Question for Deer Hunters

wish2fish

wish2fish

Active Member
Dec 19, 2006
4,278
Locust Creek, Ohio River mm 433
Boat Info
2003 220BR
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5.0 MPI
Last week I went down to my camp to finishing up winterization. Someone had dumped 3 deer carcases. One was a small buck. These things weren't gutted or anything. No meat removed.

My question is why would someone spend the time hunting, get 3 deer and then dump them without using the meat or mounting the head (1 buck)? If they didn't want them they could have left them in the woods. Can you help me to understand their logic?
 
May be he or they were slop hunters: not real hunters
 
A true hunter would never do that... those deer may have been illegally killed... maybe spotlighted.
 
I'll weigh in on this one & offer my 2 cents for what it's worth...

This is a subject we are familiar with here in Iowa. While I don't hunt I DO fully support the hunters around here, though I DO NOT CONDONE WHAT THESE PEOPLE YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT DID or poaching of any kind, but here's my opinion what may have happened or the thinking behind it at least.

What I suspect is maybe a little vigilante herd thinning. Iowa is 2nd on the list for deer/auto collisions & if I remember correct Illinios is first on the list. I don't know how big the deer get in Illinios, but here in Iowa they are corn fed year round & as a result they grow to the size of small to medium size horses. Especially bucks. No exageration. This is why so many out of staters come to hunt Iowa or the mid-West in general.

During the "rutt" these enormous bucks will litterally run right in front of an auto as if they don't see you. The females aren't much smarter as well as the little ones. All in all they are a pretty dumb animal when it comes to self preservation.

The deer are thick around here & you have to keep a sharp eye while driving to avoid a collision during certain times of the day. We have had our share of encounters too so I feel I am talking from much experience.

Even the local hunters here agree the herds should be thinned down but when you have to buy a hunting license buy the tag for your first buck & then pay for additional tags for any does you may want to hunt it becomes a very expensive hobby. I suppose this is the DNR's plan to keep locals & out of staters hunting smaller numbers to keep the herds up & to keep revenue coming in from it.

My biggest complaint is this..... When these deer cause the amount of auto accidents, personal injury, deaths & insurance claims each year (around here anyway), what should be more important, revenue from hunting or thinning the herds down to a MANAGABLE level so they no longer cause these problems?

Either these people took out some agression & poached these deer in question to "thin a herd" or else it was just dumn kids having "fun". I know all about loss of habitat & that sort of thing may have a little to do with it, but the deer populations around here are so ridiculous to the point that I can't feel bad when some are poached or shot for their meat illegally.

Either way they shouldn't have dumped them where they did. Better to throw 'em in a ditch out in the country so at least the coyotes or something can eat the meat. Sounds bad but at least something would get some use from them & a dead deer's better in the ditch than in the grill of my truck. Nobody wants to see that & what's worse is that some poor guy will have to clean it up.

That's just my opinion, right or wrong, but I'm interested in seeing others comment on this subject.
 
This is in a rural area. I really don't see thinning the heard as the issue. Spotlighting might be the issue. The buck was about the size one I occasionally saw in the area. If it were people goofing off killing the deer I don't know why the would be in a pile.

Here is a map of the area. The deer were at the first bend in road on Ruf Rd from Mary Ingles Highway. If you zoom out you can see how remote the area is.

Mary Ingles and Ruf Rd

I guess I suspect someone had the deer in their truck and dumped them because the game wardens were in the area and they might not have had the tags for them.

Hopefully this works. Where this pin is placed in the image is where the deer where dumped.

Bing Birds eye map
 
I used to hunt. Based on what you said, I'm thinking these were possibly shot illegally to thin the herd maybe, but they didn't want to waste the meat, and thought if they dropped it off at a hunters camp, the hunters might use the meat. (it would have been better if they'd have gutted them out, but if the wardens were nearby, prob just wanted to dump them)

I'm not sure, what poachers do, just doesn't make sense to me. Anyone a game warden, or know one? They might have better insight.
-VtSeaRay
 
Thinning sounds like the motive to me. We have way too many deer in Michigan. Local towns are beginning to cull because hunting is going out of fashion and the deer population is exploding in some areas.
 
Have you called the proper authorities and reported it? I would hate to see you take the blame if a game warden stopped by to check up on your camp.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
wish2fish said:
I guess I suspect someone had the deer in their truck and dumped them because the game wardens were in the area and they might not have had the tags for them.
Click to expand...


I never thought of that & it's a good possibility. I know around here I've heard horror stories of the game wardens being real a$$holes to hunters & going so far as to stop the guys in town after the hunt to check papers, licences, guns & even to check cell phone calls to see if they were used during the hunt! Sometimes these items get confiscated on nothing more than hunches.

Rules need to be enforced but they don't need to be that way if the situation doesn't call for it.
 
I hate to hear that. I can think of no good reason for what you came across. Thinning of the herd makes no sense...and if was just for shooting something, I don't understand why you found them all together. Just strange. Obviously, the people who did that are not hunters, but poachers.

Here in Maryland, you can harvest up to 12 deer per year. And if you don't want to deal with paying to get it processed, you can take it to most any deer processor who will take it from you for nothing, and it will end up going to feed those in need. It's a program called "Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry". It's a good program to get hunters in the woods (we have WAY too many deer in the state), and to help a good cause.

Tom
 
Sounds like poachers to me. Seems to me they would dump them in your camp just to try to get your camp in trouble. It aggravates me when people waste meat like that. In my camp we had a guy kill a deer last year and all he took was the backstraps and threw the rest of it out. I think he should have offered the rest of the meat to the other people in camp if he did not want it. Good luck hunting this year.
 
If they were just doing target practice or thinning the heard(never heard anyone doing that BTW-like that) they would have never even picked them up. This is about kids or drunks screwing around. They decide to go get some meat, drinking a double duece, shoot them and then don't feel like doing the work after...fck this, let's go get another double duece. It all sounded great when it started.
 
chrissrv195 said:
During the "rutt" these enormous bucks will litterally run right in front of an auto as if they don't see you. The females aren't much smarter as well as the little ones. All in all they are a pretty dumb animal when it comes to self preservation.
Click to expand...

I agree with most of what you said with the exception of the above statement.

Deer are not dumb by any means. Especially when it comes to self preservation & continuing blood lines. A male spends the majority of his life either avoiding detection (which they do a pretty good job of) or calculating & preparing for that perfect moment. When the time comes, he'll do some dumb things if he has to. In fact the Rutt, refers to a physical & mental state in which the male is so intensly focused on reproducing that he has no other purpose and no other care. He will eat less, sleep less & even leave his normal area of travel. You see them more often and in all the wrong places because of this very reason. He is chasing the mere scent of her. ........"A doe crossed this road within the last 12 hours, so I'm crossing this road." He dosen't cars about cars, broad daylight or anything else. So I guess I'm saying he is not dumb, he just does dumb things sometimes. Like me, about 30 years ago.:lol:

edit... I think Woody probably has the answer to the original question.
 
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