The Vent and Rant Thread

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

I guess she heard the whistle, and stopped to listen!

we have roo whistles here as well.

I'll share a little story. When i was 19 and a vegi back in the 70's I visited some friends who wanted to go roo shootin'.

We got into a bushbasher and the driver stopped the engine and put his finger over his mouth to say " be quiet " there was a mob of roos about 300 yards away. My mates started to crawl towards the mob on their bellies through the grass with their rifles. Now I wasn't too worried about this at the time. If they shot one or two I wasn't going to be too upset. I just wasn't going to help them, they can clean up the mess themselves.
They were taking forever to crawl over to the mob and while i waited I noticed the empty shell cartridges on the floor of the bush basher. Being bored by this time I picked one up and blew over the top of it to make a whistle sound.

Mick came back with the rifle over his shoulder saying to Greg "I wonder why they all ran away."

There's a time to speak and a time not to speak.

[orlok]

Originally Posted by wannabee

Mick came back with the rifle over his shoulder saying to Greg "I wonder why they all ran away."

There's a time to speak and a time not to speak.

Hope Mick and Greg don't visit MR too often... Or did your ever 'fess up?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by Stitchawl

please keep in mind that a major reason for seeing so many deer these days is that humans are encroaching on the deer's feeding areas, cutting down too much habitat, forcing the deer to look for food closer to humans. we keep putting in more housing developments, reducing the food supply.

S.

You have to be kidding!

We're talking about rural communities here, nothing but farms for miles, with herds of deer happily munching the corn crops. It's not the encroachment of habitat, it's the inability (unwillingness) to properly manage the herds.

[benham]

Alright, venison steaks!

We have Homeland Security to keep the deer away.
http://www.photoshow.com/watch/qn6bv6Gf

[bjones6416]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

About 5 years ago, I was driving in my VW Rabbit after dark on a country road, and a doe bounded into the road, crossed it and then stopped on the edge with her rear end still in my path. I swerved left as far as I could (didn't want a head-on collision in the left lane) and smacked into her. She was seemingly fine - and bounded away. My entire right front headlight assembly was crushed, the radiator grill bent, etc.
Before this had happened, I had attached "deer alert" whistles to my car (I do a lot of driving on country roads) [http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Activated...436514&sr=1-2]. Ironically, after the collision, the right side warning whistle was pointing straight up! I guess she heard the whistle, and stopped to listen!

Wait. A chicken, riding a rabbit, running into a deer? Walt Disney, where are you when we need you?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

About 5 years ago, I was driving in my VW Rabbit after dark on a country road, and a doe bounded into the road, crossed it and then stopped on the edge with her rear end still in my path. I swerved left as far as I could (didn't want a head-on collision in the left lane) and smacked into her. She was seemingly fine - and bounded away. My entire right front headlight assembly was crushed, the radiator grill bent, etc.
Before this had happened, I had attached "deer alert" whistles to my car (I do a lot of driving on country roads) [http://www.amazon.com/Wind-Activated...436514&sr=1-2]. Ironically, after the collision, the right side warning whistle was pointing straight up! I guess she heard the whistle, and stopped to listen!

An old friend in an EMT in northern New Hampshire. He posted to a list I'm on describing an ambulance call.

They'd been called to a local resort to pick up an apparent heart attack victim. On the way back, they side-swiped a moose. The patient was awake in the back, and said "What was that?". The attendant riding with him said "You know all those signs on the road about moose crossing? That's why..."

As my friend described it, when a moose is startled, the first thing it does is defecate, copiously. The moose was unharmed by the collision, shook itself, and ambled away. The ambulance was less fortunate. It lost the driver's side read view mirror, suffered various dents, and the entire left side of the vehicle was coated in moose dung. They had to wheel the patient into the hospital on a gurney from farther away than was the usual practice, and thoroughly hose down the ambulance before parking it again in the firehouse.

