Do you hunters consider the wild animals outside your door off limits?

[Art Eatman]

Snyper, the main point of the thread seems to be the closeness to a house; in the yard. It's less important if you pop Bambi out in the pasture, whether from the deck or a stand in the out-there.

There's no law saying that killing Bambi must be "fair" so long as he's not tied up. But deer hanging out in the yard? Almost like shooting pets.

 

[MCgunner]

Sitting on my deck, sitting in a treestand, same fields, same deer.
Where's the difference?

I can look out my window right now and see the field where I and my wife have killed herds of deer over the last 10 years

I do get your point, similar situation for me. BUT, I don't wanna run the wildlife out of my yards, enjoy watching them. If they start depredating my garden, I might change my mind, but so far they've left it alone and they make this spray repellent to run 'em off I will try first. I ain't building a game fence around my garden, though. I can't actually shoot a deer off my garden in the spring, but I can sure bag me some rabbit stew. I've yet to shoot one in the yard, or a squirrel, though. We have lots of both and all I have to do is walk out into my woods to hunt them.

With all the swamp rabbits I've got around here, sure been thinkin' about a beagle. My labrador chases 'em, but it's not the same....LOL! She ran one right by me the other day, though, and I wasn't ready. A beagle wouldn't fetch my ducks and doves, though, so she's worth her grub, danged good retriever.

 

[MCgunner]

Oh, when I first moved in here, I did shoot a sow hog in my back yard, had a dozen piglets with her. If I lay eyes on 'em, no matter where, hogs die.

 

[GarySTL]

We have fox, turkey, deer, and squirrel moving through our 5 acres, but my wife says I'm not to shoot them. I have eliminated a few pesky squirrels who wouldn't leave the bird feeders alone.

 

[OYE]

Around here we consider any wild animals that hang around in the front yard to be family members.

We've heard there are people in Kansas that kill squirrels in their front yards
with conibear traps (in town no less ). We'd never do it. We're too civilized up this way. OYE

 

[caribou]

Unlimited wilderness begins 50 yards from my house, where the river passes the village by, and all is fair game, in it's season.

 

[ARW]

Crows and starlings are very much on my hit list for out back.

Everything else is safe from me. It's a different story for our dogs though, their list is a little longer.

Alan

 

[Officers'Wife]

Outside my door is the chicken house, coyotes in the vicinity are tired of living anyway and using my rifle to commit suicide. Deer = dinner-period, end of sentence. If they come to the house for dinner it's rude not to let them in. The technical term for ground squirrels, crows starlings, rats and other pests is "moving target." It's a waste to turn down an opportunity to practice marksmanship.

As for being "sporting" ... Probably not, but the first animal I raised all by myself was a pig that I had to help butcher. It's not a good idea to get too emotional towards your food.

 

[redneck]

I live about a mile from a metro park that covers about 1000 acres, and doesn't allow any form of hunting. The deer leave the park and make a loop through the surrounding farm ground to feed. I have seen easily recognizable bucks on the edge of the park at daybreak when I'm driving to work and they will be crossing my pasture when I get home. We are over run with deer, its not uncommon to see them in groups of 15 to 20. They tear up trees and shrubs and rob vegetable gardens.
You'd think the hunting would be easy but its hard to get the drop on them when they have 15 pairs of eyes and ears all pointing different directions, and you have to catch them on a small plot of land where you have permission to hunt. I prefer to do my hunting out over a bean field that's within walking distance from the house, and provides more safe shooting lanes, but I would gladly shoot a deer with my bow from the back porch. I don't want to kill them all, but when they come through in herds of 20 I really think they need thinned out.

 

[jrdolall]

I straddle the fence here. I kill any varmints (I include squirrels in that) that I see in my yard. Coons, coyotes, foxes are all predators that will gladly have a chicken dinner at my expense if I let them so I don't let them.
I have a rye field planted that I can see out my kitchen door and I keep a feeder going. I do not shoot or allow anyone else to shoot deer in that field, from the window or any other spot, though we certainly do kill some of the deer that frequent that plot. Those deer are our pets as long as they stay in that food plot. 100 yards away and they are fair game.
I didn't say it made sense.

 

[Captcurt]

Not for me.

One fall I had 16 deer coming in the yard with one small straggly buck. My neighbor 200 yards past me shot a 10 point that scored in the 160' s. The next year another neighbor had pictures of a bear 200 yards from my backdoor. That same fall a friend shot an 8 point with a 19 1/4" inside spread a half mile from my house and I am driving 30 miles to hunt the darned things.

I did stick a doe with an arrow in the yard once. It was about as much fun as shooting cows.

 

[Patocazador]

I shoot pests in the yard. Crows, coons, possums, and coyotes are fair wherever they are in my book.

Every few years the local squirrel population gets too large and starts eating the cow feed in the storage shed. Then it's time to go squirrel shooting to thin them out.

 

[buck460XVR]

But deer hanging out in the yard? Almost like shooting pets.

....and that's different than shooting a deer out in the back 40, you've been watching coming to the same feeder for the last 4 years, how? Odds are you have named him and nurtured him all his life.

