Deer season - Page 1

Someone recently told me that it is common practice to run deer with dogs on the eastern seaboard.  Is this true?  If so, how?

I meant to add that this is illegal where I am.

I'm only familiar with a few states and it's illegal in all of them EXCEPT for North Carolina, where I think some counties allow hunting and also blood tracking wounded deer with dogs, but I asked the question on a mounted foxhunters list and will post if someone knows the answer.

it was legal in VA at least when I lived there - not sure if they changed that law or not but know they used to breed "deer beagles" or called "deer hounds" (beagles X walker coonhounds mostly), or lurchers (border collie or anything X greyhound) to run the deer.  I moved out of VA 6+ years ago - so until then at least it was legal and common practice to run deer with hounds.  Hunters would set the hounds, then drive around a patch of woods and wait for the deer to run out - not very sporting IMO.  It was also common practice to set the "deer hounds" loose after the season, so they wouldn't have to feed/house them over the winter.  Terrible.

Yeah, it is still legal in VA, except not legal if you are archery hunting.

And foxhunters get a lot of blame for all the abandoned hounds.  People know about foxhunts, but most people have no idea about the deer and bear hunters using dogs.

It is still legal and popular in VA.  The hunt clubs all have their own kennels. 

Perfectly legal in both North Carolina and Virginia today and very common also. In fact, in both states, many places the only way to hunt deer unless you own your own land is to join a club and most clubs run dogs. A few counties have outlawed deer hunting with dogs but still allow it for other game. Some counties have more restrictions on running dogs than others.

Public game land is available for everyone to hunt so clubs do run dogs there and almost all clubs will lease land from farmers or private landowners. Some club leased land has been that way for generations. Land is generally too expensive for a club to purchase huge portions of it but some do own their own large properties. Club leased land is usually off limits to still hunters that aren't club members and even members are restricted to when they can hunt the land. Hunting rights are huge here and it's not good to get caught hunting someone else's property. Most still hunting down here is done on either public game land that clubs don't hunt with dogs (swampy, few deer, bad access, etc.) or on private property. I have a few places I hunt with permission from friends and private landowners that grew fed up with dog hunting.

I'm assuming your talking about "pushing" deer by way of unleashed dogs ? Last I knew ...  It's illegal to hunt with an un or on leashed dog in all 13 original colonies. If a dog is sighted chasing deer in PA for example, it can be shot on sight. I'd be willing to bet in PA, if a Game Warden seen a hunter with a dog during active season, they could very well put a temp on your lic. PA is strict with Game Laws and Laws in general, they don't give warnings either. Hunting around here isn't a past time or for fun. Hunters kill for the meat.

However, in the past few years a group of hunters tried to amend this Law through the Deer Recovery of PA, but didn't last too long. The Deer Recovery of PA peeps shunned that whole idea and said pretty much, if you can't track a fatal shot deer, or make a fatal shot, you don't belong hunting in Pennsylvania. PA hunters never had a problem recovering wounded deer for the most part. Except when they started to issue bonus tags. When the bonus tags went out, all the wrong people got them and farmers were finding 1/2 arse shot deer walking around. Now, the bonus tags go to selected hunters and the problem disappeared.
 
I don't know this for sure, but I know a few new (past 4-5 years new) hunters who never recieve the bonus tags. I've renewed my lic since I was 12 and get as many as I send in. Or, maybe they restricted the bonus tags to those who passed the hunters saftey course. (which isn't mandatory for a first time lic) I dunno for sure. I know when I took those classes when I was 12, if you couldn't aim with a fatal shot, put your gun down. That's why I think PA was so stern with the resolve on useing dogs for recovery.

I do know in Maryland, Maine and New York onleash dogs only are allowed to help track and recover large game via that same group of hunters that tried to ament the PA Game Laws.

I said VA, not PA.  I know it is illegal to hunt deer with dogs in PA - I think it should be illegal in every state.  No fair hunting with dogs IMO, and the dogs aren't cared for well either in my experience.

edit to add:  in VA I also know though it is legal to hunt deer with hounds in-season - it is also not allowed to have dogs chasing deer off-season.  Hunters or wardens (or landowners) are in the rights to shoot any dog chasing deer on private property or public land off-season.  Even in season, I heard of many a dog being shot by a hunter in a tree stand who sees a pet dog chasing deer - and I believe the hunters are allowed to do that unfortunately.

molly

 Are these dogs trained to chase the deer until it is just too tired to run, or is it more of a herding them into an open field?