Dear Dog Hunters
 

I have no real desire to hunt with a bow. Buzzing insects, green leaves and warm weather don't mix with deer hunting IMO. But you may be pushing me in the that direction. The four times I got to hunt in our two weeks of muzzleloader season were awesome. Saw deer every time and killed two. They don't let you run dogs during muzzleloader season. Thank God.

Now that the dog hunters run their dogs through every cotton-pickin' inch of Pocahontas State Park, it really, really makes the deer extra prone to going 100% nocturnal. Yes, even on the weekdays.

Got to hunt some private land this past Saturday for the first time. Thought it would be awesome. But I found that the surrounding properties run deer dogs. And guess what? Those dogs came onto the property where I was taking my sister hunting for the first time. What's that you say? You can't control where the dogs run, and dogs don't know the property lines? NO KIDDING!! That's the point.

So I might just have to take up bow hunting, simply to be able to hunt without your invasive critters crawling over every inch of woods known to man.

oopppps...thought it was a deer..my bad.

If it's not wearing orange....IT GETS SHOT! HA!HA!HA!

This one should get real interesting soon. I know how you feel about the dogs and all that, but i hunt with a club and we use dogs. I love still hunting but i also grew up using dogs. Its been around along time and hopefully will never go away. But when im not hunting with the club I will goto my private land i have. If im still hunting and dogs come blasting through i get aggervated but i will try to kill the deer they are running so the hunters know im there. Most the time the deer will get on the property and run for awhile and alot of other deer will be up moving also cause they are stirred up and they are moving to get away from a chase. Most the time thats good cause you may not see some, use it to your advantage, even though they come running by you doesnt mean your hunt is ruined. I have seen big bucks move just after a chase in the same woods.

Yea sorry dog hunters but put yourself in someone else's shoes, extremely inconsiderate to your fellow hunter. Any dog on my property that affects my hunting becomes a distant memory real quick, even if it's mine!

You could be looking out from the back side of the chain link fence! There are laws that will put you in jail for shooting a dog weather it is on your property or public. Check your state laws before you shoot and make sure the dogs owner don't find out cuz if he is like me, you may see the "bright lite" sooner than you think!

We are all hunters and just cuz you don't use hounds, others may wish too. PERSONALLY, I don't, but if it's legal, GET OVER IT!:wink::)

I',m almost positive you have the legal right to shoot any dog that is harrasing your livestock, pets, or wildlife on your property in KY. I am pretty sure most states are like this. And don't worry the only people that would know is me, God, and the nice people at the Chinese resturaunt down the street. :-)

I'm pretty sure there are laws against killing other people, too. You may want to check your local ordinances.

I dont have the problem of hunters running dogs while I'm deer hunting, but did have a pooch come by my stand causing a problem during bow. He never made it out of the woods.

I've hunted King George County before. Wierd hunting Deer with dogs but... that's what they do there.
Have the guy (hunting the dogs) pinched. Grab a dog if you can and copy the tag info or at least a picture of the dog(s) and then find his auto. Snapshot his plate and send it to VA DEC.
They will investigate. Running dogs do NOT know boundaries but that shouldn't be your problem. the handler should have control 100% even if that's not technically possible.

My $.02

Now thats a great image for the ASPCA to use against hunters!

Not in Pa. A loose dog chasing a deer get's shot legally.

No mention of killing anyone! There are other ways to help someone see the light!

Dogs move deer.

I used to hunt a big section in dog country and we shot many a buck that were circling hounds.

Other than flushing birds, I'm not a fan of dogs chasing anything.
Thankfully they don't allow dogs in Ohio. If I saw someone chasing with dogs on the private property I hunt, Id be more compelled to shoot the hunter rather than his dogs.

That may be, but the owner of that dog has been warned before to keep it out of my woods. Its happened year after year, and I finally got tired of it.

Clubs around me run Deer Dogs.... In SC if you shoot one of them you will go to jail and lose your hunting rights in this state....

The Michigan DNR encourages hunters to shoot dogs that are chasing deer, as the use of dogs is illegal, and such dogs are presumed to be feral or habitual killers. As a dog lover, I'm not sure I would do it. Hope I never have to.

As for bow hunting, it's my preferred method due to the reduced # of hunters in the field and the increased # of hours available to hunt (10/1 to 12/31). It also forces the hunter to be better at almost everything related to hunting; otherwise the deer will never get close enough for an ethical shot, which varies by ability gained through practice.

I catch them and take the tracking collars off and destroy. I do not like shooting dogs it makes me feel bad.

