angryness
- Thread starter moose_hunter
- Start date
Sitka deer actually
Those are full grown does, and a couple of bigger bucks you can't see there. Fawns there are about 25 lbs dressed out and the size of a midsized dog
The bucks were a decent size, but the does are all about 40-50 lbs of meat. ONCE in a while you'll see a big 'un. This is texada island - bit of a special case. Deer were introduced there many years ago - but there are NO predators. They have a special season there, where you can take one deer more than the provincial limit allows and 2 of the 3 can be does. The island is swarming, and has the highest percentage of car-strikes on deer per capita in canada i'm told. They also have a 1 month archery season in january to encourage more hunters to come, with special tag limits.
Once in a while the population crashes a bit (deaths by starvation if the population gets too far out of control) and for a couple of years the animals get bigger (more to eat for the survivors). But the CO there tells me that even with all the hunters and all the does taken, hunters STILL don't actually stop the population increase each year. They just slow it down a lot.
They'd rather we take the smallest ones and/or fill our doe tags first - We usually take a couple of medium sized does and then hold out for a decent sized buck.
It's actually a very fun hunt, but it's not the same situation as hunting most other places (except the queen charolettes, where they have the same problem). But while we do get the odd good sized deer out of there (a good buck will run 80 - 110 lbs of meat) we always shoot a few of the does too to help out.
I'll tell you this tho - it is the best tasting deer meat you'll ever have, bar none!
(PS - if you did shoot a doe who had a fawn, the fawn would survive if it was going to anyway. No snow in the winter, food everywhere unless the other deer have eaten it all, no predators, etc, and a lot of other does to latch on to. Totally different world).
- Location
- Surrey, BC
Sounds very similar to the Queen Charlottes (as you mentioned farther down in your post). I lived in Sandspit for 4 years, and had my introduction to deer hunting up thereFoxer said:
Definetely a different story than anywhere else in BC! The bag limit for blacktails in the charlottes was changed a couple years ago (bumped up to 15 per person, from 10!!), and the personal possession limit is 5. Bucks-only season starts in June and runs until the end of February the following year (9 months!!), and the antlerless season stars at the beginning of September and runs to the end of Feb. I try to get up there at least once a year around mid-September, bag about 4 or 5 deer and fill my freezer for the rest of the year It's quite ridiculous, actually.As far as ethics are concerned, it's easy to shoot does and fawns when there's so many of them around. You literally have to dodge them when you're driving, they're all over the road and in people's yards eating the flowers and generally everywhere you look. Last year we roasted a whole fawn over a fire on the beach, it was fantastic
And it's not just me, everybody up there does it, in fact it's considered perfectly normal. That being said, when I tell people down here in the city that I shoot does and fawns, they always recoil in shock and look at me like I just sprouted horns and a pointy tail. Just goes to show that ethics are a personal thing, and can vary greatly.
Yeah, that's true. Just like we don't bait bear here, but they do in the east and there's REASONS for that.
The underlying principles tho I think are very common to all of us. Like convservation of the animals for example. The best thing that can happen on the QC's or Texada is that the largest number of does and even fawns be harvested. The more the better the way things are right now. Of course, most hunters would rather shoot a big 'un, but we try to take a few smaller animals too. The WORST thing that could happen there is for people to shoot nothing but bucks. The overpopulation will lead to starvation and the process starts again. And then even the bucks are small because there's no food, animals are in people's gardens day and night and getting hit on the roads, and the whole population is underfed and weak.
So, conservation demands that we harvest a few animals we'd likely let go anywhere else in bc.
But the thing is - i took the time to talk to the local co, the local people, etc and do my research so that i could make intelligent decisions when i started hunting in that area. I know the situation, so when i decide to drop the hammer on an animal i'm fairly confident it's in keeping with the general principles of ethical hunting, even tho the same thing somewhere else might not be.
And that leads us back to the topic at hand - the lady in question might not be a 'monster' or something, maybe she just didn't think about it. But it's to our advantage and part of our responsibility to have an understanding of the biology at work in the areas we hunt, so that we can make intelligent shooting choices on animals. We're hunters after all - not killers or meat-shoppers (most of the time anyway).
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
Queen Charlottes Blacktail, feed six people at dinner easy
- Location
- AB foothills
Iguanafred said:
Me too
I miss the little bugger, his amount of years in the field and his amazing amount of hunting experiance was always fun to read He was hunting deer while he was still in diapers, now thats a man
Foxer said:
That is your opinion!
To an Inuit or a lot of the rest of us "hunting" IS the act of finding, & killing game to eat.
Does that make this opinion of hunting wrong in your eyes??
Check the dictionary
What would be the reason to shoot a huge deer other than to brag!!
