Got Deer???

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#21

Post: # 54187Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 5:04 pm

White-tailed-deer-antlers.-C-Watts-Flickr-cc-by-2.0-e1512498784854.jpg
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Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#22

Post: # 54195Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 19, 2021 7:23 pm

I have no idea why anyone would fight over road kill.
The meat would be bloodshot and nasty.
Worth
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Mark_Thompson
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Re: Got Deer???

#23

Post: # 54198Unread post Mark_Thompson
Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:11 pm

Luckily none on my part of the island, but drive fifteen minutes and they’re thick. Friends pic from today, I’m eating good tomorrow!

0978F7BC-F200-4B66-BDC8-2C44B836F0D3.jpeg
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Re: Got Deer???

#24

Post: # 54203Unread post MissS
Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:36 pm

Mark_Thompson wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 9:11 pm Luckily none on my part of the island, but drive fifteen minutes and they’re thick. Friends pic from today, I’m eating good tomorrow!


0978F7BC-F200-4B66-BDC8-2C44B836F0D3.jpeg
I'm surprised that you have them over there! That just doesn't seem right at all to me. :o
~ Patti ~

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Re: Got Deer???

#25

Post: # 54216Unread post JRinPA
Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:27 am

@Amateurinawe, I can't say for sure whether that is a current PA sign. We used to say the same thing. "Which one is that, Donner or Dancer?" The kids say, It's Rudolph! "No, Rudolph would have a red nose."
I think they revised it at some point. I just looked at a site for PA highway signs and it shows
https://www.pahighways.com/images/mutcd ... /w11-3.png Can't get it to image link. I think there are mix of old and new around, now.

I'm pretty sure PA leads the nation in deer collisions. Potholes AND deer collisions. Woohoo!

In all my years I've only hit one, and that was on a Thanksgiving morning at 4am when I was heading out for ducks. A medium doe, it jumped out but spun back, and I caught the hindquarter. It wrecked my passenger quarter panel and door. It was an old dakota that ended up totaled, $ wise. It was a huge impact, and I was only doing 45. It was a 3 speed automatic. The truck stalled, but restarted, and when I parked it 5 miles later, it smelled like burnt oil. It was dripping oil. Popped the hood and there was oil all over the engine compartment. But it started that afternoon when I got back. I didn't call the insurance company until Fri and they asked if I had proof it was a deer. Why didn't I call the police? Was I drinking? Did I recover the deer? Truthfully I did look for it, both 4am and 4pm, but I couldn't see it anywhere. It was along a fallow field on a back road. But there was hair all over the dents when the body shop guy did the estimate.

There is nothing wrong with a road killed deer in good shape, but you need to be selective. At least a deer never went through a slaughterhouse/grocery chain like domestic chicken/turkey/cow. That clearance meat has been on the shelf a long time, and that bright red ground beef has food coloring in it.

I have not come to blows, I hope that was a joke, but one of the dozens of deer I have picked up comes to mind. This was up in coal cracker country on a high speed divided highway. Coming back from hunting on one of the mountains, I see a road kill that looks fresh on my side, but too late to slow down, so I had to loop back around, pull off before the guard rail, and walk up 80 yards. As I was looked it over (fresh and clean, warm armpit, good sized doe, 110-120lb, what I call a 4" hit, just the clipped the head) a guy pulled up and parked halfway in the right lane. He got out and said he had just called someone about it. I asked if he had hit it. The motorist that hits a deer has legal claim in PA. He said no, but I just called someone to come get it. I said, yeah, well I just turned around to park safely, or I'd be 5 miles down the road already. As I looked it over one more time, his two buddies showed up. They consult, but there was no argument, they knew I was there first. But I knew, that if I went back to get my truck, they would surely take it. So I said, "Well, I'm taking it. You guys have a good one", picked it up, front hooves in my left hand, back hooves in my right, and walked it all the way back to my truck without putting it down once. They were still parked there watching when I drove past them.

My dad was so proud of me. :lol:

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Re: Got Deer???

#26

Post: # 54218Unread post JRinPA
Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:30 am

OMG throw that bloodshot meat away, Mark!




Maybe the kids were right?
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Mark_Thompson
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Re: Got Deer???

#27

Post: # 54219Unread post Mark_Thompson
Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:49 am

JRinPA wrote: Mon Sep 20, 2021 12:30 am OMG throw that bloodshot meat away, Mark!
That’s what axis looks like here, it’s delicious. Having tried white tail and elk I’d pick this ten times out of ten.
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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#28

Post: # 54221Unread post worth1
Mon Sep 20, 2021 6:03 am

I don't think you're allowed to collect road kill deer in Texas.
Just checked no you can't.
Worth
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karstopography
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Re: Got Deer???

