Would this be an illegal take or attempt to take game?

Once had a squirrel climb onto the rack of steel plates I was shooting at. I let him go, because I figured something that stupid deserves a break once in its life.

But as far as the golf ball thing goes, that was just plain old stupid. If you want to hit golf balls at things, go on the driving range and aim at the guy in the caged tractor (That's all I do, the guy must think I hate him or something).
 
If you want to hit golf balls at things, go on the driving range and aim at the guy in the caged tractor (That's all I do, the guy must think I hate him or something).
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"I AM NOT AN ANIMAL!"

"Sorry buddy, your driving right into them"
 
Tilden golf course, in Berkeley, Kalifornia, has a ton of deer, but, they most often are on the driving range. First off, at 150 yards, they are safe from 99% of the golfers in the world. With most golfers, the safest place to be is the target thieir aiming at, and I live on a golf course, and watch tons of bad golf...:D

Brief story, before I finish the above. On the 16th or 17th hole at Oakhurst Country Club, I took a 150 yard shot golf ball in the head, right on my temple. While mad as hell, and, I never found out who hit it, I'm still alive.

Now, after knowing that, I know deer are one Hell of a lot tougher then I am. I kept trying to hit the deer at the range, and, I'm a pretty good golfer, maybe in the 6-15 range, handicap wise, depending upon time of year, and amount of practice. I'm hitting drives at these deer, after they move out to about 270 yards, and I hit a buck feeding on the driving range. His head comes up, and he looks around, for maybe 5 seconds, and then went right back to feeding.

So, while at point blank range, the best deer weapon for your friend is probably his car.

The deer was NEVER in danger...

Recently, same scenerio, another driving range, same result, this time the deer, much smaller target, moved a bit when the ball landed close, like 5 feet, and then kept eating.

s

PS: Then their was the bluejay at the police range, at 25 yards, that elluded the entire police force in Santa Cruz trying to hit it, as, every close shot, it would jump in the air, and settle on the cable that held the silohuette targets. This in the 70's.
 
Is it illegal? Yes, and he is a dipstick.

Would he ever be prosecuted or found guilty of harassing wildlife or illegally taking that doe? No, I seriously doubt it, unless someone saw him intentionally do it and called in on him.
 
Of course it is illegal and another vote that he is a dipstick too.

I would be more concerned about what he might do to you when you are not looking. :rolleyes:
 
If you wouldn't hit a golf ball at a person, why would you do so at a deer. A golf ball wouldn't do much to a deer anyhow unless you managed to really smack it in the head. I might get knocked out or something but I think it would be very difficult to humanely kill a deer with a golf ball. That is just stupid and cruel. Why would anybody hit a deer with a golf ball? It is a magnificent creature that deserves to be taken humanely.
 
Same reason people try and shoot stuff they can't hit: It's fun. It doesn't bother the deer, and it gives you something to focus at. We aren't talking VJay Singh here, so the deer's in the safest possible place, where the Nimrod is aiming.;)

Deer are REALLY tough compared to humans, and, if I can take a golf ball in the temple, at about 120-150 yards, all you are going to do with the deer is get it's attention for about 10 seconds. I actually DID hit a deer with a golf ball, on the driving range at Tilden, at about 225 yards. Buck didn't do anything other then putting it's head up, look around, and went right back to eating grass. Misquitos do more damage.

I don't see why we have to get all politically correct on this. There is no danger to the deer, and, it can be a bit of fun, trying, providing you miss about 99.9% of the time.

Also, it would be better for the deer to at least realize that
being in areas where humans are could be fatal, and, they should stay the heck away from us, when we carry, long, slender, tubular objects like rifles.

By the way, I watched a guy at the driving range squib a shot, and wound a black bird on the range, right in front of him. Accident, but watching the bird flop around REALLY pissed me, off. I hope it recovered.

