Deer Hunting Rant

[Bob_VT]

Okay so VT passed a hunting regulation change 2 years ago that a buck must have 3 or more total points.

Yesterday the Fish and Wildlife announced that even though the deer kill has been reduced ...... the deer population is up to standards that were set and the population is strong.

Now for the next phase...... now they are considering a change again to 3 or more points per side

The winter season kill (from hard weather) has increased.....

Now the most recent piece of legistlation is to limit coyote hunting to help the coyote population?

Limit Coyote hunting..... change the deer hunting standards..... so now the coyotes will be the best fed in the country!!!!

What are they thinking?

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

Sounds like the Fish/Wildlife people are in that group of "Got to have it now" attitude. Changes in policy on how wildlife responds takes more than 2 years to show results. Last years corn output increased deer births in this state. All they do to help adjust the amount is increasing the number hunters can bag.

It changes so much in this state, sometimes it is hard to keep up with. This past deer/gun season, you could bag up to 3 with only 1 being a buck.

 

[Mark42]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

We have too many deer in NJ. Please keep shooting them.

 

[Laddies]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

Sounds like the Michigan DNR-do nothing right- it has nothing to do with herd management or fish management it's all about raising money for them. Here they change game laws regularly to promote the agenda of some politician of DNR official. They spread facts around one year for the truth and the next year it's a whole different story. Its all about EGO and MONEY!

 

[Major Woods]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

We have too many deer in NJ. Please keep shooting them.

Same here in CT.
In some parts of the state they even allow baiting to help hunters lower the population.

 

[sebago_kid]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

the herd up here in Maine took it hard for the second year in a row, too.
Last hunting season I hunted pretty hard in some good areas up in the northern part of the state, and never saw a deer. Had a hard time just cutting a fresh track. This year will suck. Hopefully we'll have some of this global warming I keep hearing about, and the herd will come back nicely.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

Now the most recent piece of legistlation is to limit coyote hunting to help the coyote population?

Limit Coyote hunting..... change the deer hunting standards..... so now the coyotes will be the best fed in the country!!!!

What are they thinking?

I don't see what's wrong with limiting coyote hunting. They seldom take down a deer, and for the most part they're eliminating varmint populations that don't do anyone any good. And yes, they take out the occasional cat or dog, but that's life when you live outside the city.

Now, if you're willing to supplement your deer hunting by taking out twenty or thirty varmints for every deer you kill, maybe you'll be doing that coyote's job for him. Somehow I don't see that happening.

 

[LODI QUACKER]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

You have absloutely no idea what your talking about.

Do you consider the Wild turkey a varmit??

How about fawns?? Varmits to??

A yote will eat and kill anything it can catch which by the way is anything in the woods..

There are times they hunt alone but it is not an uncommon site to see the working in teams.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

I don't see what's wrong with limiting coyote hunting. They seldom take down a deer, and for the most part they're eliminating varmint populations that don't do anyone any good. And yes, they take out the occasional cat or dog, but that's life when you live outside the city. Now, if you're willing to supplement your deer hunting by taking out twenty or thirty varmints for every deer you kill, maybe you'll be doing that coyote's job for him. Somehow I don't see that happening.

Because you do not live in Vermont. We ALREADY have too many coyote here. Not nearly enough people hunt them, and trapping has very low participation these days.

"seldom take down a deer"? I would say OFTEN take down a deer. Maybe not in Washington state, but they sure do here. And the rampant fisher is what usually takes out the cats and dogs.

Varmint populations? Varmints like partridge and rabbits? The rabbits that we don't have because of over predation? Around me, a lot of places I have seen rabbit tracks in the past only show coyote and deer tracks these days. And I have seen the tracks of deer being followed by coyotes! Right in a residential development in Stowe.

That's what it is like in Vermont. Cutting back on the "coyote kill" is one of the dumbest things I have ever heard, at least for one living outside the city.

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

You have absloutely no idea what your talking about.

Do you consider the Wild turkey a varmit??

How about fawns?? Varmits to??

A yote will eat and kill anything it can catch which by the way is anything in the woods..

There are times they hunt alone but it is not an uncommon site to see the working in teams.

Truth be told, I do consider wild turkey, rabbits, and the occasional fawn to be varmints. "Varmint" is all about context. When you get too many of an animal, they're a nuisance. We've had towns around here overrun with gangs of wild turkeys that refuse to get out of the way, and are downright ornery.

You mention that there are a lot of coyotes in VT. So maybe coyotes are a varmint, but why? Just because they make it harder for you to find deer? That doesn't cut it in my book.

You're right about VT having fewer rabbits--specifically, but why blame coyotes? Place the blame where it's due--lack of habitat is the main thing causing there to be fewer rabbits. Plus for every rabbit or fawn it kills, that coyote is killing off dozens of other small animals that would end up overbreeding if not for the coyotes.

If I have no idea what I'm talking about, then neither do these guys: http://tinyurl.com/cn6qhq

 

[LODI QUACKER]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

I have never heard something as out of touch with reality as your last statement.

Truth be told, I do consider wild turkey, rabbits, and the occasional fawn to be varmints. "Varmint" is all about context. When you get too many of an animal, they're a nuisance. So maybe coyotes are a varmint, but why? Just because they make it harder for you to find deer? That doesn't cut it in my book.



How can you have too many wild turkeys?? What are you talking about? Are the bunnies in WA running rampant or something/

I simply do not understand your comments!!

 

[cheburashka]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

I have never heard something as out of touch with reality as your last statement.

