amazed that this was the first one in my life that I hit. I tagged mine around 20 miles an hour. Darn thing was lucky that I saw him, I was rolling out to a call with light AND siren running. Was one of 3 running. 1992 to present, 1 police car accident. Not too bad I guess, 1700 bucks damage.

I am right there with you Rob. I hate them too. We just got done harvesting a wheat field and there was 8 of them that popped out there that night. So they had been back there chowing on the wheat, lying down in it smashing it down and walking through it too. Not to mention that 75 canadian geese (I counted them) came in and landed in the field after we cut it. I think they have been out there all year every night. I planted some corn and sunflowers back in behind the wheat and that helped keep them out of the wheat but they sure are destroying the corn and sunflowers. I planted them for the pheasants and the deer are ruining them. I honestly think I want to go back and start dropping them. I have had it with excess deer ruining everything. I think Michigan, Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Pennsylvania all have deer populations of around 2 million animals. Imagine all those deer eating crops every day. They should just have a yearly shooting for a week where anybody can shoot as many deer as they can find bullets for. Every field around here in mid michigan has herds of these b@stards eating crops.

So I should feed and give habitat to 100 miscellaneous deer on our property for the year so a coulple of guys from Detroit can spend $15 bucks each and come to my place and hunt? How about I just pay the state $40 dollars and they allow me to shoot 98 of the deer and the two guys from Detroit can have the other 2! That would be good management and the state would get their precious money and then some. I would be able to harvest a good crop for once and everybody would be happy. They should also allow us to shoot about 70 out of 75 of the canadian geese that eat our crops too. Oh and don't forget the 50 or so turkeys that pass through every day too. Pulling the corn down and eating it as bad as the deer. People from town don't have a clue as to how expensive it is to "manage" a wildlife population. I do.

Well if you agree with what you say do not eat at McDonald's because they give 10% of there profits to anti gunners. I hunt for more then one reason. Its good safe no chemicals meat and helps conservation. Also AARP is part of the anti gun/anti hunting movement
Hobby farm

Sorry to say but your thinking goes back to why we have conservation. If we where to shoot all the deer then we would have few if any like back in the 1930-40 when you got lucky to see 1 or 2 in a year. they ;like us need to be here. Or do you also think we should let people shot people just because they trapess

"Stop! Don't kill it!"

I know the type. My mom, rest her soul, had a couple of government lawyers, into all the trends but too antisocial and nerdly to make it as yuppies, living next door. Plugging in the fact of this being in Arlington, VA, might help make for a clearer picture, as well.

They had a dying elm at the back of their property, just over the line, that hung out over Mom's place, rendering most of her area for parking unusable for the peril of limbs falling upon Mom's car, her camper, or the head of anyone malingering in the area. Mom was failing at the time and didn't feel up to dealing with it directly so, after pondering the remnants of yet another huge limb from the elm shattered on the pavement only inches in front of her car, left a note on their door asking them to do something with the tree. Months and more fallen limbs passed with no action or response.

Mom mentioned it all to me one trip when I was down to visit, and I happened to see the entire family (lawyers and two children) out "pruning" a dogwood in their front yard. Butchering would be a better term. Carpe-ing the diem, I strolled over as nonchalantly as I could, coffee mug still in hand, to be neighborly.

They knew immediately what was up and as soon as the conversation came around to the elm, let me know that my brother had been playing his banjo two evenings earlier, perhaps too enthusiastically, perhaps too poorly, perhaps with the window open too wide, or some combination of the three that had disrupted their apostrophizing of the sunset from their screened-in porch.

I apologized for my brother's lack of consideration and promised earnestly to have a word with him.

Having possibly never heard and, I suspect, never having made an apology themselves, they were dumfounded. Again seizing the moment, I was able to steer their attention to the elm.

As we ambled in the general direction thereof, Madame, Esq., let me know that her parents were "arborists," which caused me no small pain as the eye teeth on the right side of my mouth pierced my tongue, having just witnessed the application of her acquired and inherited skills (of which more) to the dogwood.

