How my deer wintered | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

If you can live with the shame of tagging a doe you are welcome to any of them you like. Or do you want me to put an orange vest on them so they are easier to find and hit.

They were back this morning. It looks like at least three are carrying lambs, maybe five but I can be sure.

KJR, several years ago I played a prank on our mutual Newfie pal. The neighbor had been feeding a lamb whose mother was hit by a car. She would eat out of your hand if you held it up. They fed her for a year and then stopped. She soon rediscovered her fear of humans and stopped doing that. Our friend had never had any luck with hunting deer up to that point. This was before I had kids and the other companies to consume all my time. At that time I was tagging out regularly with mature bucks and seeing deer every time I went out. He would sit in my seat day after day and see nothing at all. This drove him nuts.

One day we were working a case together and I had to stop by my house to pick something up. My driveway is almost a half mile long and I saw the young doe standing just inside the tree line near the end. I struck up a conversation about deer hunting. I was giving him crap about how easy it was if you knew how to do it. On our way back out a few minutes later I stopped near where I had seen her and it just happened to be on his side of the car. I told him my secret was to just hold your hand out like you’re going to feed them and blast em when they get close. I stopped the car and said look there is one now. I said roll your window down and hold your hand out. After some encouraging he did and she came running up. His eyes got a big as dinner plates and they both freaked out a little. I waited for him to tell the story to several people before I clued him in that the neighbors had been feeding her. The old Newfie is pretty sharp and that may be the only time I ever got one over on him.