Deer destroyed after leaping onto train

A young mulie buck survived a jump from the I-15 overpass above Helena’s Sixth Ward train depot onto a boxcar last week, but had to be destroyed after being further injured by a leap from the boxcar to the ground.

Linda Frost, spokesperson for Montana Rail Link, said no employees saw the buck make his leap of faith. However, once they noticed the stranded animal atop the boxcar, employees called for help from Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks.

Game Warden Randy Arnold took the Jan. 2 call, and asked Warden Dave Loewen to accompany him.

“I figured this presented some additional manpower issues,” Arnold said.

From the ground, the game wardens could see that the buck had a broken front leg. But deer can survive with that — the main problem facing them was how to get the buck from the boxcar to the ground.

“We were kind of pressed to get the best way to get the deer off the boxcar,” Arnold said.

They worried that tranquilizing the deer to lower it to the ground, or wrestling it down, wasn’t going to be effective and might be too stressful on the animal.

“We decided that the only way to get him off of it was for it to jump on its own,” he noted. “We wanted to give it a chance.”

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Cover up that deer in the back of your truck!

I am sure you have heard about a new law been proposed in North Dakota by Rep. Duane DeKrey. The news has been all over the Internet. The law would require hunters to cover up harvested game when traveling on an Interstate or highway when returning from a successful hunt.

DeKery claims that he couldn’t help wondering what the general public thinks about seeing dead deer in the back of pick-up trucks or tied onto trailers. After a flood of protest from hunters against the proposed law Duane DeKrey pulled the plug on his stupid legislation. And that is the time where PETA entered the field. PETA, according to their spokesman Bruce Friedrich, feels that the cover-your-deer-legislation is a bad idea. Say what? Does this mean that PETA for ones is on the side of the hunters?

Not rally. According to the AP, PETA would like for hunters to leave their game uncovered in the hope it might bolster their own anti-hunting cause, spokesman Bruce Friedrich said. "We encourage people, if they're going to kill defenseless animals, to parade the animal's carcass all over town, since uncovered bloody carcasses are more likely to wake people up to the cruelties of hunting," he said. "Clearly, covering up cruelty doesn't help animals at all."

When I heard about this nonsense legislation proposal I got just a tad annoyed thinking; “How far will this politically correct morons go to legislate every aspect of our lives”. But then the hunters stepped, once again, up to the task and defeated political correctness stubidity. It's called democracy at work and we need to do it every time some minority interest group pushes their minority agenda. Unfortunatlely, today hunters have to be as active in the political jungle as they are in the deer woods. Well done North Dakota hunters.

Last Chance

The deer hunting season is fast coming to an end. If you have still not tagged out, now may be your last chance to connect with a buck. Despite popular belief the late season might yet be the best time of the year to fulfill your dream of getting a wall hanger.

Hunting a trophy buck is very tough. In the early season deer have plentiful food available and the cover is thick. Under these conditions it is very hard to predict when and where a buck will be; there is just so much food for the deer to choose from.

Then comes the rut. During this time the bucks travel great distances in search of receptive does. At this time a buck can be anywhere, here today gone tomorrow and there is no way to tell where he will turn up next. In addition, the hunting season is in full swing, the woods are full of hunters and the bucks have turned nocturnal making it even more difficult.

But then comes the winter. It’s cold and often there is snow on the ground. Everything changes now. The buck hasn’t eaten much during the rut and may have lost as much as 25% to 30% of his body weight. His sole priority now is to gain all that lost weight back, but there is not much food left for him. In order to regain his weight and make it through the often harsh winter he retreats to a small core area where there is still good cover, shelter and food is close by.

The bucks will do only two things – eat and sleep. To eat as much as he can the buck has to abandon his nocturnal travel pattern and feed all day long between taking naps. This fact plus the fact that the hunter actually can see now for a long ways in the woods makes the bucks vulnerable. But don’t be fooled into believing that it will be easy pickings. Hunting a big mature buck is never easy, but in the late season a hunter has a much better chance of filling his tag than perhaps at any other time during the hunting season. So don’t hang your bow or muzzleloader up yet. Brave the cold and the snow and get out into the woods. The hunting season is not over until it says so in your state or provincial hunting regulations.

