More deer than people

Because of the gun range I spent quite a bit of time on my land in Idaho this summer. I saw more deer than people. I’m pretty sure it was the same deer multiple times. They came out of the woods at the same place, ate my crops in the same area of the field, and I’m pretty sure I was recognizing some of them.

Here is a picture of one group of seven (click to enlarge and see there are two next to each other at the upper left) about 250 yards away:

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I saw as many as 14 at one time in this same area. Some of them would come as close as about 25 yards away without much fear as long as I didn’t pay much attention to them.

There were also other parts of my field deer visited but this was where I saw them most frequently.

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7 thoughts on “More deer than people

  1. My father in law calls them forest rats. Someday maybe they will reveal themselves to me during hunting season in some other configuration than a white tail disappearing into the woods.

    • You live close enough to stop by my place and hang out while the deer come out of the woods some evening this fall. Let me know…

  2. Haven’t seen many deer this year (NH), but turkeys are everywhere, in large flocks.

  3. Living in (name-redacted) small-town Wyoming we have more mule deer in town than we do outside of it. Coming back from fishing a local reservoir yesterday I was making a turn from a stop sign just one block off the main drag through town when I saw a mulie doe standing between two parked cars.

    So I just sort of let the truck slowly roll while keeping an eye on her when a lady that neither I nor the deer had seen slammed the door of her car shut after getting out. The doe bolted right out into the street with her head turned backwards towards the sound. I hammered the brakes, and the front end of the truck just barely tapped her hard enough to push her sideways one step.

    That stupid doe stood there just looking up at the truck, and didn’t take off until I got out and yelled at her and went around to the front to see if I’d busted a headlight or anything. The lady coming out of her car laughed, and then apologized for spooking the doe. I literally couldn’t tell where the truck had tapped the doe, and just told her, “Hey, that’s part of living in the (name-redacted) petting zoo.”

    Seriously, we’ve got so many road-killed deer that have been hit at high speed (70 MPH limits, mostly) that I feel very lucky that the first one that I “hit” was while moving at walking speed. They can do some serious damage even to a full-size pickup, and what they do to a smaller car can be tragic. Taking one humanely with a clean kill from a .30-06 is a lot kinder than crippling one up in a car/deer collision, and we’d all sure rather thin out the herd that way.

    • Nailed a doe at around 50-70 mph, back about ’74. I was hard on the brakes when her clan ran across the Pine Barrens forest road heading for the summer cornfield on the other side.

      Totaled my ’66 Ford Ranchero. I was able to limp home after using the jack to push the radiator off the engine fan. Had to wait until the sun came up to give me enough light to handle it.

      She tumbled along the shoulder for more than a 100 feet, and then made it a short walk into the field with only 3 legs. She lived maybe 10 minutes following the impact. Never found the missing leg. Got home, and discovered that NJ had changed the rule that the deer had to go to the state rangers. Ran back to discover the farmer had already collected her.

      Everything was bent/wrinkled except that steel bumper.

      That was an interesting weekend. Ran out of gas following my dad across the Geo Washington Bridge across the Del River, heading to a sister’s wedding held at Sam Houston’s estate. A friend of hers took me home for the weekend, and then helped me pick up a stepbrother’s 350 Honda in a third state. No ramp, so she helped lift that thing into the truck! Helps that she was 6 ft tall, and proportioned. That bike was still in place after hitting the deer. I should have kept the truck.

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