Deer
- Thread starter BKVP
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I do not trust human kind anymore to be responsible with where they shoot. I wont even go for walks during deer/rifle season until a few weeks in or more. After all the dipshits and drunks give up.
RomanW
Member
You know it's funny, I feel the same way. It's gotten really busy out there, and people are getting ballsy-er. The most dangerous time around here is the last week. That's when everyone is getting desperate.
I never thought of that. I fish and there is no desperation from me 'the last week'. Ive had enough by then of the cold, then the bugs, and the occasional falling in, trashing my equipment etc.
RomanW
Member
Yeah that doesn't sound like a good time. I'm usually sick of walking through feet of snow pushing bush so my dad in his truck can shoot something LOL
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Okay, story time. It was near noon on a Sunday in autumn 2017, when my wife came back to the wood lot where I was clearing leaves, and said there was an injured deer in the front yard. I went up to investigate, and found a nice sized buck walking in circles in front of our house, clearly having some equilibrium issues but showing no apparent limb injury.
After watching him a few minutes, it really appeared he had all the signs of rabies. Being a residential area with kids that actually play outdoors, I figured a full-grown buck with rabies might not be the safest thing to have running around the neighborhood, so I figured I'd better call it into the game commission office. But being a Sunday, there's no one there, and their voicemail instructs me to call 911 for any weekend game emergencies.
So, I call 911, who patches me thru to PA state police, who promptly tell me to call the game commission. I tell him, "they told me to call you." Several rounds of "who's on first" follow, with me being passed from one person to another around the state police barracks, before I get back to the guy who originally answers the phone.
He says to me, "can you put it down?" I say, "Safely? Yes. But legally? I think he's too close to neighboring houses for a legal shot, and I haven't gotten any hunting tags this year." He says, "hang on, I'll send an officer out."
So, I watch this stupid sick deer wander around my yard, tripping over stone walls, stumbling into trees, until a state police car pulls up my driveway maybe 20 minutes later. An officer gets out, takes one look at the deer, and says "wasting disease." I say, "huh?" He says, "it looks like it has wasting disease. The guys up toward the Poconos have been talking about this the last few years, I think it's made it down our way."
Then comes the point where everything turns wrong. This young officer looks at me and says, "d'ya think I should use the rifle or the pistol?" I spent my youth hunting, shooting trap, target... I know my way around a gun, I also know that nearly no matter what direction you shoot from my yard, there's going to be another house, public park, or building within the deadly range of a high power rifle. Stunned that every police cruiser isn't still equipped with the venerable Remington 870 Magnum shotgun I remember from years ago, I say, "well, if a rifle and a pistol is all you have, I guess you're going to have to use pistol."
About this time, I'm thinking I should just run down to my own gun safe and grab one of my own shotguns, when the cop pulls a hand canon of his hip. Not sure what the thing was (.45 auto mag?), but it was big bore, high tech, and had a real nice laser scope. He walks up to within a car length of the deer, who is having too many cognitive issues to notice him, and puts his laser scope right on the heart.
One squeeze of the trigger from no more than 20 feet away, and the deer goes down on its left hind leg. It's clear as day that the cop shot the deer in the ass. I honesty could have killed the deer with a brick from the distance he was firing, but somehow with his high tech laser scope, he was off his mark by a good 3 feet at seven paces' distance.
But the deer hops back up, and starts hobbling on three legs. At this point, I'm smart enough to duck behind the big tailgate of my landscape trailer, while the cop just stands there staring at the thing. The deer lowers his head and charges the guy, with a full rack of at least six points. Cop dives behind my trailer in just the nick of time to avoid getting skewered.
Now here's the most unfortunate part. I had just bought a new truck the week before, and it was parked in my driveway. After missing the cop, the deer slammed into my tailgate, and then slid under the truck. Two big dents and one crease in my new tailgate, and one dent in my new rear bumper. I had just installed a new semi-custom dual exhaust system, and the deer starts flailing around under there, trying to free himself.
Once the deer gets himself out from under my truck, cop takes a new stance from about 30 feet away, fires, misses. Deer starts running, and cop starts tracking him with the gun, blam, blam, blam, blam, blam! I counted at least seven shots before the cop was firing right at my neighbor's house. To his credit, I believe he landed one solid shot, and had a second that was a glancing blow, but if I hadn't started yelling and waving my arms at that point, he'd have filled my neighbor's house (and possibly his family) with holes.
The whole time I'm thinking, "I put down running deer with single shots at four times this distance using a .410 shutgun at age 12, how is this guy even allowed to carry a gun?" And, "next time, I'm just shooting the damn deer myself."