If you start bowhunting you may find that you really like it. I started years ago because I got tired of all my buddies getting an extra month in the woods. I now find bowhunting to be my favorite time of year....even though hunting during the rut is much more exciting.

Now to address a couple of your concerns about bowhunting.

Buzzing insects can be controlled with Permithrin, DEET, or a Thermacell.

Green leaves have to be dealt with in my part of the state during blackpowder season as well, so I just look at it as more available natural camo!

Hot temperatures are something you just have to learn to deal with.

There is also something else you could consider. You could find property to hunt in counties that are east of the Blue Ridge but yet they are still west of the dog running line.

Now I need to get my son on the school bus and hit the woods!

Should be illegal. Its just a lazy ass way to hunt. Im just gonna start treating them like coyotes. I mean I can shot Yotes which are dogs why cant I shot deer dogs as well? Nothing should be allowed to come on my land and ruin my deer hunting. If I spook a deer then Im fine with that cause its my fault. But when some neck's dumb ass deer dog runs deer away then thats something that can be helped. Im just gonna go Mic Vick on all of them. I dont spend a few thousand dollars a year for someone else to ruin my hunting.

I got a whole bunch of swamp land where the coyotes run at night. How you gonna go to jail with no evidence left after a few nights. And whos going to find it anyways? If someone does then they are trespassing and they go to jail.

Yes dogs move deer all right, right off my property to my neighbors. That happened opening morning to me! After the dog chase, the deer went nocturnal or they were gone. I was so ticked i knocked on the responsible parties door, they lied about there dog, and got irritated with me?!?! So i said i'm a dog lover and was concerned for the dog, as my friend was putting steel coyote traps up all over my property, after season(a lie) lol, there expression was priceless. The wife piped up and asked which gully are the traps going in, it was then I realized they trespass on top of it. I asked how they know about my gullies she didnt answer, and walked off all pissed. 1st time EVER that I didn't get a buck opening weekend, it was directly because of the dog. It's illegal to use dogs on deer in my state, illegal to shoot dogs running deer also, i've heard the dnr can shoot them though, not sure.

Perfect example of how deer dog hunters think is when my neighbors released their dogs close to the border of our leases last week and they came onto my lease trying to chase a deer back to the neighbors lease. The deer never turned (I saw them seventy yards in front of my ground blind). The dogs finally went back to the neighbors leases after they had screwed up an afternoon hunt for me.

I haven't had a problem with this in a few years, other than this one incident, and hope that it is just an isolated incident. It used to be a regular occurence on my leases.

It is banned here in Texas and in some parts of Arkansas, where I hunt, but is still legal where I hunt.

I love bowhunting for numerous reasons. I love the late bowseason especially because I don't have to deal with dogs, or armies of gun hunters.

rediculous to throw someone in jail who shoot a dog that is on their private property ruining their hunting... Should be encuraged in my opinion. Only happened to me twice, once a rotwhiler chased a doe within about twenty feet during muzzel loader and he didn't fare to well. The other time was a guy rabbit hunting with a weiner dog... I couldn't have shot if I wanted too because I was laughing too hard... weiner dogs are funny :-)

i live down in southwestern va, using dogs for deer isnt a tradition so its not a problem. What irks me is, the doghunters are in the north where the population is, so the state legislators do what they say, which is why we cant get sunday hunting passed. I understand tradition, im all for it and im all for them to have the right to hunt with dogs, but it wouldnt hurt to at least let us have a sunday bowhunting like they do in NC. Besides the economic benefits to sunday hunting, you also are giving people who only have one day off (saturday) another day to hunt.

Hunting with dogs is also in the southeastern part of the state. I agree with you that the dog hunters are part of the problem with no Sunday hunting. They throw a lot of money around.

Since I grew up as a dog hunter I have no problem with hounds running deer on or around my property. It makes deer move and you would see deer you may have never gotten a chance at. If you have ever hunted with dogs you would learn that the deer adapt especially the bucks. The first buck I ever killed was being ran by a dog. The buck split from the doe and I was in the right spot to watch it happen. The funny part is the dog continued running the doe. So the bucks know how to slip away and get away from the dogs without running 5 miles away. As for being a lazy way of hunting...well I'd like to see ya hunt with dogs one time and see if you feel the same. With that being said I still sit in a treestand majority of the time just to relax and enjoy being in the woods without nature knowing I'm there!

Bro, I like your style.That one is going into the hard drive. That's a great idea. Be safe.