....If a deer has been hanging out in the neighbors' yard and they consider it a pet, is it fair game once it crosses the fence?

....how about that 190 class trophy buck that had been pen raised on a deer farm that escaped right before the season opener? Odds are he came in because he heard the back door slam and figured it was feeding time.

Deer have been adapting to live closer and closer to human habitation. The problems with "urbanized" deer is widely known to most folks. While pets to and fed by one homeowner, the neighbor next door considers them "yard rats" and wants them gone, because of damage to their landscaping.

Deer are deer. Either they are fair game or they are not. They are wild animals and one should never intentionally or unintentionally make them "pets". It is not helpful to the deer themselves at all.

 

[Sniper66]

Like one poster said, it depends on how hungry you are. When I was growing up poor in a small town with 6 siblings, I can't count the number of rabbits we killed and ate from our yard. Now, I only shoot them if they munch on my wife's flowers.

 

[LeonCarr]

What Sniper66 said.

Just my .02,
LeonCarr

 

[Art Eatman]

Since I'm not in the livestock or poultry business, I have a more benign attitude about critters in the yard.

Close by in the yard or even up on the porch at the Terlingua house, I've had bobcat, coyote, raccoon, javelina, fox, quail, doves, rock squirrels, antelope squirrels (chipmunk-sized critters) and miscellaneous tweety birds. And ravens, buzzards and hawks.

Probably cougar as well, for all I know. I see tracks down below the hill.

Since there's nothing of mine that they can hurt, why should I bother them? The interactions among them are fun to watch. Beats daytime TV, for sure.

 

[Sheepdog1968]

Snyper, the main point of the thread seems to be the closeness to a house; in the yard. It's less important if you pop Bambi out in the pasture, whether from the deck or a stand in the out-there.

There's no law saying that killing Bambi must be "fair" so long as he's not tied up. But deer hanging out in the yard? Almost like shooting pets.

That was indeed my intention.

 

[ku4hx]

Only when they became impromptu pets for my kids or my wife "adopted" them and uncharacteristically left bits of edible stuff in odd places outside the house. And then of course there was the Currier and Ives-like look it would have been a shame to disrupt.

So yeah, I guess I consider them off limits unless they destructive or we're starving. I have dispatched a few destructive rabbits, squirrels and crows.

 

[jimmyraythomason]

It's a food reserve on the hoof.

This. I've taken deer from my carport, squirrels, rabbits and groundhogs(to save the garden) from my back deck. They all (except the groundhogs) went into the freezer. Food harvest has nothing to do with fair chase.

 

[Snyper]

BUT, I don't wanna run the wildlife out of my yards, enjoy watching them.

Animals have short memories, and they can't talk to their friends.

No matter how much shooting I do, in a few hours it's like nothing happened at all

I have to keep a live trap set most of the time for Coons, Possums and Fox, and I've seen Deer, Black Bear, Bobcats and Bald Eagles less than 200 yds from and within clear sight of the house

In the 13 years I've been here I haven't "run off" any as far as I can tell.

The only ones I don't shoot are the Fox Squirrels, since they are so pretty and fairly rare. I have several individuals I can identify by their markings that visit the feeders often.

Gray Squirrels I shoot on sight when the Pecan trees are bearing, and I can't seem to dent the population

If I were in town, of course things would be different, but I don't see a few feet, or some imaginary line on a map making a real difference

I consider my whole 40 acres "my yard"

 

[morcey2]

I shot a gobbler (while in my underwear) that was in my yard years ago during spring turkey season.

Question:


How did the turkey get in your underwear?



We have rooster pheasants all over in our back yard and the fields just behind that all year long. We've also had geese land within 50 yards of our house, but my wife won't let me shoot them. Neither will the city. Yet.....


Matt

 

[Officers'Wife]

Since I'm not in the livestock or poultry business, I have a more benign attitude about critters in the yard.

Before you think me hard hearted or blasé on the subject... Keep in mind that every creature here from chicken to cow is fussed over, worried about, given great attention (if not obsessive attention) to its health yet each and every one are going to be killed, butchered and eaten. The rabbit in the garden or the deer swiping apples out of the apple tree are an emotionally "cheap" dinner compared to livestock.

I'll pose the question to any here... it's the first day of archery season. You have exactly two hours to get to the tree stand, get set up, hope for your shot then be back to do your part of harvest. Your bow is strung going out the back door and a nice tender, juicy doe is standing at the edge of the orchard 30 foot away staring at you defiantly. Would you really not think that God (or nature or coincidence - whatever your belief system supports) isn't trying to cut you a break?

 

[Pushrod]

Depends on what they are, nuisance animals that I can still eat like squirrels, coon and groundhog I will shoot from my porch all day long.

 

[D Rudd]

According to my wife they are all off limits.

Dana

 

[Officers'Wife]

According to my wife they are all off limits.

Dana

My mother in law used to think all animals were off-limits to hunting... Somewhere between the mallard duck stuffed with brown and wild rice dressing and the molasses cured venison ham she has decided that a deer or two isn't going to make any difference. This time I'm going to spring wild turkey cured in rum and beer with oyster dressing on her.