Frazz by Jef Mallett for November 18, 2023

Around here, the “hunters” run the full gamut from ethical and well informed to self-absorbed idiots. I’m too worried about that second category to think the first category makes me safe in the woods.

I knew a kid whose dad worked in a body shop back in the 60s. The owner brought in a bright yellow car that had several bullet holes in it. That perfectly matched the owner’s rifle. He was deer hunting. More recently (still in the 20th century though) a friend who worked in the woods dived into a stream when he heard a shot and saw leaves near his face blown apart by the bullet. A bit later, wanting to warm up with some food, he went into the first food/drink place he found and heard a hunter talking about having taken a great sound-shot but couldn’t find the deer. My friend left before HE committed murder.

About 20 years ago, I worked for General Motors at an R&D facility here in Southern California. We didn’t get Veteran’s Day off. Instead. we got the third Thursday in November. Because it was the first day of deer season. In Michigan. Around here, it is mid_August to early November.

I’m lucky, the wetlands preserve where I run doesn’t allow hunting. It’s like a deer refuge.

Miss Plainwell has always been a smart girl. And she hides it well around her boyfriend Frazz.

Pennsylvania recently started allowing Sunday deer hunting on 3 Sundays per year. The greedy hunters here want all Sundays to be open season. Give the deer a break at least one day a week!

Arm the deer, make it fair.

If there is anyone here who can explain the “deer management” that hunters supposedly provide that prioritizes killing the healthiest bucks and does? How does leaving the weakest ones help maintain the health of the herd? I have not and will likely, never, understand.

I don’t get this. Is she saying she’s more worried about ruining a hunter’s shot than being shot herself?

And we keep destroying habitat. Deer have wound up in Manhattan.

I could care less about ruing a hunter’s shot, and Jane is being very wise to stay out of the woods this time of year. But I still “Like” this cartoon.

Hunting live prey has the same mix of competent and incompetent as almost any other profession. The difference being the numbers and types of deadly incidents are limited to the hunting season, while most others enjoy ‘open season’ all year.

Then there was the hunter who went raccoon hunting, wearing a coonskin hat. Emphasis on ‘was’.

“I know there are any number of good and efficient hunters who know what they are doing; but many more are overweight gentlemen, primed with whisky and armed with high-powered rifles. They shoot at anything that moves or looks as though it might, and their success in killing one another may well prevent a population explosion. If the casualties were limited to their own kind there would be no problem, but the slaughter of cows, pigs, farmers, dogs, and highway signs makes autumn a dangerous season in which to travel. A farmer in upper New York State painted the word cow in big black letters on both sides of his white bossy, but the hunters shot it anyway.” – Steinbeck, Travels with Charley.

A gentleman in Florida used to publish a newsletter, “News of the Weird.” The first issue I got had a blurb about camouflage toilet paper so hunters wouldn’t be mistaken for white-tail deer.

“Wait, don’t shoot. That might not be a deer!”

The rural high school I attended had/has the first day of deer season off as a school holiday. As much for the teachers as for the students.

More than one person has been shot by idiots who didn’t have a clear view of the “deer”. I own a few acres backed up to deep woods and always have deer in my yard. I’m afraid to let my grandkids out during deer season.

On one hand, you have people who understand things like checking your backgrounds, verifying your target, proper shot angle, and so on. On the other hand, you have the “I gotta go kill somethin’ to prove I’m a man” crowd.

Or you could just hit them with your vehicle. The deer too.

A woman was shot and killed in her own backyard. The man who shot her got off because she should have known better than to wear white mittens during hunting season.

Go ahead and safely ruin the hunter’s shot … please.

There was an Old barn with a hay loft on our farm, when I was a kid. the hay loft door faced the apple and pear orchard, where the local herd of ‘pests’ eagerly devoured low hanging and fallen fruit. every family member with a hunting license would get a buck from that loft during bow season. None of us hunted during rifle, shotgun, or black powder season. Not to say we didn’t carry or use firearms to deter predation.My favorite deer rifle, an old Marlin 30-30 lever action, was always in my hands walking the field perimeter on that farm; red and brown foxes and snakes needed to be dealt with near the chicken coops.