Ah, Michigan Deer Hunting season!  Tell us your stories
of your trip, camp and hunt.  And what did you shot?

193 responses total.

Don't forget the whiskey.

For da yoopers they bring the beer, not the whiskey, okay?

This item is linked as #147 in the autumn 2001 Agora and #115 in the 
sports conference.

If someone gets a deer, let me know - I love venison.

I'm an avid non-hunter, but my brother-in-law is currently up
north on a deer hunting expedition with some buddies from work.
If they have any success, you'll read it here first.

Re #2: not the Trolls. 

I love whiskey, but can't see going out to shoot deer to drink some.

I'm not a big fan of hunting, but upon further review, I think it's not that
bad of an idea, particularly with a large deer herd in Michigan.

The large deer herd in Michigan is maintained artificially - for the
hunters. Don't think of hunting as a means to control the deer herd.  It
would be much cheaper to just do nothing. Nature would take care of the
problem (eventually). 

Ah, but nature isn't always very healthy.  Too many deer, and suddenly disease
and famine wip out much larger proportions than is healthy.  How is the herd
artificially maintained?

From what I have read, people are hired to go out and reduce the herd size
around here so as to keep them out of suburban yards.  There is a shortage
of natural predators.

Hunting lets all those testosterone poisoned guys in the area have a safe 
outlet for their shootin' and killin' urges so we can fill the jails with 
hippy longhaired druggies instead of them.

Curious that so few other species seem to need hunting to control them. 
Rabbits, squirrels, skunks, opposums, raccoons.  They've all had their natural
preditors much reduced, and yet the lack of significant hunting hasn't lead
to any natural disaster.  Deer must be special somehow.

Raccoons commit suicide by car.

aw sheesh, I saw an item titled "the deer hunter" and I thought it was an
item about that great michael cimino late 70's movie, one of the great
vietnam movies, starring robert deniro as the deer hunter.  Deniro is 
an underacheiver whose only talent seems to be shooting deer.  The movie
tells the story of how he and his best friends christopher walken, meryl
streep, and john cazale react and have their lives changed by the war.  a
great film.

re #13:  For one, they are larger, and require more food.  I also have
         heard that venison is quite tasty, although not to my palate.

Re #10: the herd size is artificially maintained way above the natural
carrying capacity by widespread creation of "deer opening" in the state
forests. The forest is clear-cut in patches so there is always lots of
fresh tasty browse for the deer. This clear cutting is above and beyond
the requirements of forestry. If the forest were allowed to mature, and
only cut as required for wood products, the deer habitat and food supply
would shrink and the herd would shrink with it. 

I don't understand "suddenly disease and famine wip out much larger
proportions than is healthy". That's what you want, in order to obtain a
deer herd in balance with the environment.

The maintenance of the Michigan deer herd for hunters causes a
considerable decrease in the habitat available for a more diverse fauna
(and flora). Also, have you observed the "deer browse line"  in Michigan
woods? Eveything is eaten as high as the deer can reach, and wildflowers
and shrubs are nearly eliminated over immense areas. 

Small game is hunted too, just not as noticeably:  It's not much fun to hang
a bunch of squirrels from a pole to see who got the largest one.

My neighbors are always putting out traps to get rid of unwanted pests such
as raccoons, skunks, groundhogs and opposums, which eat gardens.  It does not
seem to be legal to put out traps for deer.  As I said, no natural predators.

        Well, no wolf pack to take down some deer near here.

I'm liking the idea of a live trap for deer.  

You dig a hole and cover it with first thin limbs and then tall grass...
saw it in the movies last night.....

Re #17: The cost of this is tens of thousands of car-deer collisions a year. 
But hey, it keeps the hunters happy.

Perhaps the hunters could be hired to gun down all the cars and then the deer
would not be damaged.

We should definitely be eating more of our urban deer herd.  The
hooved rats are doing more than enough damage to endangered flora
in the various parks to justify a serious trimming.  Whatever we
do, we're not going to get rid of the edge habitats that deer love;
the border of most every field is made to order for deer, and
eliminating the borders destroys the habitat for many other species.

The problem with letting the deer eat themselves out of house
and home and starve to death is the damage this process does to
the plants, and the other animals which depend on those plants.
I understand that the impact of this can be seen for years.

