Rough times for whitetails?

[oosik]

The whitetail, muleys and elk find a pleasant surprise, this time of year. Many farmers either leave their round bales out in the field for a long time or stack them in rows. Out in the fields.

The critters find the center of round bales particularly tasty. Round bales don't unroll so well without centers.

 

[garry1p]

The few deer I had hanging around here moved on just no rain and the creek on my property is totally dried up.
Apple and pear trees had no fruit this year, they ate the mscadines as soon as they turned and then just disappeared.

I assume deer hunters will spook them back once gun season starts.

 

[Oaktree]

PA is #4 in the US for road kill. I can't drive anywhere around here without seeing a carcass on the side of the road.

A few years ago we were passing thru the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and in the course of 10 miles or so we must have seen 7 or 8 deer carcasses on the side of the interstate. First impression was that "somebody hit Bambi" because these deer weren't much bigger than fawns here, but after a while realized it was a variety that was quite a bit smaller than what we have here.

Local white tails are looking very healthy in my area. At least the many that I have seen.
They should! They have eaten every leaf off of every Hosta plant for a radius of about 5 miles. I don't keep track out further ;-)

My wife has me pee around her hosta plants as a deterrent, especially in the spring. Seems to work.

 

[bdhsfz6]

A few years ago we were passing thru the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area and in the course of 10 miles or so we must have seen 7 or 8 deer carcasses on the side of the interstate. First impression was that "somebody hit Bambi" because these deer weren't much bigger than fawns here, but after a while realized it was a variety that was quite a bit smaller than what we have here.

My wife has me pee around her hosta plants as a deterrent, especially in the spring. Seems to work.

They're all Whitetails here in PA. They're small because they have overpopulated and don't live long enough to get big. Competition for food is tough. Many yearlings don't make it through their first winter due to starvation.

 

[Dftodd]

I've been seeing a pretty good sized buck on our property.

I saw him going after 4 doe a couple weeks ago. Once the flash light hit him, he dropped down into the tall grass.

We spooked him out when we walked down the neighbors driveway. Couldn't count the points but I could make out the middle and top of the rack.

Hea gonna make someone happy if they get him in their sites.

We spooked him out of the same area Monday morning about 5am when I was walking the pooch.

I'll usually spot their eyes first, but not this time.

We didn't see him till he jumped up and went further into the under brush.

 

[Racer4]

We were target shooting in north central PA last weekend. Down at the end of the field, probably 75 yards away, 2 deer were grazing for almost 2 hours while we shot. They didn’t get spooked until someone came out of the woods at the other end of the field on a quad. Never seen that before. Deer are pretty skittish around there.

 

[Dftodd]

We were target shooting in north central PA last weekend. Down at the end of the field, probably 75 yards away, 2 deer were grazing for almost 2 hours while we shot. They didn’t get spooked until someone came out of the woods at the other end of the field on a quad. Never seen that before. Deer are pretty skittish around there.

I remember one of my dad's friends hunting in PA about 30 years ago.

He had both buck and doe permits.

Well he saw a really nice doe pop it's head up behind a log.

He shot it. Then it pops up. He shot it again. It pops back up.

He does this 8 times before it stopped getting back up.

He goes to collect his deer and once he gets over there, there are 8 deer laying there

He called the came warden and explained what happened once the warden arrived.

Even walking over to where he shot from, 100 yards away.

Game warden let him go with the one deer and donated the rest to the local food pantry.

Boy was he sweating it though wondering how much trouble he was gonna get into

 

[LouNY]

I remember one of my dad's friends hunting in PA about 30 years ago.

He had both buck and doe permits.

Well he saw a really nice doe pop it's head up behind a log.

He shot it. Then it pops up. He shot it again. It pops back up.

He does this 8 times before it stopped getting back up.

He goes to collect his deer and once he gets over there, there are 8 deer laying there

He called the came warden and explained what happened once the warden arrived.

