Deer Hunting.. Yes / No?

         First let me say, 'yes'... I'm a nasty old hunter, but if you'll read on you just may see my point.
         ( interesting note... someone who didn't agree with this rated it 1.5 without comment. The only rev. so far, rated it 4.5, so the 'anonymous' rater dropped it to a 3 average... oh-well )( so now if you don't like what I have to say, you 'must' say something in order to rate it... so there)

First some facts

         There are 'more' deer in the US now, than before settlers arrived. Deer can't live in old growth forests. Sunlight can't reach the ground to provide food for them.


         Enter... Logging and land clearing for agriculture... also stock-ponds in arid locations providing 'water' for wildlife where none could live before.

         Highly trained Wildlife Biologists..(6 years or more of college)..assess the deer/ elk/ moose..ect. populations and make recommendations as to the number of 'permits' needed to maintain healthy numbers. (control over-population)
In the US each year, 1.2 million deer are killed on our highways at a cost of $8. billion.. not counting the 200 lives lost. ( Readers Digest Mag April 2010, page 132)

side note... In my area of Missouri, the deer numbers are so large I am able to 'purchase' an unlimited number of permits.
also note... The hunter success rate.. even with the large numbers.. is low. The Conservation Dpt. must 'sell' way more permits to achieve the desired reduction. (my 3 permits went un-filled last year, but I had many quality hours in the woods)

Fact

         At times the laws, and cries of protest from 'anti-hunters', hinders the efforts of the Game Biologists to control over-populations.

EXAMPLE...

         Yellowstone National. Park..Wyoming. The Elk population is way out of control, but being a 'Park', hunting is illegal. The elk devastate the folage in the park, and the surrounding cattle ranches each winter. Distruction and soil erosion that may never be repaired as long as the problem exists.
         Park solution? Permit hunters to 'buy' permits and harvest the excess??? No... They use 'your' and my tax money' to feed the elk, and hire professional hunters to SHOOT** them, then let them rot....but that's legal. Oh... and they Re-introduced WOLVES to help..."yuck"
**In 1962 alone, 4,619 were killed. ( Discover Mag. April 2010.. page 50)..Let's see? If HUNTERS were allowed to buy a permit, at say $200. that would be $923,800. But not all hunts are successful, so the Park's Dep. would have to sell 'prob. 5,700? permits to reduce the elk population by 4,600.

         Isle Royal National Park... Michigan. Over population of Moose. Solution??
Sell permits so hunters can thin the herds?? No. Re-introduce 'Wolves' to do the job...(ever see film of a wolf pack pulling an animal down? Yuck. They start eating way before the animal is dead... More humane than a quick bullet?... I don't think so.)



         Georgia..(I think).. An island state park...Overpopulation of' Coos Deer'. State wanted to open it to hunting until the numbers were controlled... Antis took it to court and stopped the hunt... Solution??? When they run out of food, they'll die out due to starvation. Meanwhile they're eating 'everything on the island'...good choice say what?

Now

          Let me tell you about my best... and worst deer-hunt.

         Worst one first.... I had my vacation set up for the deer season... problem? I was working graveyard shift. I would be stuck at the plant until 8 am, opening morning.
Yuck... I wanted to be up on the mountain before 7 am... no luck. When my relief arrived, I took off for the hills. Arrived at my fav. spot at 9:30. A real nice buck came into view... BANG. I was home by noon.
         The rest of the season I just looked at that mountain, wishing I was up there. However... My wife found 'lots' of things I could do...seeing as I was 'off-work'.

         My best... Again I had the season off-work... went out every day.. 'great time' but no deer for the freezer. Utah Fish and Game opened a problem area for a late hunt. (reason it is a prob. The mountain is so steep no one wants to go up there. The foothills..(where the deer used to winter) is now urban housing) The deer come into town in the winter..cars..dogs.. devastated flower gardens.. smashed store windows.. ect.)
         I was thrilled. Another chance to get out there, if only for a day. Opening morning I was going up that, very mean, mountain. However.. In those days I wore a cartrage-belt... cool-looking with all those shiny bullets around my waist. Problem was, as I fought my way up through the brush, it was stripping the bullets from that belt.
         Arriving..after a hard 4 hr climb.. I went to load my rifle... Oh-my.. Only 2 bullets.
         Go back down? Two hrs.. another hr home and back.. 4 hrs back up..NO way. I spotted several deer...but. With only 2 bullets it had to be a 'sure-thing'. No margin for a miss... then I would be down to...ONE.
         No deer that year, but I'll always have that story to tell... Greatest Hunt Ever.

So. It's not about 'killing'..(a cow or chicken must be killed before you can eat it... well I suppose one could try eating a live chicken,,, I'll pass) It's about 'recreation'... fun... telling lies to your hunting buddies...... being AWAY from work... AWAY from the nagging wife (unless you are lucky enough to have a wife that LIKES to hunt with you)... freezing your butt off on top of some mountain while your wife runs up the credit-card bill at home. Hummm... strike that. Pray for one that will share the experience with you. (I was never that lucky, but they 'are' out there)

just bob