#29

Post: # 54226Unread post karstopography
Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:18 am

@JRinPA I’ll second how delicious Axis Deer is. Those Indian Subcontinent deer were also introduced into Texas decades ago and there are large feral populations in the Edwards Plateau/West Texas area. The last few deer I have harvested have been Axis and while the meat looks dark, it is very mild with no wild twang that whitetail venison might have. Axis are grazers rather than browsing deer like whitetail. Anyway, the venison from Axis is spectacular.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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karstopography
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Re: Got Deer???

#30

Post: # 54227Unread post karstopography
Mon Sep 20, 2021 7:28 am

6AAE8A46-39B0-4827-8FEC-FA6514057FE9.jpeg
My daughter harvested this Axis buck a few years ago out near Junction, Tx.

Axis deer in Texas are a nuisance, an invasive species. There’s no closed season and no limit, you just need a valid hunting license and either lease or own a place to harvest them. People even contract with outfits to remove the herds for marketable venison from their ranch land.
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Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#31

Post: # 54482Unread post worth1
Thu Sep 23, 2021 12:12 pm

@karstopography
That's the problem with Texas.
No public hunting land.
Costs a fortune for hunting lease.
Meat not worth it.
Was raised being able to hunt without paying money.
Last deer I shot was years ago.
What kind of rifle is that?
Looks like a Mark 5.
My dad had a Weatherby built by the company out of a pre 64 Winchester.
257 Magnum.
Back before the Mark 5.
Worth
25 miles southeast of Waterloo Texas.

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You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Re: Got Deer???

#32

Post: # 54488Unread post karstopography
Thu Sep 23, 2021 3:15 pm

Steyr M chambered in .270 Winchester. Probably hasn’t had more than 300 rounds go through it, if that. Most years it doesn’t get shot at all. My daughter is the only one that ever shoots it now. It’s her granddad’s gun. Good looking rifle. That particular rifle was probably built in mid 1970s. I shot a doe in the eye with that same gun in the late 1970s. I shot freehand and the deer was just over 100 yards, it was a hit or miss get some quick venison effort. I always shoot for the neck or head, no chance for them running off and there’s an instant kill.

Not much public hunting deer hunting land for sure here in Texas. Classmate hunted one deer season in the Sam Houston NF and got rewarded by getting shot, not fatally, but still, no thanks. Friend of mine was hunting deer in Massachusetts with a bow up a little in a tree and some knucklehead almost shot him with a shotgun and buckshot. Swung on him as if a deer would be in a tree. Scared my buddy so bad he gave up hunting. Some of these city people got itchy trigger fingers. That’s the chief problem with hunting publicly accessible land, the random knuckleheads. Things are better out west with so much public land and open country and relatively fewer people.

Daughter was hunting on land once owned by her granddad and uncle, but that’s been recently sold off. Either got to know someone who has the land or expect to pay a lot for a lease, but as you know the venison will almost always cost way over beef by the time it’s all added up. Kind of the same for a lot of these fishermen around here. Rigs costing 80k for a few pounds of fish every month, the math is pretty bad.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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Re: Got Deer???

#33

Post: # 54516Unread post JRinPA
Thu Sep 23, 2021 6:14 pm

Farmers don't want the deer eating their crops.
Homeowners don't want the deer eating their shrubs.
Gardeners don't want the deer eating their vegetables.
Meanwhile, hunters want to eat the deer, but the problem is threefold. Access. Access. Access.
Responsible hunters can only control deer populations where they have permission. And it is only a small percentage of the landowners that will grant such permission.
If you want less deer damage, do what you can to help the local hunters get permission to hunt. Bows are quiet. Rifles are effective.
Hunting is very safe, much safer than stick and ball sports, and it is important to get kids involved with nature, too. For every story of someone or something getting shot (looking at you *Bleep* cheney), there are are hundreds of thousands, of perfectly safe hunters.
The alternative to responsible licensed hunters is mass killings of deer at night by sharpshooters, like they are garbage to be collected, and costing big $$$.

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Re: Got Deer???

#34

Post: # 54549Unread post karstopography
Fri Sep 24, 2021 8:11 am

https://landassociation.org/axis-deer-i ... ate-guide/
https://landassociation.org/how-many-de ... by-region/
https://wildlife.tamu.edu/wildlifemanagement/deer/

The three main deer in Texas. Whitetail population somewhere over 5 million. Mule deer around 200,000
Axis somewhere around half of that.

