days 40 and 41
Well, you can scratch day 40, because nuthin' happened deer sniping-wise yesterday.
Today on the other hand, was a beautiful night for deer sniping--75 degrees or so, a light wind that died down eventually, and cloud cover. We were in the grapes at 7:00 pm. Because the weather conditions were favorable, I sat (well, stood, actually) near the winery building uphill of the newly planted grapes. There were clouds that covered the sun the whole time, so I was hidden from sight, and I didn't have the sun in my eyes the whole time. Which makes all the difference in the world.
I was rewarded at 8:05 or so with a gorgeous look of a small deer that came creeping out of the woods, through the bushes and into the grapes. At sixty yards the deer was munching happily, broadside to me. I was disappointed, however, to see spots on the deer through the scope. Damn. I debated a bit with myself about shooting, but then I put the gun down in the hopes that mom was somewhere in the vicinity and following young Bambi.
Mom never showed up. I would have had a nice shot at the fawn, and I know some of my loyal readers (or at least my one loyal reader, plus his buddy the loyal fawn killing advocate) will question my judgment in passing up the shot on "venison veal." But understand--I am in the full time sausage making mentality right now, and a thirty pound deer would yield up maybe ten pounds of meat. I'm looking for bigger yields, if nothing else. Plus I honestly thought there was a decent chance that the mother would be lagging behind the young one.
I guessed wrong on that. There's a chance that this fawn tonight was one of the orphaned fawns from the doe I shot last month. You never know.
One other argument against shooting fawns (not a terribly strong argument, but I've read it on other states' nuisance deer control web sites) is that there is a 50/50 chance the fawn will be male. Meaning there is a 50% chance of killing the deer that in five years will be Moby Buck. Hence some states require their hunters to identify the antlerless deer that are shot on these permits as adult females. While I'm not sure I'd absolutely go that far, I'm still looking more for a 100 pound animal than a thirty pound animal.
That's confessions of a deer sniper.
Today on the other hand, was a beautiful night for deer sniping--75 degrees or so, a light wind that died down eventually, and cloud cover. We were in the grapes at 7:00 pm. Because the weather conditions were favorable, I sat (well, stood, actually) near the winery building uphill of the newly planted grapes. There were clouds that covered the sun the whole time, so I was hidden from sight, and I didn't have the sun in my eyes the whole time. Which makes all the difference in the world.
I was rewarded at 8:05 or so with a gorgeous look of a small deer that came creeping out of the woods, through the bushes and into the grapes. At sixty yards the deer was munching happily, broadside to me. I was disappointed, however, to see spots on the deer through the scope. Damn. I debated a bit with myself about shooting, but then I put the gun down in the hopes that mom was somewhere in the vicinity and following young Bambi.
Mom never showed up. I would have had a nice shot at the fawn, and I know some of my loyal readers (or at least my one loyal reader, plus his buddy the loyal fawn killing advocate) will question my judgment in passing up the shot on "venison veal." But understand--I am in the full time sausage making mentality right now, and a thirty pound deer would yield up maybe ten pounds of meat. I'm looking for bigger yields, if nothing else. Plus I honestly thought there was a decent chance that the mother would be lagging behind the young one.
I guessed wrong on that. There's a chance that this fawn tonight was one of the orphaned fawns from the doe I shot last month. You never know.
One other argument against shooting fawns (not a terribly strong argument, but I've read it on other states' nuisance deer control web sites) is that there is a 50/50 chance the fawn will be male. Meaning there is a 50% chance of killing the deer that in five years will be Moby Buck. Hence some states require their hunters to identify the antlerless deer that are shot on these permits as adult females. While I'm not sure I'd absolutely go that far, I'm still looking more for a 100 pound animal than a thirty pound animal.
That's confessions of a deer sniper.
posted by Frank Zappai at 8/17/2006 10:08:00 PM
1 Comments:
Sausage making reason acceptable, Mobby deer, I don't think so. What would reduce the deer population, as you are claiming the reason for this sniping is, killing a doe which produces 1 or 2 fawns a year or killing a Buck which could be responsible for, what, 20-30 fawns a year? Shoot them there spots off the sucker!
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