You would be amazed at the mentality of some of the people that hunt in MD. A lot of the time, you are taking a chance with your life when you go hunting around here.

this is amazing I swear to god 15 years ago when I lived in Va. one of the younger fellows in our hunt club shot a small buck with his shot gun in South Hampton County. It was his first Buck so he caped it out and wanted to get it mounted so he put it in his freezer until he could save the money for a deposit. Well time wnt on and he decided on getting a hunting dog insted and would just mount the antlers. While cutting out the antlers he found a broadhead in the deers brain. If I hacen't seen it with my own eyes i would not have belived it. Thanks for the article.

Key word= SOME

It is sad but I would lean more towards 35-40% of the people I meet are total dumb-asses that have no business being in the woods.

But, I will stop hijacking this thread now.

There was a doe photgraphed by anti's in NY here a few years ago with a full arrow through the back of the lower jaw. They presented the picture as part of a motion at a local town hall meeting for banning Bowhunting (the usual crual and unusual). It made it pretty far, but was defeated 4-3 by the local trustees (4 republicans voted yes, and 3 demoncrats no). Close call, this was prime hunting property.

Some idiots just make the rest of look stupid. In my case, it almost cost me one of my best spots - but, its the same as driving, they will give anyone a drivers license (or hunting license).

why do poachers shoot worse than the rest of us???
Most likely it was a Joe/normal Bowhunter who thought he missed, or tried tracking a buck that didn't want to die!
More bowhunters shoot legally than not!

A couple years ago on a military branch deer check station someone brought in a deer that had an arrow sticking out of his forehead. The warden showed me the polaroid (hi-tech, I know). Apparently someone took a shot out of a stand missing badly and hitting the deer right between the eyes. This deer was later taken by gun a few weeks later. I know things can go wrong while hunting, but some of the stories I hear from wardens often scare me.

How many states require you to qualify with your bow before hunting? Is this a bad idea?

Another one of the things that bugs me is the checking in of a 19lb deer. Yes that was the smallest deer checked this year at this particular military installation.

I don't believe that many states require you to qualify with a bow to shoot on public land. Definately not for private land. I have to qualify to hunt some Federal land and to participate in managed hunts here in MD.

I asked that question when getting my permit from MD DNR last year and their response was that if they made everyone qualify before hunting public land that the number of hunters would drop and then they could not control the deer population. I would also think that a lot of people that did not, or could not qualify would just hunt illegally.

It's sad to think that way. I personaly feel that everyone that hunts public or Federal land should have to qualify with whatever weapon they will be using. I have definately seen a lot of hunters in the woods that do not belong there. I can not count the number of times I have been talking to my friends working at Bass Pro when people come in wanting to get outfitted with a bow, crossbow or gun so they can go out the next day.

Ooops. Didn't I say I was going to stop hijacking this thread?!

Yeah, I am going to have to second that. Stupid stupid[:@]