Thursday, October 23, 2008
Free meat, if you can find it
Bill Cochran
Recent mail
BILL: I have a question and can’t seem to find an answer in the Virginia Hunting Regulations or on the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries Web site.
Here’s my question: Is bowhunting legal within the city of Salem if you have the land owner’s permission and there is enough acreage to support a safe hunting area?
FRED CRAFT
New Castle
FRED: According to wildlife officials assigned to the Roanoke Valley, bowhunting is allowed in Salem.
BILL
BILL: Good column (see last week’s Cochran Column). The only thing I would add is that I think your readership would like to see the final kill figures for the earn-a-buck counties to see the number of male fawns that were killed and their percentage related to the total antlerless kill. I bet it will exceed 8 percent.
If population control is the goal to reduce the total number of all deer, then there should be open season during the hunting period without regard to sex of the animals and without limit. If there is some need to take more does than antlerled deer, then it would seem to me that male deer are being protected, so why disregard protection to the young of the year male deer?
Deer populations can only be controlled by controlling the female segment of the herd. You can shoot bucks by the truckload and still have too many deer. If increasing the kill of does is important, why are we still saddled with a daily bag limit on deer? Particularly in the western part of the state, where the one-per-day rule just kills us in trying to manage deer on our properties.
WALT HAMPTON
Grayson County
BILL: I shot a “give-away deer” today. My freezer is full and the only way my wife will let me go hunting is if I pass the venison around to folks who think of it as “free meat.” I try telling them about my $2,000 crossbow, a couple of $5,00 to $700 rifles, several hundred dollars worth of tree stands, costly camouflage clothes, over $300 worth of licenses and $3 a gallon gas, but they still think it is “free meat.” I guess to it is to them.
I hunted in an urban area where I am lucky to have a buddy who allows me access. Due to the close proximity of houses, the use of a gun would be out of the question.
When they first developed the area, I though the deer would all die off, but boy was I wrong. They have no natural enemies, other than automobiles, and all those lawns with their flower beds and shrubs serve as multiple food plots.
My buddy lives along a small creek which serves as a funnel for the deer as they meander from lawn to lawn and bed in a small section of woods on both ends of the creek. The only time I have sat there and not seen a deer was when one of the neighbors was doing some construction on his back deck.
This morning a big-bodied, tall-racked spike came from a direction I was not expecting. One look and I knew if it offered a shot I would take it. My job is to cull the herd so spikes are fair game; besides that, any deer taken with archery equipment is a trophy in my book.
He stepped off the trail and started to wander in the direction of where I figure the bedding area to be. I got the top dot of the ProView scope on my TenPoint Phantom crossbow lined up just behind his front shoulder as he stepped from behind a tree. At the “twang” he swapped ends, jumped back on the path and ran back where he had come from.
It was not quite 8 o’clock when this occurred. I was pretty sure of my shot and thought I heard him fall, but my ears are bad, so I decided to give him at least 30 minutes before taking a look.
Just as I settled down, I saw another deer coming down the same path the first one had taken. There were some bushes between me and the deer, but I could see a good-size rack, so I slipped the safety off and got ready for round two. Alas, it was not to be. The deer came about three more steps down the path and then wandered off in a 90-drgree fashion along a strip of trees that skirted the edge of the development.
I relaxed, drank a cup of coffee and thought that life is good. I also kept an eye peeled just in case that buck decided to double back.
At 9 o’clock I got down, went to where I thought my arrow should be and found it covered with blood. There also was a good blood trail in the direction the deer had gone. In less than 40 yards I found a nice spike piled up at the bottom of a little ditch.
“Free meat” for several folks whom I know will use it.
ALBERT KITTREDGE
