Should Varmint and Deer Hunting Be Allowed On Your Property? (Madison: house, neighborhood)

[cincyUK]

The Ft. Thomas area already approved the measure: http://www.wlwt.com/news/14877820/detail.html (broken link)

Should othera areas in the Nati follow suit?

You can only use compound or other bows (no firearms) so this activity is totally safe. I'd personally love to walk outside and kill and eat me some dinner when I don't feel llike driving to the grocery store and it has the duel benefit of cutting down on pesky critters running around your property - what do y'all think?

[WeeMadArthur]

I guess something needs to be done about the deer population, but... I wouldn't be comfortable with people hunting in my neighborhood. A compound bow can hardly be considered "safe". The day I see my neighbors out hunting deer in the back yard is the day my house goes on the market.

[jlrosen]

An arrow from a compound bow can go something like 350 fps, something going that fast with a sharp point is lethal. I think this is a good idea only when your property is larger that the flight of your arrows.

[Briolat21]

Remember - if you're opposed to it, all you have to do is put up those fun "No Trespassing" signs. The city/county can't force you to allow hunting in your back yard.

That said, if you are a hunter, I suppose this makes it easier. Open up your living room window, and get yourself dinner!!

[WeeMadArthur]

I think the key to reducing the deer population is reintroducing the mountain lion.

Sure you can put up "No Trespassing" signs.... arrows can't read.

[Ohiogirl81]

I always wanted to sit on my front porch in Madisonville and pick off squirrels running along the utility wires with an air rifle ...

But arrows don't observe property lines any more than bullets or pellets do. Bad idea.

[hoveysmith]

Safely hunting urban deer can be done by using tree stands and only taking shots directed towards the ground. I very often hunt here in my home state of Georgia where we also have a large population of deer. Here I use a crossbow. This year I took three such deer with one arrow each. None of them traveled over 30 yards. Actually, having a hit deer travel into someone else's property and die causes more potential tresspass problems than arrow flight.

Allowing urban hunting is not a license for anyone to go out flinging arrows helter-skelter. All of the deer ever bred are not worth one man dead. This said, careful hunting is the only practical way to reduce urban deer problems and archery tools, particularly the crossbow, is very effective.

For more on the subject there is a book, "Backyard Deer Hunting: Converting deer to dinner for pennies per pound."

In these times when many people need inexpensive meat on the table, instead of having deer hit their vehicles, hunting deer in areas of close deer-human conflict is appealing from both the food producing point of view as well as for safety reasons. Deer will be killed by us one way or another. We will take them with our hunting tools or with our vehicles. Each year 10,000 people are injured in the U.S. from deer-vehicle collisions and some 100 killed.

From one of the properties I hunted with a town's city limits I shot two deer in one day with a crossbow and eight more were seen. Populations like this need to be controlled. I am eating on these deer now. If HRH the Queen of England can serve deer meat for her 80th birthday, I am pleased to eat some too.

hoveysmith