Backyard Deer yay or nay

[straight_arrow]

There's a difference between hunting and killing.  I don't hunt the deer on my property because they know i'm not a threat to them since i see them almost daily.  Just a thought.

[Eric Krewson]

I  live in a subdivision where everyone has a few acres. I am at the end of a dead end road with nothing behind my house but woods for a mile or so. I could hunt my 4 acres, I see quite a few deer out my back window but leave the deer alone.

Walking 100yds from the house and setting up a tree stand doesn't feel like hunting for me.

If I fall short on putting  my yearly deer in the freezer I might mess with the back yard deer. So far all I have to do when I come up short is call one of my deer slayer friends and tell them I need a deer. With a 2 deer a day limit in Alabama and a 3 deer a day limit in Tennessee it doesn't take them long to deliver. Most of us hunt both states.

[PaddyMac]

I voted no because I envisioned actually neighborhoods, like 50'x120' lots. Very bad ju-ju for a dying deer to run across four or five patios before going down cleanly.

On the other hand, 3 to 5 acre tracks, cool neighbors, go for it!

I'm on 5 acres surrounded by 20 and 40 acre and public land and if a nice buck is standing out by my target with a mouth full of my jalapenos, as they are apt to do, thwack!

[Lost Arra]

No.

Treestand-yes
Camera-yes
Bleeding deer on someone's porch-nope.

I've got a herd in my backyard and in spite of eating our veggie garden I won't shoot them. not worth the grief if things don't go right

[USN_Sam1385]

Yay.

I do it every year on a 13 acre property. It is my local hunting spot.

I will spend weekend hunts at my brother in laws 200 acre farm in NorthEast Missouri.

Funny thing is: I kill bigger/better deer on the 13 acres:

Here is a google Earth Picture of the property. The yellow line is the boundary of the 13 acres.

You can clearly see 20+ houses in this picture.
 

[SteveB]

In a residential area of small lots - no. In NY, you must have landowner permission to retrieve. If they say no, you cannot go in under ANY circumstance. Not for me.

[Craig]

Some of us only have those places to hunt, so if we want to hunt we have no choice. You hunt in the evening and track at night. So far no problem.

[bow'narrow]

Share venison with the neighbors.  Great PR for the deer that die off your property.

[maineac]

I'm in the check around with neighbors crowd.  You might find it is fairly universal feeling for the need to get rid of a few deer.  If you are ethical and responsible it can go a long way to helping win over the non-hunters to the positive aspects of bowhunting.  If it is a largely anti-hunting area I would stay away to avoid the trouble and giving the anti's anything they could blow up into a larger issue.

[UrbanDeerSlayer]

I feel compelled to respond again.  My neighborhood consists of mostly 1 acre plots with homes, and larger off limit areas around the neighborhood. Off limit areas are ball fields, parks, schools etc with no hunting allowed. The deer bed down in those areas, then eat out the neighborhood gardens and landscaping. There is almost no hunting pressure and growing deer herds. Road kill was at an all time high last year, I saw at least a dozen road kills within 1 mile of my home. Yes the deer are patternable and you know where to hunt, but this is necessary in order to get on top for a nice close shot and hopefully a quick kill.  Most of my neighbors know my intentions, but regardless, my legal right is to hunt them and I do so because my landscaping is also one of the ones that the deer vigorously feed on, and it may be one of my cars that collides with the deer in the future.

[Bldtrailer]

If you hunt YOUR area, aprouch your neighbers with the hunt as a public service broadhead or volvo/Bmw the deer is still dead. Point out that you hunt from tree stands thus shots( silent NO BANG) go into the ground, and you're willing to share the High proteen low fat resolt.  I'm sure there are some who are tryed of car vs deer pingpong and destuction of pricy landscaped property/gardens and as pointed out the less camo(look like everyone else) the better.

[cahaba]

I live in a very rural area and everybody around here hunts so it wouldn't be a problem. My lease starts in my backyard and goes 3k acres to the river.The only thing I would be worried about in a subdivision area would be a bad shot. It happened around here sometimes back where a deer had an arrow stuck in it and was seen by several people. Heck the local news was all over it. To say the least it didn't help our cause.

[koger]

I have put a lot of backyard venison in the freezer. No PETA people or tree huggers here, any where in my neigbor hood. I had folks over on a lake ridge that had been developed, out of state retiree's knew I hunted, aske me not to shoot deer that were close to their houses, like to see them. A year later and a dry spell, deer came in a mowed down all their high dollare shrubs and landscape and ornamental bushes, my phone started ringing off the wall, folks asking me when I was gonna kill them ***** deer. I have had free range of the whole neighborhood since. I used the back decks and porches as blinds since about every one had tall towering evergreen shrubs on each corner of the 2 story decks, blind and a treestand. Deer were still wild.

[UrbanDeerSlayer]

Originally posted by koger:
I have put a lot of backyard venison in the freezer. No PETA people or tree huggers here, any where in my neigbor hood. I had folks over on a lake ridge that had been developed, out of state retiree's knew I hunted, aske me not to shoot deer that were close to their houses, like to see them. A year later and a dry spell, deer came in a mowed down all their high dollare shrubs and landscape and ornamental bushes, my phone started ringing off the wall, folks asking me when I was gonna kill them ***** deer. I have had free range of the whole neighborhood since. I used the back decks and porches as blinds since about every one had tall towering evergreen shrubs on each corner of the 2 story decks, blind and a treestand. Deer were still wild.

This seems to be the case.  They don't want you to shoot the deer until hundreds of flowers,bushes, saplings are completely eaten to the ground, then they want them destroyed!  Nonetheless, decimation of the herd is not the goal, just good management. I have found nothing that will keep deer from landscaping except a sharp broadhead.  Chemicals / deterrants do not work. They jump over fencing. They are not scared of dogs.  In fact, my 90# dog took a kick to the head from a mature doe last year! That made the wife angry and she wants the deer gone. But I strive only to keep it in check.

[Night Wing]

I voted "nay" because I've got backyard and frontyard deer at my home. The deer are basically semi-tame. They pay me no mind and I can get quite close to them when I mow my grass.

[elknutz]

If they have become a pest due to numbers and damage, eat them. It may not be the hunt of a lifetime, but not everyone has access to pristine hunting grounds.

[bowless]

Opposite here in the Bay State from NY.  If the landowner won't give permission to retreive then the game warden has to.  Of course they try to get YOU permission otherwise they have to do it.  Deer are considered the states property regardless of where they drop.

[SteveB]

Landowner rights are a priority still in NY.
One of the few things they have right.