the back yard tonight --

Unregistered2013 · Jan 20, 2010

-- i counted 19 -- !!

dave1949 · Jan 20, 2010

eric and his rtv said:
-- i counted 19 -- !!

Very cool. Is that a salt/mineral block they are working on to the right?

Thomas · Jan 21, 2010

Good to see,hope old man winter will continue to show mercy.

jinman · Jan 21, 2010

Nice photo Eric.

My soft-hearted neighbor feeds way too much corn to the wildlife. She told me that on Monday morning of this week, she had 24 does in her yard. If I don't get a fence up around my garden this spring, guess what I'll be feeding?

jayste · Jan 21, 2010

Nice! Around here, this time of year, the does and yearlings form large groups like that as well. The most I've counted in one group is 18.

Ductape · Jan 21, 2010

Time to break out the chirty-chirty !

Sigarms · Jan 21, 2010

Don't know, around my parts in NC the deer seem to have "quality issues".

Getting to see more and more deer, but sometimes thats not always a good thing.

Heck, around my parts no one thinks about NOT shooting one during hunting season, and yet they (the deer) still seem to populate very well.

Hardly see any good size bucks anymore, and most of my buddies who want to take a good size deer end up driving to Ohio.

Plow Jockey · Jan 21, 2010

eric and his rtv said:
-- i counted 19 -- !!

Around here if you saw that many deer together,it might scare most folks

czechsonofagun · Jan 22, 2010

Sigarms said:
Don't know, around my parts in NC the deer seem to have "quality issues".

Getting to see more and more deer, but sometimes thats not always a good thing.

Heck, around my parts no one thinks about NOT shooting one during hunting season, and yet they (the deer) still seem to populate very well.

Hardly see any good size bucks anymore, and most of my buddies who want to take a good size deer end up driving to Ohio.

The deer has to be managed - like no shooting of bucks under 6 points and unlimited shooting of does. Giving them space will actually drive them to the ground.

kthompson · Jan 22, 2010

As to the photo, did you really take it at night? Boy if you did what kind of equipment? Or you going to tell me my old 35 MM is way out of date?

We live in mostly farming community. Deer for the most part don't do much damage at least on our crop land, but they are here. Really are great to look at. But about two months back my attitude changed when the buck did just over $4,000 damage to my wife's car not counting scaring her. Probably did him also. Car was towed away while he had run away. At same time the most dangerous animal in the US per what I have seen to humans is...deer, auto accidents. So next hunting season I plan to do something I have not in near 40 years...

The Dougster · Jan 22, 2010

Here in the Republic of Texas, deer season ended last Sunday... while my hunters each took very nice bucks... 4 8-pointers and one 10-point, once again they neglected to harvest enough doe. It is not unusual for Da Warden and I to see 20 to 30 doe and we both know that if we see that many, there are at least twice that number un-seen.
I am thinking that next hunting season, I will cut my hunters season off two weeks early and then invite as many friends and family as possible out for a doe hunt. The over population of deer is a growing concern to me... a major concern indeed.

jayste · Jan 22, 2010

The Dougster said:
Here in the Republic of Texas, deer season ended last Sunday... while my hunters each took very nice bucks... 4 8-pointers and one 10-point, once again they neglected to harvest enough doe. It is not unusual for Da Warden and I to see 20 to 30 doe and we both know that if we see that many, there are at least twice that number un-seen.
I am thinking that next hunting season, I will cut my hunters season off two weeks early and then invite as many friends and family as possible out for a doe hunt. The over population of deer is a growing concern to me... a major concern indeed.

Common problem up here north of the Red as well. Not too many generations ago it was "taboo" to shoot does. Now it's needed. They've (Dept. of Wildlife) has created special seasons and increased the number of "doe days". Personally, I like the taste of does!

Antlers taste bad anyway and are hard on my teeth!

(famous last words of a guy that sees a whole lot more does than bucks)

Redneck in training · Jan 22, 2010

In old Czechoslovakia hunters used to be required to shoot 3 or 5 does (don't remember the exact number since I am 23 years gone from there and I never hunted) before they were allowed to shoot a single buck.
Now we live in Iowa and in about past 15 years every car and motorcycle we owned has a deer damage.
Needles to say I like deer even though they did a lot of expensive damage to my new trees. Now I run electric fence line to almost every tree we planted to protect them. So far they leave them alone.

jayste · Jan 22, 2010

You know? Something just occured to me. I'm a hunter as well as a fan of wildlife. But I have to admit that when I look at deer in pictures I catch myself picking for the best "shot placement"!?

dave1949 · Jan 22, 2010

jayste said:
You know? Something just occured to me. I'm a hunter as well as a fan of wildlife. But I have to admit that when I look at deer in pictures I catch myself picking for the best "shot placement"!?

Well, you are a member of a 'super predator' species ya know

Dave.

Mike120 · Jan 22, 2010

The Dougster said:
Here in the Republic of Texas, deer season ended last Sunday... while my hunters each took very nice bucks... 4 8-pointers and one 10-point, once again they neglected to harvest enough doe. It is not unusual for Da Warden and I to see 20 to 30 doe and we both know that if we see that many, there are at least twice that number un-seen.
I am thinking that next hunting season, I will cut my hunters season off two weeks early and then invite as many friends and family as possible out for a doe hunt. The over population of deer is a growing concern to me... a major concern indeed.

As a young lad, I learned that you cannot tell the difference in taste between a buck and a doe. I don't know the rules now, but in those days you could shoot anything that was on your own land.....we ate venison year round.

FSE · Jan 23, 2010

According to the NC Wildlife reports we have a population of 15 deer per acre in the county I live in. Sometime we can't get in the driveway for them and they just stand there and look at you.

jimmyj · Jan 23, 2010

15 per acre! That is crazy! I can't imagine. There must be all sorts of vehicle deer collisions. How on earth can they survive at that density?

FSE · Jan 23, 2010

jimmyj said:
15 per acre! That is crazy! I can't imagine. There must be all sorts of vehicle deer collisions. How on earth can they survive at that density?

The quantity is high, the quality is very poor. There are a lot of birth defects and a lot of albino deer. There are a lot of road kill also. It is also very hard to have a garden.

FSE · Jan 23, 2010

jimmyj said:
15 per acre! That is crazy! I can't imagine. There must be all sorts of vehicle deer collisions. How on earth can they survive at that density?

Now that you mentioned it, that does sound like a lot and I remembered reading that several years ago in a NC Game mag. I just looked it up on the wildlife site and it says greater than 45 per square mile. That sounds more realistic.