Sho' nuff. She aimed to save the elm. The tree was still mostly of the usual stately shape, perhaps 50 feet or better in height, the first fifteen or so being trunk.

By way of response to my pointing out that their tree was dying, falling apart and rendering the back third of Mom's property too perilous for parking a car, never mind trying to traverse it on foot, Mme. Esq., replied that the elm was so majestic a tree that it deserved to live. She reminded me of her arboricultural heritage and pointed out the sparse new leaves at the ends of the upper branches as harbingers of hope for survival of the whole. I countered by pointing out that there was no bark on the wood for ten feet or more below those leaves and suggested that they would be withered in two weeks time, as spring would turn to summer. "One can never put too much effort into saving an elm," was the gist of her response. That one almost dumfounded me. Collecting myself quickly, however, I allowed as how a timely effort to save that tree was tardy to the tune of twenty years or more, and inquired as to what efforts she might have made other than letting the thing stand and die. Rather than pierce yet another hole in my tongue, having done so just moments before, I was able to relocate the last one, reinsert the canines, and resist the urge inquire as to whether dancing in an unseemly state of (un)dress about the trunk of the elm whilst chanting rhymes in ancient Pagan tongues might have been part of the treatment regimen. The lawyer in her could attest to no effort of any sort, heathen, holistic or medicinal.

It was another couple of months before the good folks at Asplundh called Mom to ask her permission to cut the old thing down from her side. A reasonable request, gladly granted.

My lesson out of all this was to gain a whole new understanding of the term "tree-hugger."

Asplundh called again just last year, seeking permission to bring their stump grinder in through Mom's driveway to remove any remaining evidence of the results of Mme's handiwork on the dogwood. Sad. It was shaping up as a nice tree until Mme. Esq. went at it.

The whole kerfuffle about the elm leads me to wonder how long the animals in her care might linger in agony before she does the right thing.

Nailed a buck with an ambulance once (I was shotgun that night).

Darn thing did a few 360s in the road then ran off...me and the driver looked at each and said, "Nice buck!" Fortunately only minor / cosmetic damage to the rig. Think we got out for under $1000 by the time stuff was replaced.

I hit two in one year with the same vehicle. First one was a $3000 deer the second a $700 deer.
old bc

> Deer ain't bad if they are cooked right.....

I wise man once said that venison is just as good as the amount of pork you put into it.

I hunt deer, but now only about every other year since it just ends up sitting in my freezer until all my pork and beef is used up. The alternative is to make something good like bologna or hot dogs, but these days processing costs so much I might as well just use my beef and pork to make them.

I've never really understood the sportsman's flavor of hunting. I always aim for the fawns because they aren't as tough, but everyone in my deer hunting group ridicules me anyway.

Well said, the govment makes money and that is all they see. Body shops and insurace folks are in on it too. Buddy of mine with a body shop says he wishes rut would start in the spring insted of fall. He don't have time to get every thing patched up between the first of Nov til the first snow most years.

I am not try'n to stir the pot but dear are like anything else too many is too many. I for one don't think the my state govment has any idea of where a fair balance lies.

Dave

Try a back strap grilled slow. Think like you are cooking pork ribs/roast. You can do it wet or dry. Keep'm wet with what ever you baste your ribs with, or put'm one rack up from a pan of water and put your favorite dry rub on'm. I guess grow'n up in West KY I have an unfair advantage. Mutton BBQ is big round here, if you got a taste for it deer ain't that hard, and cheaper.

Dave

Deer are the #1 problem for farmers,hopefully this year with the economy slow and food prices high lots of guys will be out killing a bunch of them.

No, there's weren't that many deer in colonial times period. Mostly having to do with habitat and predators, not human hunting.

Contrary to your implications, hunting deer is most certainly allowed in Maryland and Pennsylvania.

Contrary to your statement, you can legally shoot a predation deer. You've got some hoops to go through with the DNR, but it's far from insurmountable.

Sorry to hear you met my inlaws, Rob. I'll get them straightened out one of these days ;-)

Wis DNR estimates 3 Billion dollars annually for deer alone.

