Fish in a barrel

[4wanderingeyes]

So I still have a couple open tags for bow hunting I can fill. I had intentions to fill at least one with a late season doe.
In the last few weeks we had gotten a lot of snow, and we have about 2-3 feet on the ground. The deer are having a tough go of getting around, and I see them in my driveway, and my path to my wood boiler, and wood yard where I store, split, and cut up logs. They have been bedding there as well, and trying to dig for food where I plowed, and cleared areas to work. I had already cut up , and split all of my logs I had in the wood yard, and I have plenty for this year, but I thought I would start cutting up more logs for next year, I have about 30 logs ready to go, but they are aout 100 yards away, on the opposite edge of a food plot. I figured I would take the tractor and loader out there to clear a path to the logs, and maybe scrape some snow off the food plot to help out the deer. As I drove out there on the tractor, I saw 5 deer that were bedding on the edge of the food plot. They hopped off a little ways, I wasnt paying much attention to them. Then after about 30 minutes of plowing with the loader I got to the log pile, I looked up, and they were all standing about 20 feet away watching me. I figured they didnt want to go too far in the deep snow, so I thought I would take the rear blade and scrape some snow off the plot, and the winter rye was still green, under 24"+ of snow, and the ground wasnt very frozen. I cleared a 75 foot path about 12 feet wide where they can at least dig down themselves to get to the rye. I wasnt even at the edge of the food plot leaving and they already walked back out into the food plot. I will probably toss out some bagged food for them to help them out until I can get into the woods safely and drop some trees for them to munch on the tree tops.

The problem is, these deer arent afraid, and they are desperate for food, so much so that they will walk into the food plot as I am still there. How can I hunt these deer and not feel bad? Hell I could sit on my back deck and throw a knife at them most of the time. I wanted to go back out bow hunting, but I just cant get myself to hunt them like this.

I thought about walking back to my furthest stand on a trail and hunting them, but I think all I would end up doing is watching them if they even went that far away from the plowed area. I will probably just have tag soup, and eat beef this year.

 

[Telemark]

That is a bit of a conundrum. Hunting is thrilling, but executing desperate animals is unpleasant. I would probably shoot one if it was a question of food for myself and my family. But I wouldn't enjoy it.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Not much of a hunt.

 

[Kooch]

Livestock.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Barndog56]

That's called 'harvesting' a deer. Kill a couple and that's more food for each of the remaining deer.

 

[Fair oak]

I know in northern Wisconsin, northern MN and the UP, decent deer numbers are very spotty. There’s areas of good numbers and then there’s large areas that are largely void of deer. If you feel the deer numbers are decent or good in your area I wouldn’t hesitate to fill a tag. I also wouldn’t hesitate to throw out a bag or 2 of 12% horse pellets per week to help them out. It’s early January and there’s 20-30” of snowpack already. The good thing is, it’s been warm besides the few cold days around Christmas. It’s definitely one of those years I’m hoping for a nice March and April because those 2 months will decide how significant the winter kill is.

There’s 22”-26” on my property and the last deer picture was around 12-20. They migrated several miles south and yesterday I drove a road that goes through where the deer yard up and saw a bunch of deer browsing in a 2 year old clearcut. The snow is up to their chests already.

 

[SWIFFY]

Go hunt some heavily pressured public land nearby. After a few sub-zero hours or that crap and you probably wont feel so bad about shooting one off the deck!

Youre welcome!

 

[bigboreblr]

IF you want to hang a deer a few days in NY, you gotta wait this time of year...........

Call me any kind of hunter you want......... Far as archery goes, I am happy with a animal that is calm and in close range. I only got a 20 yard pin. I pretty much shoot the 1st teenager or bigger doe I see in early october. Takes all the pressure off should I shoot or not, just shoot the 1st one. Meat in the freezer, then trophy on the wall.......

I take away from nature with my bow or gun, I give back to nature with my habibtat work.

 

[Mortenson]

I wouldn't shoot 1 with its face stuffed in a birdfeeder, but passing through some woods near your house seems fair enough if you want delicious venison in your freezer.

