I brought this subject over from another post. CONCERNING WHY PELLET GUNS SHOULD HAVE MORE MARKETING. Because land is getting more scarce each day. More and More no trespassing signs. More private property.Permit fees to hunt increasing. More youths are not introduced to the sport because of these restrictions. Etc, Etc!

Redfeather, I disagree with you that there are more open land ect. But the main reason that deer population has taken off is due to great management:

Deer herds at the time of European settlement (c. 1600) were plentiful and widespread in Virginia. Over-exploitation during the next 300 years nearly extirpated deer by 1900. Since the 1940s, Virginia's deer herd has demonstrated exponential growth as a result of protective game laws, deer stocking, and habitat restoration. Through the 1980s, the deer management objectives were to restore and to increase populations throughout the state.

eagleaetos@yahoo.com

Check out these stats starting from 1947:

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/wildlife/deer/harvestsummary.asp

Now in southern Virginia,the tradition of hunting with dogs is very quickly being eradicated because of the new public landowners.The deer will all come out losers in this increasing shortages of land as is the hunter!

Dave@vabch

Admin, please delete the e-mail in the previous post.

I meant to copy:\

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/WILDLIFE/deer/deermanagementprogram.asp

Thanks
Dave

From the fish & wildlife department, some years ago. By 1900, market hunters had practically eliminated all native deer and turkey. I think in the 1920's the state imported whitetail deer from the mid-west, and turkeys, as well. Deer favor grazing areas and farmlands provide that. While Virginia was not so heavily forested as one might imagine in the early 1600's, there was less open space.

There are less opportunities to hunt these days. Quite a few family farms, once a mainstay of rural hunting, have been conglomerated into super farms where the attitude is more business. Urban/suburban sprawl takes its toll, as well. There is also the general public's perception of hunting, which has gone from a socially accepted sport to something that is looked upon as insensitive or uncouth. Many wildlife and animal shows never acknowledge the role that hunters play in conservation, both through game management and, more importantly, funding.

While air gunning is a possible inheritor of the hunting ethic, it, too, faces the very same pressures which have caused the decline in hunting.

Looks like PA and VA have a similar deer count (estimated at 1M each). They are literaly everywhere. We live in the woods and have always had them trundling by, but it is getting worse on the roads where they are driven into more and more wooded areas in the midst of population dense areas. I think PA hunting permits are doing fine, but not keeping up with Deer population....thanks to the governments threat of restricting guns, everybody went out and bought, but still not keeping up with the deer.

than regular hunting. There are just not that many guys doing it compared to those who use tree stands, etc. I guess it is also a case of changing lifestyles. Used to be that much of Virginia was rural and hunting was part of the culture. Now there are more people in the cities/suburbs and they don't have any link to hunting. When was the last time you saw a car with a deer strapped to it? A normal sight when I was a kid (during deer season, of course). As I usually say, most people where I live use a Suburban to harvest deer. Yes, they are a nuisance when the population gets out of control. Then you have the local governments hiring out "exterminators" or conducting special park hunts and the anti-hunters chaining themselves to trees and sounding air horns.

I was walking the dog last week and we cut up into a lightly wooded area between the houses. There was a herd of about seven or eight deer bedded down and we spooked them. Doglett, who thinks she is human, didn't know what to make of them. And they didn't know what to make of her, either. Tails were up but they never bolted. Just crossed the stream and headed up behind someone's house. This is not out in the boonies but in a large single-family home subdivision. The deer just take us for granted.