At that, they were lucky. The moose was merely startled, and not actually mad. An enraged moose will come after you and not stop. And they are big enough and powerful enough that if they catch you, your car is probably totaled, and you might be too.
______
Dennis

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by wodin

You have to be kidding!

We're talking about rural communities here, nothing but farms for miles, with herds of deer happily munching the corn crops. It's not the encroachment of habitat, it's the inability (unwillingness) to properly manage the herds.

I used to live in Pennsylvania, and deer hunting was a major thing there. The PA state department of agriculture published (and still does, I imagine) a magazine called Pennsylvania Game News, aimed at the hunters and fishermen who lived in or traveled to the state to practice their hobby. Deer hunting was a substantial portion of the content.

The underlying problem is that we've largely killed off the deer's natural predators, and the population is limited solely by the available food supply. No surprise that the deer wander farther afield looking for food. It's exacerbated in areas where people dislike the practice of hunting and make it difficult for humans to be the predators. Some friends of mine live in suburban NJ, and a deer trial runs past their house. The last time I was there for a party I watched a family of deer amble out of the woods, across the road, and through the lawn of a house across the street to get to their intended destination. It's a heavily built-up enough area that I can't imagine hunting being permitted in the township, so the deer have no concerns about wandering through (save becoming road kill on a highway.)

"Managing the herds" means keeping the population down by killing the excess. If you're not willing to do that, the consequences are inevitable.
______
Dennis

[poohbear_nc]

Originally Posted by bjones6416

Wait. A chicken, riding a rabbit, running into a deer? Walt Disney, where are you when we need you?

[wodin]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

"Managing the herds" means keeping the population down by killing the excess. If you're not willing to do that, the consequences are inevitable.
______
Dennis

Exactly!

[SneakySnake]

Originally Posted by wannabee

we have roo whistles here as well.

I'll share a little story. When i was 19 and a vegi back in the 70's I visited some friends who wanted to go roo shootin'.

We got into a bushbasher and the driver stopped the engine and put his finger over his mouth to say " be quiet " there was a mob of roos about 300 yards away. My mates started to crawl towards the mob on their bellies through the grass with their rifles. Now I wasn't too worried about this at the time. If they shot one or two I wasn't going to be too upset. I just wasn't going to help them, they can clean up the mess themselves.
They were taking forever to crawl over to the mob and while i waited I noticed the empty shell cartridges on the floor of the bush basher. Being bored by this time I picked one up and blew over the top of it to make a whistle sound.

Mick came back with the rifle over his shoulder saying to Greg "I wonder why they all ran away."

There's a time to speak and a time not to speak.

reminds me of my teenagerhood. The bushbasher not the roo shootin although I did shoot a couple of guide posts. Ahh bushbasher (HR or EH?) on its roof in the pineforest or stuck on a broken bridge. The memories!

Originally Posted by orlok

Hope Mick and Greg don't visit MR too often... Or did your ever 'fess up?

I don't think Mick or Greg are that interested in reading

[Mortis]

Being from the frozen North I know a thing or two about the over population of deer, moose, elk and bears. I have never been a hunter, but I have had to do some wildlife management, unfortunately for the cars and truck I was driving at the time, this wildlife management was very expensive.

My first "Encounter" with wildlife was in a 74 Toyota, the badger didn't make it sadly, but then again neither did my car. Hitting a badger in a small car is a little like running over a larg rock, screws up the steering and tosses you like a rag into the ditch at 70 miles an hour.

I have hit a herd of deer on the highway, I was in the fast lane and a lady in the slow lane saw the deer and rather than doing the smart thing, slow down, she decided that the deer would be less agitated if she just honked at them. The bad news for me was that the deer 6 or 7 of them, all ran directly into my lane and threw themselves at my push bar, (like a roo catcher, but smaller). I managed to slow down enough that the front of my Jeep was only slightly damaged, both front fenders removed! Sadly the deer did not live to do it again, 3 were killed on the road and a forth died in the ditch. While cleaning up the carnage (Imagine the insides of 3 deer all over the front of a Jeep, not pretty) the lady that honked stopped to give her 2 cents... her words "You really should have slowed down, I was only going 60 (km) when you passed me, I could have stopped..." needless to say I was not pleased! Remember, the speed limit on the highway is 110kmh and she was going at a blistering speed of 60, shes lucky I saw her and didn't run into the back of her car!

