So archery season starts in PA tomorrow, although it started earlier in some sections of the state. Last night local news does a story on it...the lead is "hunting starts tomorrow but hunters will be leaving their guns and bullets are home....." No kidding...it's ARCHERY! Then a radio guy just mentions it....says "good luck if you are going out.....if your not, keep your eyes open because they will have them moving"......really? Some of them are so ignorant on the subject it is not funny. Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
Dumb down I get, but not creating panic through poor reporting.....do bow hunters " get em moving"....in rifle, a deer drive will push deer across highways, but in bow, not so much. Further, this station has an outdoor show.....be nice to let the host of that have some input as he presumably has a little more knowledge of the sport Sent from my XT1080 using Tapatalk
On the bright side they are reporting and talking about it rather than choosing to not do the story in fear of the peta folks. They will probably do a follow up story asking hunters if they caught anything.
I am convinced that news reporters come from a small bunch of people that are trained and brainwashed to do "dumb" reporting. If they do have a story they enhance it to make it sound more exciting. If they don't have a story, they make one up.
anyone going into the woods with "get them moving". That is why you start seeing carcasses on the road in mid-September well before any rut or gun activity is going on. Its b/c bowhunters are heading into the woods and unintentionally pushing deer.
We see no difference in vehicle kills along roadways EXCEPT during the shotgun season and rut. If you want to talk about pushing deer, there is the place to look. It is very evident you are against the bow hunters or you would not have made that fact less statement. Shot gun season is army hunting season.
Exactly, and when you see dead deer along the road in the summer its because some hunter was checking their trail cameras and induced panic causing the deer to flee....Deer never cross the road on their own.
That's just not the truth. Can it happen, I suppose, but deer change how they use the land in September and it has nothing to do with hunters. Does have been nursing and raising fawns and keeping to a pretty small area. Bucks tend to be in bachelor groups which mean they are more isolated in certain areas. In September those does start to kick those fawns off so they don't interbreed. That means a bunch of deer are on the move. Bucks break up the bachelor groups and start trying to establish their fall range. That means lots of bucks traveling in areas that they hadn't been previously travelling. None of those activities have anything to do with the hunters.
A) I'm not "against bow hunters", I am one, and #2) you live in Iowa and I live in suburban Baltimore/DC and I'm just saying based on regular observation I start seeing carcasses on the major roads at the same time bow hunting season starts. Its possible its just a behavioral coincidence but it happens even when we are still seeing hot temps and little evidence of "fall" when we expect them to change their patterns. I pushed a deer walking out of my stand Saturday. Not that she was hit by a car as a result but you can see how easily one person in the woods can make a deer move.
See the same thing when fawns drop every spring when dispersal occurs again last years fawns pushed off. Deer get pushed out and around all the time by human activities year round yet the number of deer car collisions have peaks in spring and fall.
I've seen it both ways. Depending on where the news story is I've seen hunting heralded in high manner and sometimes discussed like it's a Daniel Boone or Davy Crockett fable pastime with weird statements and awkwardness. Some districts and maybe even full counties still close schools for gun season because so many kids hunt, which I love to see. When it comes to dead deer on the side of the road, sure, I see more during deer season. That's a perfect indicator as to when I start hunting more. All the more reason why auto insurers should team with with DNRs, Deer Management groups, and bow hunters alike to provide data as to where they see the most deer related claims. It would be a perfect combination to help manage herds better, put meat in the freezer/feed the needy, and to lower insurance costs/claims. Imagine that, people work together to accomplish something.
You are exactly right unclejohn, unfortunately deer are going to be crossing roads no matter what which is why I am trying to pressure my local township to set up deer crossing signs in my area so that the deer know where they should and shouldn't cross. Furthermore, whenever I bump a deer near a road I try and let them know where the nearest designated road crossing is, just so they don't get caught jaywalking!