Between slob hunters, anti-hunters, tender hearts, metrosexuals, poachers and game dept biologists I'd say managing a deer herd is a tricky thing these days. Too bad all the biologists can't go back and be re-educated with a 1940's or 50's ciriculum. Back then "Conservation" meant conservation and stewardship and not preservation and political correctness!

BTW- I'm currently at 13 deer, 2 owls, 11 turkeys and 1 cow as far as car strikes go. One deer was at 90mph+ and cleaned the roof rack right off, another at 100 mph+ darn near killed me and didn't do much for the deer either. Funny, they don't pay much attention to the lights and siren....
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One of my old high school girl friends, who lives on the upland where there are very few deer, told me once that deer are so beautiful and graceful she didn't see how anyone could bear to shoot one. I told her to come on down to my place and see what they did to a cornfield. After seeing that, it comes pretty easy to shoot them.

The typical 4X4 buck I shoot on my place will dress out to about 60 pounds of meat. The one I shot last fall dressed out to 85 pounds. He didn't get that big by eating brush in the creek bottom. When I field dressed him, I had to cut through an inch of fat.

I could get various permits to where I could shoot up to three or four a year, but my wife won't eat venison and I have a hard time eating one in a year by myself. Our local City Mission will take them, and gladly, but for their own protection they want them tested for chronic wasting disease, which we don't have a problem with in this area.

Saw this on your computer next to Miscellaneous,thought you had a run in with a spider.

Build a bunkhouse for them, Grill them steaks and put on a big feed, then also retrieve the deer and skin the deer for them.

For this service charge them $150 - $200 dollars per head per day.

You make some pocket money and have a great tax write off!!!

That is what I am doing.

Darned near any misc. expense I encounter during the year is a write off for the hunting cabin. Deer stands, hunting equipment, ATV expense, new carpet, etc. All a write off.


Gene

The Missouri Dept of Conservation is very good at allowing us to shoot deer doing crop damage. I have a permit to shoot 10 deer, anytime, any way. The previous permit was for 20.

Only bad thing is you cannot (legally) use the meat. Supposed to drag them to the edge of the field for coyote food.

I carry a .22 mag on the ATV at all times. Depending on my mood I shoot one or two when I feel like it. Just call the Conservation agent and let him know how many I killed.

Gene

Very nice piece of writing, both in content and in style. Don't recall having seen both "apostrophizing" and "kerfuffle" in the same story before. Or even in different stories, come to think of it. Being a lawyer with a distinctly more practical bent, I could nonetheless have been helpful in the situation, by teaching them how to fell the tree against the lean with my favorite instrument of Sierra Club torture, a Stihl 031AV.

I don't think they'd be hunting if the deer shot back. My view was always if you're going to hunt you better plan to eat it. I've known to many kids who just want to shoot at anything and aren't responsible enough to clean up.

I dunno, we had lots of deer around our place up until the last couple weeks. Now you just don't see one very often. I suspect we have a cougar moved in and the deer have moved out of his territory.

I think I'd prefer having the deer. Leastwise I don't have to worry about my wife getting mauled by a deer when she goes down to the creek.

I assume from your handle that you are in MD. Call the DNR and ask them to do a damage assessment and they will likely issue you a crop damage permit. We have had a standing permit for about 10 years. They changed the rules a few years back so that they can be consumed.

Paul: I'm happy to say that is not the case with the hunters who come out to my farm. They are forever offering me all sorts of venison treats and I can't stand the taste of the stuff. That's why I don't hunt them although there are provisions for donating venison to the needy and many do that. As far as "cleaning up" I don't know quite what you mean. Plenty of critters out there to clean up the innards, if that's what you're talking about. That stuff is all gone by the next morning around here. As far as hoping the deer could shoot back, that's just so much Barbara Streisand. We have a standing deer herd in Wisconsin of around three million. Way too many. People won't tolerate that many deer and if they did there would be a "final solution" in the form of diseases, pests, etc.