RE: Random thought
I think I have a peculiar take on this.
I live in Arlington, VA, which is right across the Potomac from DC. Talk about tough to find a place to hunt! It’s 45 a minute drive to the closest place I can practice my bow!
But Virginia has an urban archery season that starts September 15 (regular archery starts Oct. 5), and the deer in Fairfax County and Loudon County really are in severe need of getting under control. Approx 5,000 deer-related vehicle accidents in Fairfax County alone in 2005. And early last winter in Loudon County, I hit a deer with my wife’s car (didn’t kill or seriously injury it because I was able to slow down almost to a stop before we collided) and, within a week-and-a-half, my brother-in-law gets a deer thrown through his windscreen by a deer that was hit by a semi truck (the truck didn’t even slow down, much less check to see if my brother-in-law was injured).
I haven’t tried out the urban season yet, because it is a really hassle to try to coordinate a hunt among all of the neighbors. I also don’t know if I would want to eat an animal that was eating the runoff from the highways and other heavily-trafficked roads in northern Virginia. But it would be good practice and would help with the deer overpopulation problem here.
Has anyone in VA ever done one of these urban hunts?
As for me, my wife and I recently acquired some beautiful wooded mountain land in VA near the WV border where I hunt, mostly in George Washington National Forest, which is public land, but which isn’t overhunted where I go (I’ve never seen a hunter I wasn’t hunting with while I was hunting). It’s over 2 hours to drive there, but it’s worth it. We plan to build a house and move out there in a few years. I’m in the process of putting together a hunting cabin this year.
I guess my lesson from all of this is that sometimes it’s necessary to drive a ways to find a remote area to hunt.
And, as others on here have said, it’s probably a good idea to get in good with a landowner and exchange favors. Here in VA, most farmers are glad to have someone killing the deer that mess up their crops, as long as the person is responsible.
I think talking and common courtesy are greatly undervalued.