 

[yoderjac]

So I still have a couple open tags for bow hunting I can fill. I had intentions to fill at least one with a late season doe.
In the last few weeks we had gotten a lot of snow, and we have about 2-3 feet on the ground. The deer are having a tough go of getting around, and I see them in my driveway, and my path to my wood boiler, and wood yard where I store, split, and cut up logs. They have been bedding there as well, and trying to dig for food where I plowed, and cleared areas to work. I had already cut up , and split all of my logs I had in the wood yard, and I have plenty for this year, but I thought I would start cutting up more logs for next year, I have about 30 logs ready to go, but they are aout 100 yards away, on the opposite edge of a food plot. I figured I would take the tractor and loader out there to clear a path to the logs, and maybe scrape some snow off the food plot to help out the deer. As I drove out there on the tractor, I saw 5 deer that were bedding on the edge of the food plot. They hopped off a little ways, I wasnt paying much attention to them. Then after about 30 minutes of plowing with the loader I got to the log pile, I looked up, and they were all standing about 20 feet away watching me. I figured they didnt want to go too far in the deep snow, so I thought I would take the rear blade and scrape some snow off the plot, and the winter rye was still green, under 24"+ of snow, and the ground wasnt very frozen. I cleared a 75 foot path about 12 feet wide where they can at least dig down themselves to get to the rye. I wasnt even at the edge of the food plot leaving and they already walked back out into the food plot. I will probably toss out some bagged food for them to help them out until I can get into the woods safely and drop some trees for them to munch on the tree tops.

The problem is, these deer arent afraid, and they are desperate for food, so much so that they will walk into the food plot as I am still there. How can I hunt these deer and not feel bad? Hell I could sit on my back deck and throw a knife at them most of the time. I wanted to go back out bow hunting, but I just cant get myself to hunt them like this.

I thought about walking back to my furthest stand on a trail and hunting them, but I think all I would end up doing is watching them if they even went that far away from the plowed area. I will probably just have tag soup, and eat beef this year.

Want to talk "fish in a barrel". It won't last long... I've told this story before, but it applies well here.

A company in our area had over 1,000 acres with a training facility on it. It was over run with deer. They did not allow hunting. They would allow the game department to do necropsy studies which would always recommend strongly to allow some form of hunting. The company never would. Turned out the parent company president was a big PETA person. Eventually the company sold the land to a developer. The developer was between a rock and a hard place. The deer were use to eating ice cream cones out of the hands of folks training at the facility. The area was used recreationally for hiking and such. The developer was advertising as come live and enjoy bambi. At the same time, they knew any landscaping they but in would be devoured immediately. The browse line was 6' high with nothing green under that. The developer brought in our bowhunting group to remove deer on the down-low. We worked with the game department biologist who issued kill permits. They wanted us to shoot does as well as spotted fawns. These permits were for out-of-season hunting.

Because of the other activities, one of our rules was you had to hunt from an elevated treestand for a safe downward shooting angle. For the first two weeks, it was just like shooting fish in a barrel. After that, the deer caught on. I could walk right up to deer that would ignore me, but the minute I climbed a tree, the deer were gone. In just 2 weeks they had learned people on the ground were not a danger but people in a tree were!

So, to address your question, about how to justify shooting fish in a barrel. For me, it was not a hunting situation. It was a population control situation. Sure, general in-season hunting is used to help manage populations, but this was really more of a service than recreational hunting. It was difficult at first, especially to shoot spotted fawns. However, the biologist put it well. Not only were deer suffering from the limited food, a whole host of other wildlife was being negatively impacted by the imbalance. While I was using many hunting and shooting skills, I was specifically employing them to help restore the balance. We donated many of the deer to H4H, so we were helping people as well. When I added it all up, I had no problem with this situation.

So, the question to ask yourself is whether these deer will make it through the season in your area in the current numbers. If not, then harvesting them will help the rest.

Here is one more way to think about it. Deer always have this algorithm going through their tiny brains: Food vs Security, and for a small part of the year, Sex vs food and security. In years when we get a bumper crop of acorns, deer become MUCH more sensitive to hunting pressure and are rarely seen during daylight hours here. When we have a mast crop failure and a colder season, deer will venture into food plots during shooting hours in the face of hunting pressure. Your example is simply an extreme version of this.

It may boil down to your personal ethics. Mine changed over the years as I learned more about deer biology and management. When I was young, I would have never considered shooting a spotted fawn. Today, I have no qualms about shooting any deer that meets my management objectives and personal desires. Others may have a completely different ethical perspective.

Thanks,

Jack

 

[4wanderingeyes]

Well the deer did take a beating this year from all the neighbors. I plan on hunting in deer stands, not in the plowed area, if I get a chance I will take it, if not, I will enjoy the outdoors for a few evenings.

