Deerr Hunting (Mexico, Charleston, Columbia: houses, live in, legal)

[namder1]

I've been out a few times with no luck. Doesn't seem to be much sign of deer this year. Anybody else feel this way too?

[elston]

I am not a hunter......but I do watch the deer....and normally we have a small herd of about 7 deer that live in back of my house and come into the development at night to graze on shrubs and ornamentals....usually see them if driving in at dusk or dawn....and their hoof prints are usually very prevelent on the snow mobile trail out back. I havent seen them this fall....and not very often in the late summer either.

I read in the paper that there was a lot of beech nuts and other fav. foods out in the deep forests....so the deer dont have to take the chances of coming in too close to civilization in search for food.....the paper speculated that hunters would see fewer deer in the places they normally see them.

[Northern Maine Land Man]

There are far fewer deer than usual in Northern Maine due to two hard winters and heavy coyote predation. That said, deer do what deer do. It's mating season and bucks will put down scrapes to attract does. They patrol those locations on a regular basis. Consider the wind, pick a spot overlooking a scrape line and that's your best chance.

[tcrackly]

Hubby got a 120 lb. Bambette on opening from the tree stand less than a 1/2 mile from our house. I saw an adult deer that very same morning being chased by a coyote for the first time. The weather has been soft and the bucks are not rutting yet here in southern Maine. there are few acorns so they are feeding in the wetlands as opposed to the usual oak knoll browsing we used to see.

I'm still hunting when I can to fill my doe permit.

[mainebrokerman]

Originally Posted by elston

I am not a hunter......but I do watch the deer....and normally we have a small herd of about 7 deer that live in back of my house and come into the development at night to graze on shrubs and ornamentals....usually see them if driving in at dusk or dawn....and their hoof prints are usually very prevelent on the snow mobile trail out back. I havent seen them this fall....and not very often in the late summer either.

I read in the paper that there was a lot of beech nuts and other fav. foods out in the deep forests....so the deer dont have to take the chances of coming in too close to civilization in search for food.....the paper speculated that hunters would see fewer deer in the places they normally see them.

Ive seen quite a few deer in the back of pick ups at tagging stations-all look very healthy, well fed.

many come out at night, and will visit apple trees, around houses

[Dusty Rhodes]

Well, I expect it could be worse, here in N. Carolina each and every licensed hunter can legally get 80+ Deer this season. No one I know would even try to shoot that many, the freezer space necessary would be quite expensive. We have had limits over 40 deer/hunter/season for the last five years and the population is growing. We also have open season on coyotes, them little grey dogs bees real sneaky!! AND...folks are gettin' quite tired of coyotes eating house pets. (I have three large German Shepherds, they enjoy killing Coyotes and Foxes) For the most part, I get six deer per season, I've been helping to feed three Hispanic families for the past few years. During the times I was in S. Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, Columbia and Argentina, I was treated extremely well, I do try to respond in kind. Ya know, it's that old "Do unto others as they have done unto me!!"

[tcrackly]

Kudos, Dusty, on your generosity with the deer harvest. With that many legal tags I would have to guess that the deer are smaller down there in the south. Yes, them coyotes " bees sneaky" for sure.


And incidentally the namesake for your screen name is one of my husband's favorite movie characters.

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by tcrackly

Kudos, Dusty, on your generosity with the deer harvest. With that many legal tags I would have to guess that the deer are smaller down there in the south. Yes, them coyotes " bees sneaky" for sure.


And incidentally the namesake for your screen name is one of my husband's favorite movie characters.

Don't know what size ya'll's deer are but...around here 150 lbs is not unusual, and I can expect to shoot at least three that are over 200 lbs. The name is an old family thing, first son to first son to first son back to just after the American Revolution when the name got changed from Roberts to Rhodes, a civil servant who wasn't that good at spelling, I suspect the "Dusty" showed up later on of the same day. We arrived, so I have been told, in the 1600's on the boatload of Huguenots that landed in what eventually became Charleston, S.C.

[namder1]

80 deer....holy moly, I'd settle for one!!!

[Dusty Rhodes]

Originally Posted by namder1

80 deer....holy moly, I'd settle for one!!!

Methinks they like our warmer climate. Below zero, in this neck of the woods, is a rarity. Below freezing for two weeks out of the year is virtually unheard of. But.......in the mountains, or what serves as mountains in these parts, are seldomly over a mile high. On the downside, we do not have Salmon, hardly any real sized trout very few quail and almost no pheasants....oh yeah, and on Christmas day, we are normally in short sleeves.