Also, we have squirrels up at the range, as well. I don't hit golf balls at squirrels, rabbits, skunks, hawks, rattlesnakes, raccoons(though I suspect they'd just shake one off as well), possums, or any animal that I might actually have a chance of injuring. Hitting a golf ball at a deer, at 250 yards the deer is totally safe. The odds of actual injury are probably better for the deer then getting hit by lightning.

I think deer like driving ranges because they can eat, yet they can see predators around them, for a long way away, and they don't have any cover. They could easily feed in the long grass around the range, but, they could be easily ambushed, or as easy as it is for any cat to sneak up on a deer, not very. Given the threat of teeth, vs. an occasional golf ball bouncing by, close, they much prefer the driving range.
I keep thinking back to the poor guy that hit a deer with his car, at something like 35 miles an hour, and knocked the deer out. He thought he'd killed it, so he called fish and game. The deer woke up, in his car I believe, and kicked the stuffings out of him. Deer was just fine.

http://www.snopes.com/critters/farce/deaddeer.htm
 
socrates im the kind of golfer who makes it where you dont ever have to wash your windows, i just buy you new ones:D
i guess at a short range with a driver might do it. most golfers swing speed is over 100 mph.
 
I dont think that the deer was in real danger but i think that your buddy is trying to earn himself a darwin award by removing himself from the genepool in a stupid way and. Hitting a golf ball at the deer was just declaring his intent to someday win a Darwin award.

If he had been seen by a fish and wildlife officer he would have been in big doo-doo or had he been seen by a course official he may have been asked not to return
 
I don't think a 100 mile an hour golf ball, in the deers temple, would do other then piss it off. It would be funny:
Officer: "What happened?"
idiot: "Well, I hit a golf ball at a deer, and he s.... it you know where, after I hit him."
:p
Officer:"The proctoligist is down the road, to the left."

Mass: I live on a golf course, where bad golf is the nature of the game. Thanks to the worst owner on the planet, Singh, the course is barely, ok, but the play is horrible.
I have nearly three boxes of balls that found their way into my house, or possession, and, I've had you on the course twice, in the same day, since my window was broken twice, within the time it was fixed broken again.:D

S

PS just bought one of these new fangled Ben Hogan S3C drivers, or whatever, with a regular shaft. I've put balls in places before safe to any golf ball. I drive the ball, with an old type driver, 290-340. With this Hogan, I picked up a lot of distance, but, the mi****s are off the map. X100 shaft tomorrow.
 
I will say this, having done some golf in odd places, I NEVER used to walk without a club in my hand. I remember walking a course near San Diego and hearing that SSSSSSSSSSSSssSSSSSSssSSSSS sound real close. I bent a perfectly good wedge shaft that day beating that snake till it was all soft and pulpy and I felt GOOD doing that. big difference from a deer.
 
Oh come on...

If you wouldn't hit a golf ball at a person, why would you do so at a deer.
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A deer is not a person. I do not shoot at people with the intent of eating them.

This guy was not (im sure) trying to kill, maim, or injure the deer. Kinda like throwing rocks at powerlines.

"Oh, my god! I hit it! Did you see that?"

As far as the legalities, in GA it would be considered harrasing game.
 
Wow, there are some anal-retentive individuals here at times... "dump the friend", "ditch the looser", etc... Come ON! I'm sure everyone here is just a rosy little bundle of 'straight and narrow' innocence... It's a deer, who's acustomed to people more than it should be, and a golf ball that missed. How many "accidental golfings" have made the papers---AKA someone killed by a stray ball on the back-9... At most, he might have thumped the deer, it'd run off a little ways with a bruise, and the guy might be able to get hit with a harrassing wildlife fine. If that's the worst the guy is capable of, I'd vote him in for pope.
 
"Aw, I wouldn't do sumpn like that!"

Yeah, right. Not if anybody's looking, anyhow. :D You're gonna at least bet your buddy a beer on the deal.

Art
 
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