Call me whatever you want, just don't call me late for the dog opener next season! Last year(06-07) I killed 10 deer(4 with dogs), the year prior I kille 9(4 with dogs)this year I killed 6(0 with dogs). In this thread I have stated I am a notdie hard dog hunter but I support it and other forms of hunting 100%. I'm not sure how the # of deer I killed matters but you wanted to know.

We are not talking about other states, we are talking about VA. Dog hunting and the traditions ofVA are what they are you can't justlegislate or wish it away. Say what you want but deer hunters and deer clubsin VA are by far the majority. I duck hunt and rabbit hunt and I don't see 1/10 of the hunters I see during deer season. I know of only a couple ofclubs that arebeagle clubs andare strictly rabbit and small game hunters and I know first hand of dog clubs that have switched to no dog hunting and watched their #'s slowly but surely dwindle over the next 5 seasons until the land eventually got split up and absorbed by other clubs or developed. Not saying still hunting clubscan't work to some degreejust saying what I have seen.

The timber companies in VA have been selling out for years. They have been making marginal to low turnovers on their lands in VA for the past 30 years(if not longer). You are correct they will get their money because after they strip the land a couple more time they start to sell it off to developers. Surely you know somewhere that is a neighborhood now that you used to hunt in, all I'm saying is that will continue to happen and probably increase.

Could they maintain thebalance withinthe herd numbers by shortening the dog season to the last 4 weeksandallowingSunday hunting(or something like that),maybe they could. There are probably a lot of other ways/ideas that people havethat couldimprove hunter relations and the hunting seasonsbut you(and most)haven't been discussing anything like that. There are other states with dog seasonsthat have undertook similiar restructuring of seasons and theimplementing ofnew guidlelines and policies. I don't here anyone saying "Hey something like that may work here." I don't here you dicussing anything other than "in my area".

Then you go from a dog hunting argument to a QDM argument, WHAT DO YOU WANT TO DISCUSS IN THIS THREAD? Is letting little bucks go some kind of cure all. Of course it isn't, it is only a tiny part of what it takes to manage a deer herd. Many other factors are equally important i.e. available land, bordering landowner cooperation, year round nutritional concerns, not just killing does but killing the right # of does, money, and the list goes on and on and on. I can't speak for your area and since you obviously know every deer dog hunter in your area andconsider them worthless and not in tune withwhat "you" want to do maybe you shouldoutbid them on their lease and start a still hunting club or justmove.

I'm not sureexactly what validpoints or ideasyou are trying to make but I do have a good idea of what youropinion of the dog hunters in your area is and I guess if we all approach it with the "my area" mentality rater than"our state" mentality we will continue to go round and round and round and I'm dizzy already.