New Yankee 7: Deer Hunters Full Crack [Password]
Jalisa Landgren
Was discussing "small deer" with my daughter, and she suggested I google small deer. While typing that google suggested "smallest deer ever shot", which took me to a forum where they were telling about shooting spotted fawns.
Does having their first fawns will often bread in mid winter and have their fawns in mid summer. By hunting season - especially early bow season, these fawns could still have spots. I've caught pictures of spotted fawns on my trail cans in November. They would be legal game in Missouri.
I can see a kid or an inexperienced hunter making a mistake but the guys that do it out of spite, competitiveness or just plain meanness or greed for a kill? I have no use for them.I have known folks that were just plain poor and hunted for meat but had enough morals not to take game that was outside the bounds of the law or ethics. I have also known people like some of these guys. I put them in the same ranks as poachers. I do not abide poachers and other lower life forms.
In many parts of the whitetail range they have become overpopulated to the point of being a destructive nuisance. In Missouri, probably more are killed on highways than by hunters. Crop destruction is more than significant. They have invaded urban areas and feed on shrubs in lawns. Blue tounge and chronic wasting has started killing them off.
Warden, I blame part of that on the bureaucratic nightmare that is the Dept of Fish and Game in most states. It seems that most DFGs appear to be anti-hunting but they want the revenue to expand their little empires. At least that is my experience with California, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Oregon.
Our conservation department has tried hard to manage the deer population. As far back as 40 years ago some areas were so overpopulated that the conservation department set up blinds and killed off as many as they could. They have permitted some farmers to destroy deer in any numbers at any time by any means.
In some urban areas, they give out unlimited doe tags. Last time I looked, I'm allowed to take 12 deer on our property by bow, rifle or muzzle loader combined. They have expanded methods to include air rifles and cross bows. People can get handicap permit to hunt from vehicle.
I think we're up to 7 deer by vehicle in past 40 years. Some did little to no damage. Other times pretty much totaled the front end. Late last fall at about 4:00 am a doe came out of the dark and ran headlong into the side of our F150 doing $1,800 in damages.
Kansas is overpopulated with deer and cause millions of dollars in property damage and injuries and death to occupants of vehicles. Driving home for work last night I saw two dead deer that had got hit by vehicles within a 5 mile piece of highway.
To the best of my knowledge it is legal in Connecticut & Vermont, the 2 states I have hunted. However, I would never intentionally pull the trigger on a fawn and never have. Just doesn't seem "sportsman like" to me. I have seen others do it however and no one gave them the time of day to even look at in the truck. JMHO
I just checked the Texas Parks and Wildlife website and as best I can tell they are considered an "anterless deer" and therefore are legal. I wouldn't knowingly shoot a fawn, but I have shot a few yearlings, sometimes by design, sometimes thinking it was a doe. Without other deer around for size comparison sometimes it's hard to tell. Yearlings do make mighty fine eating! Few years ago, right at dark, I shot an illegal "button buck" thinking it was a doe. Rolled it over to dress it and it had male "junk". I was like "where did you get THAT?!?!" Only then did I check and notice it had buttons. In Texas, and antler has to be at least 1 inch to be considered a "point" and make it a LEGAL buck. Oddly enough a multi point deer with antlers less than 13" (inside the ears basically) is NOT legal. Go figure. A one inch "spike" is legal, but a full grown buck with a tiny rack is not.
In Wisconsin, that I know of, it is not illegal to shoot a deer with spots. I've seen numbers of button bucks, small does taken but these are done more by inexperienced hunters that have not gained the ability to judge the age of a deer on sight. It is tough for me yet today. You see brown and want them to have horns. Highly excitable. Young deer are tasty. In parts of the state they encourage you to shoot anything brown. In other parts of the state it is bucks only but even there deer sightings are few a far between. The wolves have really removed a lot of the population up north. Changing the status of wolves is a whole other subject.
Other contributors here have already stated that the sporting issue comes into play but if there is meat needed, crop damage to reduce, damage to shrubs and other plants in town, then elimination may be called for. One the way home last night I spotted 5 pan heads on the edge of the park. City squad car 30 yards from them with the lights on with another car pulled over for some violation. Didn't bother the deer in the least. Another squad parked 50 yards behind the first squad "observing". I live in the country and we get deer that walk up next to the house, the shed, the chicken coop. We see them in the back yard eating from the bird feeders. They aren't too afraid.
When we first moved out to the "farm", it was common to see 40+ deer a night in the field. The Amish moved in and within 3 years the numbers dropped to a tenth of that. The herd is starting to come back but some of the neighbors, farmers, get ag tags and encourage people to come and cull them out.
For weeks I kept hearing on far the shots would be at this new spot a guy was going to show me. Had a doe tag and sure enough there was one way out there but after nailing prarie dogs at 400 no big deal. From a reall solid rest I shot and missed, added a little bit more hold over and shot again. Repeated more than I want to admit. Getting low on bullets, I held on the meat and down it went. Imagine my surprise when I walked out a little bit pass 200 yards to claim my deer, a young deer with no spots and no brush etc nearby to judge the distance or size.
There are so many deer in our area there is no hunting involved. Last three I've "harvested" were within 100 yards of the house and within a few minutes of opening morning. I didn't even hunt them. I just took a rifle with me to the sawmill shed.
Son came down from Minnesota last fall to meat hunt. Opening morning we had breakfast and he went outabout 8:00. By 8:05 he had a buck and doe on the ground. By 9:00 field dressed and hanging. A couple of day's later he went out and killed a fawn to fill out his tag and rest of space in his coolers. X Marine Corpus sniper. No hunting involved.
Missouri is trying to produce more trophy bucks by protecting young bucks. I think it takes at least 4x4 to be legal buck. Or spike less than 3" that would be called antlerless. I think they have modified that plan in some areas in order to reduce buck population. Bucks tend to cover a bigger range than does and fawns thus spread disease faster.
legal in GA but frowned upon but if i have more than 4 acres planted the game warden will issue me a permit to hunt all day and night all year . the deer in south Georgia are thick. the other morning on the way to church 10 jumped in front of me on my driveway. the deer totally destroyed a neighbors farm produce one year to the point he had nothing to sell in his store that he operates.
having said that i have never shot a fawn nor thought it big enough to mess with. not enough meat so why bother. a yearling maybe. much prefer a doe though as the two girls prefer the taste to a buck.
Deer finally started to appear in our area in late 50s. I was the first in the family to actually see one on our property. I was 8 years old in 1958 and galavanting in the woods away from the house. I heard a pack of dowgs running something. They ran a doe right past me. I ran to the house to tell the story. Nobody believed me.
It was several years before a very limited season was open in our county. For many years it was bucks only. So few were taken that the procedure was to call the game warden and he'd come and register the kill. Now, you can apply for permit online and report your harvest on line. Now the target is does so to keep the population in check.
I shot one once accidentally. It was legal, as it was anterless season, but I was going for a doe and this little fawn sprang right out of nowhere and got took the arrow. I tagged it and took it home. It was closer to a yearling than fawn, though it did have a few spots left still. It was good eating, I'll have to admit.
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