Posted on 11/28/2008 12:20:43 PM PST by marktwain
This is my traditional Thanksgiving essay from WarOnGuns.
Attacks by roving flocks of wild turkeys are on the increase around suburban Boston--AP
Time was, the turkey was considered a game bird. The Pilgrims at Plymouth feasted on them. Generations later, Ben Franklin considered it such a useful fowl that he nominated it for the national bird.
Of course, this was in the days when the right to bear arms was taken for granted, when free people hunted turkeys for sustenance, all the while honing marksmanship that would serve them well in time of need.
Flash forward to present-day Boston, a place of sacred tradition, the literal forge for our heritage of individual liberty. Except Boston is now a place where traditions have been betrayed. Its current overlords have succeeded in disarming the whole people in a way that General Gage could never have conceived possible.
So successful have these rulers been that the city that gave us Sam Adams and Paul Revere is now a city under siege, and this is fittingly ironic if you think about it, by wild turkeys. So helpless and hapless are Boston's modern-day patriots, they can do little except retreat from the aggressive gobblers, escape, hole up and plead for rescue from the very authorities that enforce public impotence.
This is what the heirs of The Sons of Liberty have been reduced to. This is what they have allowed, and in many cases, demanded. Human beings, with dominion over the earth, scurrying from turkeys. The tolerated degradation of the masses is damned near complete.
This does not escape the notice of those who impose their tyranny upon us. What new outrage are they now free to impose? What can't they do? After all, we're talking about subjects who would cede their birthright to birds.
The greasy-lipped masters have to be laughing like hell as they reach across their table of plunder and rip off another drumstick...
There are so many deer and turkeys in our area that my little brother won’t even use a gun to hunt them any more. He bags enough turkeys for the extended family and has done so for years. In hard times, we’d have wild turkey for Easter.
He used to take his rifle hunting. Thought it was too easy and no sport fun any more, so he stated using a muzzle loader. When that ran out of fun he went to a long bow. Finally, he just started hunting by driving down the road and when he would spot a turkey, he’d stop the truck, run down into the ditch, and chase the turkey toward a fence and catch it.
He’d put the turkey on the seat next to him with his arm around it and drive home. Once time close to Easter (not turkey season), he was stopped by the game warden. Dear brother explained he’d picked up the turkey hitch hiking, and opened the door and shooed him out of the cab. The game warden said fine, it’s not dead, so go on home. So, he drove off and caught another one on the way home.
If they are so plentiful that he can just run out and catch one, there is no shortage. Around here the turkeys and deer are pests and need to be culled a bit.
Wow! That’s quite a story of poor game management! Many lessons to be learned for sure.
Actually, we manage the game just fine. Just can’t use a firearm in the middle of town-neighbors would complain.
The deer are so thick here all I have to do is stand at the corner of the house about 5:00 am, put down my coffee cup, pick up my 2 X 4 and start swinging. I’ll get one on the upswing, and possibly one of the backswing. Caught one a couple years back in the fence. Nice 4-point buck.
If we don’t catch em and put em in the freezer, the folks here just mow em down on the highway, and then we have vultures hanging around looking vulturey.
Here in NC the state insurance commission is pushing the wildlife commission hard to increase the annual deer cull by 70,000 animals. There’s been no hunting limit this year or last year and the animals are still in such numbers as to be a pest.
I never shot one but my FIL says they’re practically invincible.
I guess years ago he shot one point blank from like 8 yards away with a twelve gauge, stupid bird fell over so he walks over to get it, a big tom.
The thing jumps up and starts hacking at his leg so he smacked it hard with the gun butt.
Even after that it took another whack or two.
Tough birds!
Hilarious. And yet a bit sad.
“”Night of the evil Butterball”””
My wife usually calls it “Morning of the Evil Butterball” while she is gasping for air.
Oh, thats not what they are talking about?
That's what's going on in Virginia - I had to drive into DC a few weeks ago, and I counted ten road-deer in twenty miles. I didn't start counting with the first one either, just when I noticed how numerous they were.
Yeah, I hit a wild turkey that was flying across the road once. Took the mirror off the side of the pickup, bent the antenna, sent me to a screeching halt. I got out of the pickup to pick up the carcass ... and the thing had already flown off.
As for other critters, my cousin said there were 14 antelope at the farm this weekend during deer season. No deer, just pronghorns. Of course, there's no hunting season for pronghorn in that county.
Last year, when I had 23 deer grazing around the farm, I couldn't find anyone interested in hunting the deer. This year, with 14 antelopes around, I can't legally hunt them. Go fig.
Deer are evil and so are people who worship them........
I see them in Eastern Washington and Oregon a lot. They don’t fly much, think I saw one fly one time, that was it.
And from what I hear, the wild ones ain’t all that good eatin either. Guess alot would depend on what makes up most of their diet, though.
White tail or mule deer? If I was a deer hunter, I could get up a posse of buddies and come out to your place and we could take care of your problem. How many acres do you live on anyway? Are you adjacent to public land?
Now, if you happen to have a prairie dog problem I would love to try some prairie dog shooting.........
FWIW, my niece's husband is from the Ft. Worth area..............
They're mulies. I have 180 acres, an aunt has an adjacent 60 and another 150 nearby, and another aunt has 320 across the road. The Deer roam around centered on the section a mile to the west. I think they generally stay within 2 or 3 miles of that section because there is a windmill out there somewhere.
I didn't get out that way for more than a couple of days this fall, so I never saw the deer this year. I don't know if they are still there or maybe have moved on. As I said, there were too many last year and I was trying to find someone (I'm not a hunter ... not opposed to it, I just don't enjoy it).
Now I have Antelope and no season.
The Prairie Dogs and I get along fine. They get cleaned out about every other year by my nephews.
Right where it happened, the road had been cut through a little hill, and I think he was trying to flutter across the road from one hilltop to the other. You're right ... I haven't seen them fly very much. That sighting cost me over $100, so I'm not interested in seeing it again.
I've never seen so many deer in my life as I did for the few years I hunted pheasants out in the N.W. corner of Kansas.
On one trip, myself and 3 friends were hunting with the daughter of the landowner and her friend. We were walking across a winter wheat field when we came across literally a herd of tracks. I asked Andrea if these were cattle and she said no, mule deer...........They are all over the place and a tremendous burden on the limited number of farmers out there.
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