Instead of squirrels, Doe and Buck

[Huntinfool]

OK, I stand corrected.
I also remember growing up as a kid in NY when the sighting of a deer was a great rarity. Us kids would talk about it for weeks if we kicked one out of a hedgerow. Bucks only and strict enforcement gave us the "problem" we have now.

No Problem Bob! I also remember the days of old. In this state ya had to go to a handfull of counties up in the mountains to kill a deer in the 50s and 60s. I used to go huntin around here and felt fortunate to see a track. I often thought of making a plaster cast of them as trophies. Now ya can't walk without stepping in the tracks of a deer. I'd guess that's why so many find it hard to adjust to the killing of does. "THE TIMES THEY ARE A CHANGING"

They're still hard to find and kill one of my in-laws thought he'd just go buy a bow and wallah he'd have venison. After his first trip deer hunting with a bow. He asked me if they had holes they hid in funny thing was he was serious he said I saw them trot into the woods. But when I went in after them they were no where to be found. LOL! I had to laugh at him he really thought that they went underground or something cause they disappeared as he said never to be seen again!

It's the same over much of the country smarter DNR people and management paid for by the Pittman & Robertson Bill. That excise tax put on all hunting products of 11% has went a long way toward restoring what our forefathers (Market hunters and the like) took while conquering this nation and all of it's inhabitants over the past couple of centuries!

The P&R bill has also made possible the very sucessful transplanting of many species such as wild turkeys. They've trapped and transplanted turkeys all over this state as well as traded them to many other states.

Wood Ducks, Pronghorns, Elk, and several other species can be added to that list of making a comeback also.

Chuck Goodall
The Original Huntin' Fool :redthumb:
&
Kanawha Ranger Scribe

 

[Huntinfool]

Just remember one thing,deer kill more humans than any other animal.

I have a biker friend or 2 that refuse to ride after dark. It's one thing to hit a deer with a car or a truck but quite different with a motorcycle. As one friend put it when that happens it's just you the deer and the Lord. And I added "And the pavement!"

YMH&OS,
Chuck

 

[sduve]

Happy Birthday!!!!

 

[swank]

HF- I Don't blame your friends, I still ride at night, but a lot slower and even more cautiously than I usually do when I'm on two wheels. I have scraped just enuf folks off the road to know what happens when things go wrong on a cycle, and it's never pretty!

I came close to smacking a doe one evening as I was puttering along, that was a humbling experience to say the least. Of course were driving in their habitat I guess, so be careful everyone.

 

[swank]

Roundball,
Sir- You are a lucky, lucky, lucky man :master:. Geez, I thought our deer hunting was good in Ohio, NC here I come! That Birthday should be memorable and tough to repeat.

As far as the shooting doe issue goes, I grew up rifle hunting in upstate Vermont where it was buck only. Back home in Ohio I routinely take does with my bow and pass on smaller bucks. Many of the old timers from New England that helped bring me up deer hunting now come here to Ohio to bowhunt. They still take issue to sticking does, yet up until recently thought nothing of harvesting immature bucks. I see far more mature bucks in states that allow and promote doe harvesting than in buck only states. While there are a lot of variables that effect deer herds I think the practice of harvesting does and mature bucks seems to be the best for the herds.

Even the public areas that get hunted hard here in Ohio, stil produce plenty of deer, if for no other reason than there is almost always private, posted land adjacent where deer continue to prosper. Suburbs are so plagued with deer for exactly that reason.

I think the only thing that is going to ruin deer hunting is the excessive hunting of some areas and the ever increasing growth that makes more and more deer habitat unaccessible to hunters. Shooting more than one doe in high density areas certainly will not. :imo: