this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2025
774 points (99.2% liked)
People Twitter
5507 readers
1876 users here now
People tweeting stuff. We allow tweets from anyone.
RULES:
- Mark NSFW content.
- No doxxing people.
- Must be a pic of the tweet or similar. No direct links to the tweet.
- No bullying or international politcs
- Be excellent to each other.
- Provide an archived link to the tweet (or similar) being shown if it's a major figure or a politician.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
I have a friend who works as a park ranger in upstate NY. Every year the rangers have to cull the deer, but they use rifles. He said the problem is the only natural predator deer have in the area is the automobile.
I'm in Utah, and we drove out the wolves like 100 years ago and coyotes have a bounty, so we're being overrun with deer. As a result, it's really easy to get a deer tag here, since we need some way to cull the population, but it's still not enough. We're finally reintroducing wolves, but it'll take a while for things to rebalance.
My neighbors feed them and we're five minutes from downtown in the capital city of my state. They're cute and all, barely afraid of people or cars. Get scared off by neighborhood cats sometimes.
I would love to post the photo I got of 13 of the 14 that were in their backyard at one time but I'm lucky someone hasn't already doxxed me.
People loooove to hunt here. People live for deer season. They talk about hunting during the other three seasons like those people who can yammer on about sports for hours in the offseason. I know scrawny little dweebs who bag a buck almost every year.
The meat is good and if they aren't culled they're all doomed to starve or die of disease and further ruin the ecosystem. We have a few city coyote, more on the outskirts and countryside. I feel like people would lose their minds here if we tried to reintroduce wolves though.
People already look at me like I grew an extra head when I tell them I've never been hunting, so maybe the hunters are doing enough here.
Yeah, I live in a neighborhood that's kinda in-between suburban and rural. I.e. a neighborhood of 1/4 acre lots surrounded by mostly protected shrubland. The deer seem to have learned to stay in the neighborhood where they can't be hunted. They often sleep in people's back and sometimes even front yards. I don't really mind them, except for the fact that they'll eat almost anything I try to plant, and even jump my backyard fence to eat their favorite plants.
When I got halfway through your post I already knew I was going to ask about gardening. They eat everything. Everything. Shit that's supposed to be toxic to them. Plant some mint my ass.
Luckily we have a raised porch so we can have a few ferns, peppers, and herbs. They won't walk up all the stairs.
I rent this place but I'm responsible for the back hill up to the next street. I let it grow wild for 6 years. They had their babies back there. Somebody snitched on me to the city and I was lucky I only had to pay someone $600 to clear it. At the time I was literally only in town 48 hours tops per week and I wasn't going to kill myself with a chainsaw when I'm already exhausted.
Yeah, people look at me weird as well, but it's mostly because my parents weren't into hunting, and I have young kids and don't want to risk them playing with my guns. Once the youngest is old enough to learn to use them properly, maybe I'll go try my hand at hunting.
If you're willing to take some advice from a fellow non-hunter, go with someone experienced. I know my way around a firearm too, but I would never say, go rock climbing alone with kids because I know how a carabiner works.
The thing I understand from talking to the young and old about hunting is that it is very cold and very boring.
I got some Dickies long underwear on sale this winter and it is amazing. Combined with ski style pants, heavy boots, two layers of wool socks and thin gloves under thick gloves, plus jackets (one thick warm, one thin waterproof) of course, I was a snow and ice destroying machine during the last bad storm here. I would recommend a setup like that to go hunting. Even though it's just the fall or early winter you're going to be starting at 4am and then not moving for hours.
I was raised by women, and it's not that women can't hunt, culturally they don't where I'm from. And I absolutely hate being cold. I think my ADHD brain might have had a little problem with staring at nothing quietly for hours as well. Hunting is a fuck no for me.
Yeah, that's another issue. I don't know now to field dress a deer, nor do I know what to bring to pack it out. I'm not even sure I'll enjoy hunting in the first place. I know my way around a gun (took my SO to a range on a date), but shooting a living animal is another matter entirely.
So I'm planning to go jackrabbit hunting first. They're a nuisance animal, not good for eating (so no need to field dress), I can use a small caliber (SO doesn't have experience with larger guns), and they're everywhere. If I like that, I'll ask around to find a hunting buddy.
I don't know about the difference between a jackrabbit and a rabbit but rabbit jambalaya was sent from the gods. If you're not hunting them for game why not hit em with the shotty. Super fun to shoot and you can teach quick lessons on how to hold it right because it usually only takes one shot holding it wrong.
Exactly why I got no beef with deer hunters. How are there not enough humans doing that in NY?
The park is surrounded by residential neighborhoods. No hunting allowed for miles.
Most of them unintentionally hunt deer with their cars, from what my friend tells me. He said Pound Ridge has an absurdly high number of car accidents involving deer when compared to similar towns, hence the local support for culling.