I leave you here with a few late season hunting tips that have worked well for me and will do the same for you.

Scouting:
In order to find the buck’s hideout you have got to scout first. Deer seek out the thick stuff; such as young pine growth, cedar or hemlock when possible but also small woodlots with thick undergrowth, overgrown hedgerows and patches of high grass. These structures give the deer a measure of security but also shelter from the harsh elements.

Food:
In the late winter bucks often re-visit harvested agricultural fields where they look for the last morsels of nutritious food. Look under oak trees for acorns that are left over from the fall. Find these few remaining food sources with bedding areas nearby and you’re in business.

Time to hunt:
In the winter when the weather is below freezing, the deer travel later in the morning and earlier in the evening. Most deer movement will be in the morning around 8:00 am and then again around 3:00pm. In very cold weather you will see deer movement all day long with the peak around midday when it is warmer than at other times of the day. Prepare to hunt all day long.

Deer like it warm:
In order to conserve energy and stay warm deer seek the sunny and wind sheltered hillsides where they doze and lounge in the warmth of the sun.

Track’em down:
If there is a fresh layer of snow from the previous night you can track a buck in the snow right to his hideout.

The wind:
Watch the wind and air currents. Deer are still very spooky and will not tolerate any human scent. Hunt in a good crosswind or still better with the wind in your face. Thermals rise uphill in the morning as the air warms up and descend downhill in the afternoon as the air cools off. Bear that in mind when you are in hilly areas and hunt accordingly.

Scent, Calls and Rattling:
Depending on the buck to doe ratio, the late season could still see some minor rut activity. Using scent judiciously can work to bring a buck out of his bed; so can calling and rattling. However, at this time of year the bucks are worn out so keep your calling and rattling friendly and brief.

Treestand or Ground?
It’s really way to cold to sit all day long in a treestand. No matter how many layers you wear after one or two hours of sitting motionless in a treestand you will be very cold. It is better to hunt several stands and then, still-hunt from one location to the next along known deer holding areas. Hunt from a stand only during the peak moving times for about one hour then move to the next stand location. Look for a good sized tree to hang your stand on – one that gives you good background cover since there are no leaves left on the trees. Personally I avoid hunting from treestands in the winter and instead stay on the ground using trees, deadfalls and other structures as natural groundblinds.

What makes a trophy deer hunter?

Today someone asked me; “What do I have to do to become a trophy hunter”

I answered him; “Besides having access to land with a good deer population you need the following.”

Education. Until and unless you educate yourself on whitetail deer and their ways, you don't have a chance other than blind luck. Learn as much about whitetail deer and their behavior as you can and spend many hours during the spring and summer in the woods studying the deer.

Scout properly. Scouting is the most important aspect of hunting. Scout right after the hunting season closes and trough the spring and summer. In the fall stay out of the woods unless you hunt. Many hunters scout in the fall a few days before the season opens and educate the deer of their presence. If you scout in the fall and during the hunting season do so very cautiously without letting the deer know what you’re up to.

Patience! Most hunters suffer terribly from lack of patience.

Don’t establish a pattern in the woods. Deer pattern hunters so much faster than hunter’s can pattern deer. So vary your pattern. Hunt different times, different places, do the unexpected and the unusual. Be different than the other hunters.

Luck and lots of it. More bucks over 3.5 years old are killed by luck than by skill.

Make the first attempt count. The single best chance you have to kill a mature buck is the very time you hunt him. The longer you hunt one particular stand the less chance you will have to kill a buck from that stand. Example: Pick what you feel, revealed trough proper scouting, to be the very best stand location. Then have the patience to stay the heck away from that spot until the very best conditions exist. This may mean hanging a stand in August and not hunting it until November, not even going near that stand until the conditions are perfect. Then hunt it all day. Have two or three such stand locations and rotate them. Remember don’t have a pattern, keep the deer in the dark!