Even walking over to where he shot from, 100 yards away.

Game warden let him go with the one deer and donated the rest to the local food pantry.

Boy was he sweating it though wondering how much trouble he was gonna get into

Hell of a lot less of a power tripping game warden then you'd get these days.

 

[Dftodd]

Hell of a lot less of a power tripping game warden then you'd get these days.

Yeah, they would confiscate everything from your gun to the truck, throw you in jail and lose the key.

 

[buckeyefarmer]

fortunately missed two already this week with the new car, both close calls.

 

[Dftodd]

fortunately missed two already this week with the new car, both close calls.

We smoked one with our jeep wrangler 3 days before we were to leave on vacation. We were planning on driving the jeep.

We got lucky. It scuffed up the driver side fender flare, and left some poop and fur on the front bumper

 

[bdhsfz6]

An interesting whitetail story:

A tree in the back of a coworkers yard was struck by lightning a few years ago. There were 7 deer under it and all were killed. He called the PA game commission and asked what he should do. The warden he spoke with said it would be ok to take them all to a butcher who would then donate the meat. On the way to the butcher, he was stopped, with 7 deer in the bed of his pickup, by the state police. He explained that the game commission told him it was ok, but he was arrested anyway. The warden he spoke with was out of the office and couldn't verify the story. He spent a night in jail before the whole affair was resolved.

 

[LouNY]

An interesting whitetail story:

A tree in the back of a coworkers yard was struck by lightning a few years ago. There were 7 deer under it and all were killed. He called the PA game commission and asked what he should do. The warden he spoke with said it would be ok to take them all to a butcher who would then donate the meat. On the way to the butcher, he was stopped, with 7 deer in the bed of his pickup, by the state police. He explained that the game commission told him it was ok, but he was arrested anyway. The warden he spoke with was out of the office and couldn't verify the story. He spent a night in jail before the whole affair was resolved.

That would have been interesting to be that poor butcher, his shop would have been a mess. I also have to wonder about the taste of that meat with the animal not having been bleed out.

 

[bdhsfz6]

That would have been interesting to be that poor butcher, his shop would have been a mess. I also have to wonder about the taste of that meat with the animal not having been bleed out.

The butcher was recommended by the warden. Apparently, they deal with situations like this. The warden said my coworker could keep one for himself but he declined for the reasons you mention.

 

[garry1p]

Cooked from the inside out like a microwave.

 

[bdhsfz6]

Cooked from the inside out like a microwave.

I wish more would get fried. The whitetail population here in PA is just ridiculous. It's rumored the PA Game Commission may allow Sunday hunting in an attempt to cull the herd.

 

[kenmbz]

I wish more would get fried. The whitetail population here in PA is just ridiculous. It's rumored the PA Game Commission may allow Sunday hunting in an attempt to cull the herd.

A few of our neighbors did a big cull and a lot of does were cleared out.
Unfortunately it looks like they took out all the young bucks too, being investigated.
I guess they've never seen antlers before?

We still have too many, but at least I only see 2-3/day instead of 5-20.

With the numbers I was seeing, I would imagine winter would be very rough.

We have lots of autumn olive with berries out now, so they have a lot to eat for winter prep.
We even had one try to eat one of our hot peppers, learning experience..Deer backed up pretty fast!

 

[NoTrespassing]

Bluetongue disease - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We're losing them like flies to Blue Tongue disease. There were 3 dead within 300 ft. of our house with buzzards eating them.

 

[kenmbz]

Bluetongue disease - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

We're losing them like flies to Blue Tongue disease. There were 3 dead within 300 ft. of our house with buzzards eating them.

That sounds pretty bad, we have chronic wasting disease not too far away, Hopefully we won't be hit by either, but.....

 

[garry1p]

I read an article in a hunting magazine where 1 buck can service 10 does.

I think it was in NC and they wanted to keep it close to that ratio.