Many people here lease land to hunt them. Growing up, dad and a bunch of buddies would lease a tract of rangeland from a rancher. Generally, there was a scorpion and rat infested abandoned farm house or shack to sleep in if your dad didn’t buy an RV! Hunting season was a big deal and very exciting for me. Meant going somewhere fun with a bunch of grown ups and a chance to shoot a deer. Deer in Texas were much more rare back in the 1970s-1980s than now. People in the great depression and mid 20th century about hunted deer to extinction in Texas and there were some mass die offs I believe from screw flies and such. Most of the deer in Texas share their habitat with domestic sheep, goats and cattle. Texas has tremendous amounts of range land. The land isn’t really like in the Northeast with relatively small fields of corn, vegetables or orchards surrounded by some woods and maybe a stream or pond. I don’t ever remember seeing any big herds of beef cattle grazing up in the northeast, dairy cows, yes. Can’t remember seeing big flocks of goats up there either. Apple orchard here, a rocky hill of woods there, a pond over yonder, a stream and swampy ground in the valley. That’s the Northeast I remember. Woods were woods with seldom any domesticated livestock in them.

Deer here aren’t quite seen as a threat but as a bonus to ranching. Ranchers here mostly see deer as another source of income. A rancher can lease out the land to a group of hunters for whatever he can get for it and for whatever terms can be agreed upon. Corporations lease big ranches as a perk for certain employees and as a place to do entertainment. Vendors take clients on hunts as a perk or to woo business. Towns like Junction TX have big communal parties at the opening of deer season. Nowadays, many hunters have RVs and build sort of mini RV parks with showers and such on the leases to accommodate whole families. My daughter is going to the lease (not mine, hers) this weekend to work on stuff and shoot feral hogs. Most every buddy I have is on a lease, I’m sort of the oddball that isn’t on one. While they go after the deer, I’m out on the bay or saltwater chasing redfish and flounder.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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Re: Got Deer???

#35

Post: # 54663Unread post JRinPA
Sun Sep 26, 2021 11:27 am

I killed two deer on Friday, about 20 minutes apart. I sure do love fried heart and liver early in the season after the long summer.
I certainly hope leasing of land never catches on strongly up here. That is quite an ugly picture. Sadly, I know it will, eventually. Our ancestors left Europe to get away from the old ways, the lord's land, the lord's game, the lord's tax. Unfortunately though, a lot of farms around here are being bought for development or future development. A lot of those with out of state money. Maybe out of country. And those are the ones that are liable to lease out hunting rights, instead of allowing the locals, the neighbors, to hunt, as the farmer did.

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Re: Got Deer???

#36

Post: # 54664Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 26, 2021 12:06 pm

Large bloated wild hog on the side of the road at highway 95 and Hoffman road north bound lane if anyone is interested.
Probably around 350 pounds.
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Re: Got Deer???

#37

Post: # 54683Unread post karstopography
Sun Sep 26, 2021 5:23 pm

@JRinPA it isn’t as bad as it might sound. Most people that have ordinary jobs and want a lease can typically find one that isn’t all that much. The landowner gets to control who comes on the land. The leasing group gets control on who can and can’t hunt. Many are long term relationships that go on for decades. My best fishing buddy is on a 4,000 acres tract in the Blue Mountains out northeast of Junction. Spring fed creeks, year around access, beautiful land, abundant game.

Another buddy of mine has about 70 acres next to a game preserve. I can hunt his land free of charge, there’s plenty of those type of arrangements too. Free hunting for friends. Texas just allows for landowners to prohibit random or unknown people from showing up on their land to hunt.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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worth1
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Re: Got Deer???

#38

Post: # 54684Unread post worth1
Sun Sep 26, 2021 5:39 pm

I have long lasting relationships with many people in Central Texas and beyond.
Some 63 years which is my age.
I can go deer wild game hunting fishing and bird hunting for free any time I want.
Much of this land is my families from the early 1800's.
I need to go see my kin folks more often.
Not for hunting but it's just the right thing to do.
Worth
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You might as well be arguing with a cat.

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Re: Got Deer???

#39

Post: # 54704Unread post karstopography
Mon Sep 27, 2021 8:49 am

Pennsylvania also has townships so that every inch of land in the Commonwealth is either in a city, borough, town, or township. Massachusetts where I once lived every square inch is in a town or city. All the woods, fields, ponds, rivers are all found within the borders of a town. Each town in that state has its own hunting regulations. Many towns in Eastern Massachusetts now prohibit hunting. Every town has its own set of hunting laws. Some towns there allow landowners to restrict hunting. Other towns require a hunter to go to the town authorities to get permission to hunt. Rifles, excepting certain muzzleloaders, are prohibited for hunting in Massachusetts. It’s very difficult to almost impossible to obtain permission from the town police in most towns in Eastern Massachusetts to get even a shotgun for deer hunting. If Texans had to go to the town police for permission to hunt or own a firearm, there would be riots on the streets.

https://macouncil.tripod.com/id28.htm

The vast majority, 74% of people in Texas live on 4% of the land that is in incorporated as a town or city or any kind of municipality. 96% of the state’s land is unincorporated. Texas Parks and Wildlife manages the hunting regulations for all unincorporated land. Some areas of Texas wouldn’t have enough hunting or hunters without some sort of leasing system. Other areas near the cities would be overrun by hunters without controls on who can come on the land.