The deer ran off, and after he chased it around the neighborhood for a half hour in his cruiser, it eventually fell down an embankment into a creek, where he was able to put on bullet in the head and finish him off. After that, I got to explain to every person who saw my truck at work, why I had three new dents in the back of a brand new truck. I have a feeling each co-worker was telling the next, "hey, go ask him about this tailgate!"
Lol. I can guarantee they were actively finding new people to ask you!
RomanW
Member
mellow
Resident Stove Connoisseur
Just getting started here.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced that the two-week firearms hunting season for sika and white-tailed deer opens Saturday, Nov. 26 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The two-week season includes Sunday hunting in all but three counties, affording hunters more weekend opportunities to hunt and contribute to managing Maryland’s deer population.
The Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced that the two-week firearms hunting season for sika and white-tailed deer opens Saturday, Nov. 26 and runs through Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022. The two-week season includes Sunday hunting in all but three counties, affording hunters more weekend opportunities to hunt and contribute to managing Maryland’s deer population.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
No hunting this year, but almost stepped on one in the dark last Tuesday night, then had one almost run into me on my tractor yesterday. Both doe, they're friggin' everywhere.
I was having fun watching two young bucks that frequent our yard chase the doe around two weeks ago. They were clearly in the mood, but the doe were playing hard to get.
SpaceBus
Minister of Fire
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
No hunting for me, but yesterday I had one sprint through my yard I’m front of me, while I was snowblowing a path to the satellite dish.
RomanW
Member
It's crazy how long some of them will hold out hoping you'll walk by. I don't know how many times we've done similar to you while out hunting. Maybe they're going for the shock and awe factor, trying to throw us off lol
Ashful
Minister of Fire
This one definitely startled me. I had just walked the trash out the street, and must've walked right by her. I was walking back from the street, along the edge of my driveway, and heard a snort no more than 3 feet from me. She jumped up, took three or four steps away from me, and turned to look at me like, "what are you doing?!?" She must have been lying in the grass right on the edge of the driveway probably enjoying some nice heat radiating off the asphalt, as it was just after dusk.
Deer are like mosquitos in my area. It is not uncommon for 10-15 to walk past my back porch in the evening/night.
During the day, it's less common to see deer unless you are in a motorized vehicle of some sort. Then there might be a dozen or so.
You've never had a nighttime experience until you've gone out for wood and heard noises, flashing a flashlight up through the woods to see dozens of eyes reflecting back at you through the woods and you freak out until your light lands on a closer one and you notice the outline of a deer. I dont know why there were so many together, and Ive never seen this since. I didnt realize they hung out in groups that large until that happened.
Meanwhile my neighbors all turn up empty when they go hunting. For years Ive watched my next door neighbor hoist his deer skinning/gutting station between two trees and every year as we head into ski season he takes it down and puts the swing back up.
RomanW
Member
tlc1976
Minister of Fire
A friend took this picture of her backyard the other day. This is about 60 ft from the house.
Ashful
Minister of Fire
Wow, he's a big boy.
Most I ever counted in my front yard at once was 23 deer. They were having a party while we were out, like teenagers left alone with a house, they looked guilty when we got home.
But ours are just tame white tail, not sure what that monster in begreen's photo is, but I'm thinking I'd not want to turn my back on him.
Most I ever counted in my front yard at once was 23 deer. They were having a party while we were out, like teenagers left alone with a house, they looked guilty when we got home.
But ours are just tame white tail, not sure what that monster in begreen's photo is, but I'm thinking I'd not want to turn my back on him.
stoveliker
Minister of Fire
Not gonna lie, that kinda looks like an elk farm with the fences.
Nealm66
Minister of Fire
They’re elk. They can be a real pain in the butt when they start coming into the yard like that. They can raise havoc with horses but they don’t mess with cows and luckily my neighbors have cows
They are free-ranging elk, and this really is her backyard. They are protected in this area.
The fields behind her yard are cow fields. When the cows are not out, the gates are left open. So far they have not raised havoc here, but they did raid the unfenced garden that another friend has nearby. Fortunately, they overplant like crazy so by the end of the summer, most of their garden (now fenced) had recovered. This was the first time in about 16 yrs of their living there that it happened.
Nealm66
Minister of Fire
There’s quite a few around we’re I’m at in eatonville. Definitely need to keep your eyes peeled when driving early morning/evening. That’s a nice bull. A lot of hoof rot in our area really causing problems for them. I’ve had to pay vet bills for an Australian shepherd and a horse that got tangled up with elk. Ripped about a 10” gash in that shepherd we were babysitting for a vet oddly enough
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