Truth be told, I do consider wild turkey, rabbits, and the occasional fawn to be varmints. "Varmint" is all about context. When you get too many of an animal, they're a nuisance. So maybe coyotes are a varmint, but why? Just because they make it harder for you to find deer? That doesn't cut it in my book.



How can you have too many wild turkeys?? What are you talking about? Are the bunnies in WA running rampant or something/

I simply do not understand your comments!!

Yes. The bunnies in WA and OR are running rampant and there aren't enough predators to reduce their numbers. Same is true of wild turkeys. In Oregon, wild turkeys did $26,000 in reported property damage in '03. To me, that seems like a nuisance.

 

[LODI QUACKER]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

MY ignorance I guess, We simply do not have those problems in the South. Too many hunters I guess. Two legged as well as four. Could that possibly be the answer, less tree hugging more hunting?

My curiousity has gtten me though I must know how turkeys did 23 thousand dollard in damage to anything.

 

[Mark_VTfisherman]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

Truth be told, I do consider wild turkey, rabbits, and the occasional fawn to be varmints. "Varmint" is all about context. When you get too many of an animal, they're a nuisance. We've had towns around here overrun with gangs of wild turkeys that refuse to get out of the way, and are downright ornery.

You mention that there are a lot of coyotes in VT. So maybe coyotes are a varmint, but why? Just because they make it harder for you to find deer? That doesn't cut it in my book.

You're right about VT having fewer rabbits--specifically, but why blame coyotes? Place the blame where it's due--lack of habitat is the main thing causing there to be fewer rabbits. Plus for every rabbit or fawn it kills, that coyote is killing off dozens of other small animals that would end up overbreeding if not for the coyotes.

If I have no idea what I'm talking about, then neither do these guys: http://tinyurl.com/cn6qhq

I guess your comments only make sense if you don't consider humans as part of the environment and part of the food chain. What HS is saying is not relevant to the issue Bob_Vt brought up.

More coyotes at the expense of less deer is not tolerable from an economical, tourism, or naturalistic perspective. That is my opinion and your are not going to change it: I live here and unless you live in Vermont your views of this issue are neither going to assuage nor worsen the fallacies.

Deer hunting issues in Vermont include that fact that merely crossing state lines east or west allow one to find more and better deer. The leap forward in management practices in Vermont recently are a good start to restoring the hunting to comparable quality- it's already working. So merely the idea of increasing the deer herd to feed already to numerous coyote is detestable.

 

[SS MAYFLOAT]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

In Oregon, wild turkeys did $26,000 in reported property damage in '03. To me, that seems like a nuisance.

Got any numbers on cost of teenage property damage? That would make teens a nuisance too! Kiddn but a bit of truth

I always thought a nuisance is any animal causing property damage. Just because a turkey runs across paths with you does not make it a nuisance or varmit.

Around these parts, rabbit count is pretty much zero. Every time a breeding pair moves into my back yard, neighborhood cats with collars kill them. Its happened for the last 9 years. I've only seen coyotes in my back yard once. Coyotes get their power in numbers, doesn't take too many to bring down even a man.

 

[bowman316]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

Coyotes are like crows, or foxes, you can shoot them any time of they year, when ever you see one. They are just not good for anything.

I wish i live in VT, you don't even need a permit to carry a handgun up there.

We are over run with deer here too, even though they are getting harder to kill, because everyone is hunting, and spooking them, but not killing them.
a lot of shooting and missing down here.

You make get the idea, that deer are getting scarce by hunting, but they are just hiding better.

 

[avenger79]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

just think then you guys can be like wis. We had all the herd increase strategies for some years. Now deer are more likely to be looked at as a field rat, rather then a big game animal. Oh the state enjoys their annual deer hunt where people come from many states to hunt here, but the rest of the year we're just trying to avoid them on the road.
I've hit 3 in the last two years with my truck, and 4 with the gun.

As far as the coyotes you would be amazed how fast they breed and where they inhabit. We have a group of yote hunters out by us. I don't think they've ever been skunked.

 

[lowkee]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

gangs of wild turkeys that refuse to get out of the way, and are downright ornery

This part I found particularly funny, in a sad way. Should we be passing laws that require turkeys to read the rules of our roads before crossing the street? Maybe we can consider that gang violence and give them life in prison (say no to the death penalty, of course, we are talking WA after all).

In Oregon, wild turkeys did $26,000 in reported property damage in '03. To me, that seems like a nuisance.

Now we're giving damage estimates from a different state? Was the estimate too low in WA? Maybe in WA they don't differentiate between wild turkey damage and pet turkey damage? Give me a break! "Yes insurance man, it was a wild turkey, I saw him do it and he admitted to it right before rejoining his gang of traffic offenders!"

Coyotes don't have the natural predators they used to (before we decided to kill and enslave those who lived among nature instead of in spite of it). This means reducing the kill rate of them causes strain on other populations. There is a balance which has to be maintained nowadays, and this balance is what hunters are after, not a more comfortable commute and unmolested trash cans.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

There is rarely a day I go without seeing deer. I see many when I hunt too and last year I was seeing many spike horn bucks.

The winter months here are horrible for deer. The coyotes can run down the deer in snow.

Yup just s bit frustrated about the management system. We are not really over run with wildlife or people here.

Bowman316 you wished you lived here? Come on up north ..... I think Mark or myself "might" be able to find a house for sale for you There are two cities where you can not have the gun loaded if you are going to carry it only two!

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Deer Hunting Rant

BTW hitting a turkey in the road is very close to hitting a bowling ball