Deer hunting dream
Our deer
deterrents are still working like a charm, but one got hung up this
weekend and a deer came through the gap in the sound barrier.
After looking at my munched strawberries, I resolved to kill a deer
before the fall season is over.
I spent a while Monday afternoon poring over the Virginia hunting laws. Turns out that if we
were good enough,
Mark and I would be allowed to kill 5 deer apiece on our own property
without a license. The rules are complex and confusing ---
no hunting on Sunday (even on your own land?! What happened to
separation of church and state?), no more than two bucks per person
(great --- I want to kill does!), and no more than one deer per day per
person.
We were thinking about hunting last year, but never found the time to
practice amid the rush of winter preparations. But this year we
freed up some time by buying
firewood, and are even prepared with a 40 caliber rifle. I'm
hoping that in the next six weeks before hunting season begins, we'll
have time to become proficient marksmen.
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About us: Anna Hess and Mark Hamilton spent over a decade living self-sufficiently in the mountains of Virginia before moving north to start over from scratch in the foothills of Ohio. They've experimented with permaculture, no-till gardening, trailersteading, home-based microbusinesses and much more, writing about their adventures in both blogs and books.
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Anna,
My brother wants to hunt on our property but he lives in Ohio. Can an out-of-state family member hunt on my property without a license if I'm with him?
Good luck this year. Are you going to "process" it yourselves?
Everett
Check out this site --- http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/regulations/licenses.asp
It looks like it doesn't really matter if you're present. Your wife, children, grandchildren, and parents could hunt there without a license, but not your brother. However, if he's a tenant there, he can hunt there with your written permission without a license.
Of course, if you're present, you could always say you shot the deer...
We definitely plan to process any hypothetical deer ourselves. After killing a bunch of turkeys and chickens, we think that shouldn't be too much trouble. (So I say now...)
Hunt them as much as you can. Even if you don't need the meat, find a church that will take it. It know it seems like it will only make a minor difference but I shot one squirrel this year and haven't had another in the garden since.
Not to mention, hunting deer is easy once you get the hang of it. They are very predictable animals and they do taste good.