Personally I don't need to brag & prefer a much younger animal, male or female as the regs set out, after all the reg makers are supposed to be the ones in the know
So are you saying the guy that sits in a stand & scopes a field of deer to find just the right animal to shoot with his 9 thousand power scoped MAGNUM rifle is a "Hunter" & not a " not killers or meat-shoppers "
Yes it is. It is also the principles behind most if not all of our hunting orgs. It's also how most canadian hunters are raised. Respect for the wild, respect for the animals.
I take it you didn't get that kind of upbringing?
Well considering that most provinces have laws about harvesting what you shoot, i should think we're ALL finding and killing game to eat. Personally, the meat is a huge part of it for me. It's one of the best reasons to go hutnign
Doesn't mean i don't think about the animals or try to make good hunting decisions. If you're talking about sustinance hunting - then it's TEN times more important to give a thought to animal conservation. Sure - you can just kill everything in sight, harvest only the best bits of meat, not give a care in the world if there'll be more animals next year - but that'd be pretty stupid. A smart person would think about what he can do to help make sure there's lots of game.
You seem to be suggesting that natives and innuit don't give a flying fig about the land or the animals, they're just killers. I GUESS you're entitled to that opinion, and certanly there's some examples of that. But i'd hardly call it a 'good' way to live.
What - taking things out of the environment with zero care for trying to make sure there'll be some in the future? Yeah - that'd be wrong. That'd be wrong if it were harvesting animals - or trees or fish or anything. You try your best to take from the land in such a way that it can still replenish itself. That way there's always more to take.
You sound like those buffalo hunters who'd shoot buffalo from the train window. Not a care in the world if the herds could sustain it.
Personally - i DO think that's bad.
Wow. What a tiny little world you live in.
Gee let me think - how about 1) - it's got more meat. 2) - its' much harder to find a big buck, they're a lot more crafty. So if you really like hunting and want to push your skill levels, trying for a big 'un forces you to really get in touch with your game and UNDERSTAND the animals and how they live. 3) - it's a deer - if it happens to walk across your path what are you going to do, pass it up and hope a smaller one comes a long? what's the point?
4) Big bucks have lived their lives and passed their genes along. It's not a bad idea at all to take it out of the gene pool and let some of the younger ones spread their seed so to speak.
All kinds of reasons to shoot a bigger buck. Not that there's anything wrong with smaller ones at all.
I mean - if all you're into hunting for is to shoot something big and brag about it... what's the point? I don't hunt for OTHER people - I hunt for me! I can honestly say i've never started out on a hunting trip thinking "god i hope i can brag to the guys when i get back". To me it's personal.
Nothing wrong with that at all. Nobody's suggested that younger animals shouldn't be taken. Or females where the regs allow.
But not all things in heaven and earth are written in the regs.
For example - it's not in the regs that you shouldn't shoot an animal when there's ANOTHER animal just on the other side - there's a pretty good chance your bullet will pass thru and wound or kill the other animal.
And yet - despite the fact that isn't in the regs, we all know that.
It's not in the regs that you should spend hours looking for an animal you think you hit. It just says make a 'reasonable' effort to recover it. But most of us know you don't give up after just half an hour of looking in most cases.
It doesn't say in the regs "Don't take a 300 yard pot shot with a 30-30 and iron sights at a moose". But most of us know that's not a good idea.
There's all kinds of decisions that are not in the regs that we as hunters should be aware of and exercise our own judgement on.
If a cow and a calf are standing together and both are legal, it's better to take the calf. That's pretty amazingly simple. Sometimes circumstances may not allow for it, but as a rule that's the way to go.
These are the kinds of decisions people who are real hunters make. If you can conserve the herd and resources so there are more next year - that's a good thing.
Most hunters out this way know they have to make decisions when they hunt by the time they're in their teens. I'm disappointed i have to explain this to somone who's been hunting a while.
BigUglyMan
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- New Scotland
Mmmmm...Moose.
What was the question?
What was the question?
Foxer your spewing a bunch of crap infering I said or meant something that's not there!
"hunting" IS the act of finding, & killing game to eat.
Sorry but this is what I do!
Where you pulled that "respect" & all that other crap from is beyond me??
Refusing to attempt to see anyone else's opinion or point of view & reading into or twisting what's said is what you do!
Now why don't you take a last poke & lock the thread.
Something else most of us have noticed you like to do!
"hunting" IS the act of finding, & killing game to eat.
Sorry but this is what I do!
Where you pulled that "respect" & all that other crap from is beyond me??
Refusing to attempt to see anyone else's opinion or point of view & reading into or twisting what's said is what you do!
Now why don't you take a last poke & lock the thread.
Something else most of us have noticed you like to do!
- Location
- Hillbilly shack in the boonies
Out of the mouth of Chicken Little, " What we talken bout? "