I have never hit a bear, bu tit has been close a time or two, I did see the aftermath of a bear - Kennworth encounter, the front drivers side wheel was removed and the fuel tank, running boards and the fender were all destroyed, the driver was lucky he managesd to keep it on the road.

I have hit an Elk, a moose and numerous deer, the moose and elk both wrote off trucks, both brand new and were replacement trucks that had met with a similar fate.

Wildlife management is important, the number of deer, moose, elk and bears have gone up steadily in Alberta for the past 20 years, since about the time PITA and others started their campaign to stop "Killers" hunting. I don't hunt, but I thank those that do for thinning the herd!

[kindlekitten]

you're welcome

[Stitchawl]

Hunting is necessary for game management when humans take over deer yards and build houses on them. When it is stopped, by well meaning people, the herd suffers in the long run. Overpopulation means that starvation and sickness will decimate the population far greater than hunting/culling would have. Deer won't wonder into human habitats unless there is no food left in their own grounds. (excepts for the farmer's corn, that is...)

In areas where these same 'well meaning' activists managed to stop leg-hold trapping of fur bearers, the incidence of Rabies shot up 400% in the human population in the areas no longer being trapped. When the ban was repealed, the incidence of Rabies dropped back to usual levels within a year. (Check northern Chesapeake Bay area trapping.)

Pennsylvania's deer population is so thick that the 'normal' deer size/weight has reduced almost 50% in the past 30 years. (We won't even mention the size of the Virgina Whitetail... those of you who drive the Blue Ridge Pkwy know the German Shepard-sized deer you see.) In that state (PA,) only shotgunning is permitted for deer hunting due to the close proximity to human population areas, and dressed deer weights are averaging 50lbs.

Deer aren't supposed to be this small.

Game management is a tricky balancing act. Wild turkey has been successfully re-introduced in Vermont after being gone for more than 50 years. Moose have been coming back in the north-east kingdom, also having been gone for many years. The deer herd in Vermont is healthier now than at any time in history, with each doe producing 2.4 fawns per year, and average gross weight up over 120lbs. and lower road-kill and winter starvation rates than have ever been noted. Even the wolves are returning, and believe it or not, that is a good thing!

One of the earliest laws ever passed in 'the Colonies,' was passed in the area of Vermont/New Hampshire, and was a law setting bag limits and seasons for deer hunting! In the late 1700's!


Stitchawl

[SneakySnake]

If there are so many deer, you would expect the meat to be cheap and plentiful. Does it taste nice?

[Stitchawl]

Originally Posted by SneakySnake

If there are so many deer, you would expect the meat to be cheap and plentiful. Does it taste nice?

The deer that is sold commercially is farm-raised, and therefor not so cheap in the US. In Europe it is much more reasonably priced. In most states in the US it is illegal to sell deer that has been hunted.

Deer meat 'can' be delicious. It depends a lot on what the deer have been feeding on, and that depends a lot upon the local deer hunting season. A young doe that's been feeding on summer corn tastes a whole lot better than an old buck that's been feeding on spruce tree tips. The farm-raised deer have been fed corn and other grains, and have had an abundance of fresh greens and good mineral supplements. They have been penned in large yards so no need to run off fat running away from predators. Very tasty meat.

Personally, I love a venison roast, marinated in red wine, with lots of garlic, roasted onions and potatoes around it... But I like to thread strips of beef fat through the roast with a larding needle before cooking. Deer meat is VERY lean!

A LOT of deer poaching goes on in rural areas in the US, and when I lived in the Northeast, most of my neighbors had venison in the freezer all year around. These were folks with little money and large families, and the deer they took wasn't for sport.

Stitchawl