Maybe people should be allowed to bow-hunt deer on their own
lawns (with crossbows), so long as they shoot from a second-floor
window to avoid bolts carrying beyond the property line.  This
would be nice and quiet.  Or use snares, if they aren't inhumane.

"Attention All Patrons!!!
Happy Valley Soup Kitchen will be conducting our deer drives next week
to stock the pantry freezers up with venison for the winter.  Please
be in front of our building by 8:00AM every day next week to catch the
bus headed out to the drive areas.  If you can't walk around and perform
minimal physical labor for 8 hours, you will need to get a note from the
nurse this weekend.  Missing our deer drives without the nurse's note
will lose you your "1st Class" status for meals until next year's deer
drive, so make sure you're here on time all next week!"

I could never shoot a deer.  every time I've ever seen a deer running 
in the wild, its been a site so beautiful as to bring tears to my 
eyes.  they are magnificent creatures.  I cant imagine shooting one 
when I just want to sit there all day and watch it run and graze.

on the other hand, deer overpopulation is a problem.  I've known 
several people who have had cars totaled as result of collisions when 
deer run out on the highway in the middle of the night.  of course I 
think the law in most states is that if you run into or over a deer, 
you get to keep the deer.  so your car may be a wreck, but at least you 
come out of it with enough venison to eat for a month!

Nuh-uh...I've whacked three deer since May, with a fair amount of 
vehicular damage, but no meat in the freezer.  If it weren't for the 
dents in my truck, I'd swear to god those damn things were made of 
rubber.  And they're stupid--all of them ran in the direction of my car 
*after* I'd taken evasive action to put them and me out of harm's way.  
Big dumb stupid rubber rats.  The only reason I don't hunt is 'cuz I 
probably wouldn't be able to stop at shooting just one of the ignoble 
beasts.  "There's one!"  BANG!!  "Look--another one!" BANG!  "Criminey! 
 A whole herd!!"  BANG!BANG!BANG!BANG!

By the time you got that first shot off, you'd have a hard time getting 
another in your sights in the same locale...

Re 28:  Aren't you supposed to "stay the course" so that the deer's evasive
action can work?  

        I had one car wrecked by a deer collision.  Someone else
may have got the deer.
        Another encounter had my back panel smacked by a deer.
My hope was that some bow hunter was about to get himself a kill
of a corn feed deer with a pre-tenderized rump.  It was bow hunting
eve-eve.

eating bumper tenderized venison can be risky.

re 29 - I figure I could set up a gatling gun or claymores or something 
so as to maximize my kill ratio.

re 30 - I think "evasive action" to the deer means trying to slip 
between the headlights; it doesn't seem to matter where they or the car 
were upon first sighting.  Hmm--perhaps instead of rubber they're made 
of powerful magnets, and are not running into the path of the car but 
being drawn toward it.

Sindi, Sindi, Sindi... do you have any idea how much damage would
be created by millions of cars bleeding their gasoline and oil onto
the ground?  Not to mention the eyesores of their non-biodegradable
hulks left where they died.  As bad as a live car can be for the
environment, just shooting them could be much worse.

There has been a change of philosophy in some jurisdictions. The
Huron-Clinton MetroParks used to think all the deer were just great-
nature for the public to view. But recently they have been convinced
by scientists (botanists, ecologists, etc) that they were losing more
than they were gaining. They are now culling their deer herds using
"hired guns"  -  well trained markspeople,  who can tell a deer from
a human. 

Re #32:  How so?  Assuming that you collected the deer when you killed it?
Sure, coming by a day or three later isn't a very good idea.

Here in Western Pennsylvania we have a big deer herd as well. Unlike your
mostly flattish Michigan, we have lots of rolling hills and our roads follow
suite by turning and winding. Most cars that end up hitting deer have no idea
it's coming.I was through Michigan this summer from Toledo up to a place
called Pellston near the Upper Penninsula and I've got to say I didn't see
anywhere near the amount of deer on the roads as good old Western Pennsylvania
has.

  Well, the Yoopers are pretty efficient about keeping their deer population
  in check..

Pellston is not in the UP. 

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