Bottom line, each state has to come up with a reasonable system to manage their particular wildlife and settlement patterns, including deer. The western states of New Mexico and Colorado where I have hunted elk have a lottery, not guaranteed success on getting a tag by any measure, to choose who gets to hunt where, plus some over the counter tags in certain situations. It gets real expensive for out of state hunters. I know someone that has a small tract of land in good elk range in northern New Mexico and it costs him over $800.00 just for the license and tag to hunt his own land since his residence is in Texas. The land ownership itself though gives him the all important elk tag, otherwise, it would be $2,000-3,000 for an archery elk tag, then another $600 or so for the required licenses.

Gardening and our gardens are at the mercy of these various systems. Texas allows for hunters to harvest deer over baited corn. I’d say the majority of Texan hunters harvest deer in this manner. Personally, I like to still hunt, creep along, listen, look, stalk and such. Sit under a tree, in a thicket, be stealthy, pay attention to the wind. What I will say is that these corn feeders are efficient. Doe and young bucks run in once the feeder goes off. Hunter is in a not too distant and often sturdy blind with a quality rest. Sounds awful perhaps. In reality, people go into these box blinds and just watch deer. 20 , 30 or many more might come out at various intervals. People will sit in the blind all season and just watch deer interact at the feeder. On occasion, someone will elect to harvest one. They talk about the 10 point that was seen over at the windmill blind or old brow tineless six point at the Dove blind. Lots of looking, hardly any shooting. Very few people are looking to fill their tags at the earliest opportunity.

My fishing buddy that hunts the Blue mountains near Segovia, Texas hasn’t harvested a deer in years. He pays his lease fee and just goes out there to look at the deer and hang out at the deer camp. Change of scenery, some quality time with the boys and away from his wife, a guy getaway. Seems more wholesome to me than a guy’s Vegas jaunt, but to each his own. Healthy for his wife, too. Married People don’t have to spend every waking moment outside of work joined at the hip to have a good marriage.

Funny thing about that particular friend is that I took him Elk hunting once in New Mexico. He bought all his tags and had all his licenses. I wasn’t even carrying a rifle, just some calls. We saw a herd of elk across a valley on the opposite slope. We walked across the valley and up the opposite slope into the cover the elk went into. I knew the terrain pretty well and made a prediction on where the elk were headed. Sure enough, my prediction was right and we crept along and crested a rise and out 100-125 yards in as small clearing dotted with ponderosa pines was a big herd of elk. This is when I found out he could not shoot at an Elk. He didn’t want to kill any inspite of having more than one legal bull at easy range. It was a great experience nonetheless and unforgettable really watching those elk like that.
Zone 9b, located in the Columbia bottomlands, annual rainfall 46”

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Re: Got Deer???

#40

Post: # 54756Unread post JRinPA
Tue Sep 28, 2021 8:59 pm

Amateurinawe wrote: Sun Sep 19, 2021 2:18 pm @JRinPA i think the deer must be ignoring the sign. "That's there for those others backward facing antler types", " don't see many of them round here "

How do they do rutting? Or are American deer different ?
How do they do rutting....haha okay now I see now. You mean, how do the bucks fight? Because I read that differently before, and the answer was either "the usual way" or "deer-y style".

I've been looking closely at the signs on the road and we do indeed have both kinds now. I actually think the old ones are better. I don't think the new ones look anything more like a whitetail buck than the old. Generally a whitetail forms a spike > fork > fork w/brow tine > three up with brow tine. After that a typical with go a 4th up. But most bucks that old are some deer farm bred ugly things with imported genes and unnatural diet to impress yahoos. A 1-1/2 yo buck might be a 3" spike or a nice little 6pt, depending on genes, nutrition, and luck. Lots of things can mess up their growth.
which is more accurate??
newsign.jpg
old.jpg
newsign2.jpg
old2.jpg

18a.JPG
20a.JPG
22a.JPG
24a.JPG
26a.JPG
Bucks will spar in the pre-rut, but most of the time I wager it is more posturing and aggressiveness that wins, and regardless, a mature doe will lock a buck up for three days during the first rut when all but the doe fawns come in heat, so lots of less dominant bucks get to breed, oftentimes even spikes.
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