I can’t get myself to shoot of my deck, or in the plowed area. Funny thing is, in November I don’t have this issue. Now I see the deer struggling in the deep snow, and I feel bad for them.

 

[yoderjac]

Well the deer did take a beating this year from all the neighbors. I plan on hunting in deer stands, not in the plowed area, if I get a chance I will take it, if not, I will enjoy the outdoors for a few evenings.

I can’t get myself to shoot of my deck, or in the plowed area. Funny thing is, in November I don’t have this issue. Now I see the deer struggling in the deep snow, and I feel bad for them.

Nothing wrong with that approach!

 

[Bill]

At the end of the day the outcome is the same.

 

[SwampCat]

I live on my property and about every other day, my wife and I take a sxs ride around the place. A lot of our deer are so used to us, they watch from 50 ft away and dont run when we ride by. We have named some of them that have noticeable features. I cant shoot them. I have a 60 acre tract of land about ten miles away. I can shoot them there with no problem.

 

[rogersb]

Late season I got out 5 times. No shots any time. Twice I came back to the house and had deer eating clover out of my yard. I just ate breakfast and watched them.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

A couple other tidbits about my adventure to the logs. Before I brought the tractor out, I thought I would try to plow a path with my atv. I thought if I left the plow up, it would scape the top part off, then I could back up and lower the plow and knock more off with each pass. I got about 10 feet in from a previous plowed spot and heard a clunk, no more 4 wheel drive. I went and got the tractor and plowed out the trail to the atv so it could be driven back in 2 wheel drive. I parked it in the shop to thaw out. I looked at it yesterday, a couple pieces were laying under in in the shop, and the front shaft was just laying on the frame.


I also decided I would toss some bagged food out for them yesterday on the area I plowed. I figured some easy to get food to rebuild some energy, after a couple weeks of walking through a couple feet of snow. I have a couple downed trees the wind blew over this summer on the edge of this food plot, and I noticed lots of beds under these downed trees. And a couple deer where laying in them watching me walk through with some food for them. They didn’t bother to get up as we walked 20 feet away.

I also ventured back towards one of my deer stands in the back I was thinking about sitting to close out the season. There were a couple tracks that direction, but as I was walking through knee high plus snow, I was thinking how bad it sucks, no way I can get back there with atv, if I shoot one back there, I will need to drag it back through 2 feet plus of snow, by myself, or possibly my wife would help, but shorter legs don’t help in deep snow. I decided the plan of hunting in one of the back stands wasn’t going to happen this winter. I may go sit in my orchard. I haven’t been there since rifle hunting season ended. But is less then half the walk. If I keep procrastinating I won’t have to worry about it.

 

[bigboreblr]

I was a car mechanic while I wnt to school part time for my engieering degree. I worked at a cottman transmission rebuilding shop. That U-joint looked like a grease failure. They make a needle grease adapter, you can sneak in a u-joint seal and put some grease in. I sure wish they would put a grease fitting on ATV's. Turning in 4wd and/or having a tire with noticeably different tire pressure really stresses them.

PRessure washers clean your ATV so much better, but it blast water through lip seals. I only use a garden hose when cleaning an ATV or anything underhood on a vehicle.

That wheel fighting another in a pickup truck make your plow the front tires (understeer) through a turn. I try to use the truck in 2wd in the winter as much as possible.

 

[Buckly]

That damage would be called a catastrophic mechanical failure. For sure. Looks like a lot of moisture issues there where there shouldn’t be and a probable the cause. I’m not seeing grease where there should be grease. Albeit plowing is pretty hard on an ATV.

 

[jsasker007]

I see no grease. Gonna have to find some new parts. Everything wears out sooner or later. Usually when something breaks it's at the worst possible time---you actually got lucky as it sounds like it wasn't a huge deal and you were still able to get a path plowed and can fix it in a warm building. Could be worse.

 

[4wanderingeyes]

The yoke that broke off the ujoint is bent on one side, I heated it up and bent it back. I have a couple ujoints on order. It will be less then $60 in parts, with new greasable joints, and maybe an hour of my time total.

Honestly, I replaced the ball joints, and an axle boot this fall, and noticed one of the front joints were loose. I didnt have time to mess with it then, so I forgot about it. When I plowed with it earlier this winter,I could hear it clunk when I spun, reminding me I had to do them sometime. By it falling apart, just makes me do it now. Luckily I didnt lose any of the parts.