VA

So, you are saying you are OK to let your dogs run on someone else's property? I hope your neighbors are OK with this. I think that is the problem that most of us see that dog hunters don't.

IMHO, its only a matter of time. This deer dog alliance will soon self implode. The more and more people move down from the northeast, the closer we will get to Sunday Hunting and deer dog hunting being banned. Yankees (no offense, just using it as a regional phrase) love hunting on Sunday and hate deer dogs.

:lolabove:Yankee's I thought I was the only one left using that term of endearment :biggrin:

If that happens then maybe yankees will be good for something after all! :s2:

I never said I would let my dogs run on someone's property. I always ran dogs on large tracts of public land so that was never an issue. Where my lease is now there are a few clubs south and east of me that do run dogs and that doesn't bother me at all.

The thing is most of these people should be arrested for animal abuse. The ones that come on my land are so malnurished its disgusting. I have a lab in the house and 3 boxes of milkbones so I used to throw one out whenever one strayed onto my land and was near the house and not back where I hunt.

Also the people that dog hunt where I live are total *******s. Whenever we used to catch a dog or two on our property and see trucks on the road obviously looking for the dogs we would flag them down and ask if these were them. Not once did they ever say thanks for finding my dog or even apoligize for letting them get onto my land.

One guy and his buddies even drove onto my land last year and I said May I help you. I knew what they wanted but I figured Id at least be polite. When I said no way in hell could he could drive all over my place looking for his dogs, and probably shoot anything they saw as well, they all got pissed and 3 of them jumped out of the truck and started to get mouthy. I could see 2 of them had sidearms. I went to walk back inside and they said are you gonna be a ***** and call the cops. I said nope and instead got my AR-15 and loaded the double drum magazine and walked back outside. They wised up very fast and decided to leave. Sorry but threatnening me on my land while armed is not smart on your part.

This farm has been in our family since the civil war and I be damned if a bunch of rednecks that probably never finished middle school are gonna ruin my hunting. I shoot feral cats all day long so Im adding trespassing deer dogs to that list as well. I have tried calling animal control to deal with the stray dogs that show up at my house and they say they will come but they never do. So Im done dealing with these dogs. As much as I love dogs this is my land and I pay a lot every year to keep it in hunting condition. No one is going to ruin my hunting.

SSS!!! :wink:

I dont hunt deer with dogs but do hunt bear and coon with hounds. If I caught ANYONE threating my dogs I would treat them the same way I would someone threatening my kids. The states that I hunt bear in it is leagle to cross private property in order to retrive your hounds if they cross private property and tree something on it, that doesnt mean you get to shoot it but you have the right to go there to get your dogs. The only person that can leagally put a dog down, even if it is harrassing wildlife, is a law enforcement officer, such as a game warden.

I don't think hunting deer with dogs is a lazy way to hunt from the perspective of physical work, especially if you're the handler. I think it's lazy from a predatory standpoint. That doesn't mean there aren't plenty of hunters who don't use dogs who are predatorily lazy too, because there are. Instead of getting out there and learning the movements of the deer, doing the work it takes to get in the right place at the right time without being detected, doing the work it takes to trek in long distances while sweating your balls off and then having a way to stay warm when it is time to stay still, or doing the work it takes to go one-on-one with a deer and silently track him down by following his sign and killing him in his bedroom, you simply let the dogs rouse the deer and wait off their escape routes. How much do you even have to consider wind direction when the deer are actively being chased?

As far as it being "legal" to retrieve your dogs from private land, let me inform you that "legal" is not the barometer for what's right. I can legally be an a-hole to my neighbor 365 days a year, but it doesn't make it right. So if you can't control your domesticated animals the way every other citizen is required to and keep them from going onto other people's land, it ain't right.

But, as others have stated, you can't expect dog hunters to think like this or comprehend that their methods are invasive, disruptive, overbearing and inconsiderate. That's right. It's inconsiderate, especially when you are in the minority, to take your dogs and literally run them from one side of public land to the other, basically running through every area, and have your standers mosey on in well after daybreak and tramp through the woods without a care in the world. You are a minority forcing your way of hunting on everyone else in the woods. Comprende????

And I don't care if I "may" see a buck or two that I normally wouldn't see. That isn't the point, but I wouldn't expect dog hunters to get that. I normally wouldn't have a beagle or a hound come within ten feet of me, circle me over and over while howling its head off, either!

I hope the deer develop enough of a defensive nature to realize that these little pooches pose no real threat to them, and start stomping and gaffing them to death!

Now that is freakin' hilarious!

I couldn't have said it any better. :rock: